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Amerks Fall To Hershey In Battle Of AHL's Oldest Teams

December 12, 2009 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Rochester Americans News Release


(Rochester, NY)... Second-year forward Andrew Sweetland recorded his first multi-goal game of his young career professional career, but it was not enough as the Rochester Americans were the victims of a 6-2 loss to the defending Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears tonight at the Giant Center. The game was the 435th all-time meeting between the American Hockey League's two oldest franchises. Rochester has now dropped two straight and four in its last five games as the Amerks fell to 19-7-1-0 on the season.

Veteran forward Jamie Johnson assisted on Sweetland's pair of goals as rookie goaltenders Alexander Salak and Chris Beckford-Tseu combined for a 20-save losing effort. Despite splitting time between the pipes, Salak receives the loss, his third of the season.

Hershey was led offensively with a four-point (3+1) performance from veteran forward Keith Aucoin to earn first star honors. Alexandre Giroux, last season's regular season scoring champion, and defensemen John Carlson and Bryan Helmer all collected two assists for the 10-time league champs. First-year netminder Brayden Holtby secured his third win of the season with 26 saves to garner third star honors.

The Amerks struck first just 90 seconds into the opening frame with Sweetland's first tally of the night to give Rochester an early 1-0 lead. Johnson and Ernie Hartlieb, back for his second stint with the Amerks, were each credited with assists on the play.

Rochester would maintain its lead for the next six minutes before surrendering five straight goals to the Bears, including four in the first period in an eight-minute span.

Hershey evened the game at 1-1 as third-year forward Andrew Gordon potted his team and league-leading 15th goal of the season at 8:02 of the first period to jumpstart his team's five-goal rally. The Bears quickly extended their lead to 3-1 with back-to-back markers from Aucoin two and a half minutes apart before Jay Beagle made it a 4-1 game three minutes later and sent Salak to the bench with just eight saves on 12 shots.

The Bears continued to their momentum into the second stanza, picking up right where they left off, as Boyd Kane put his 11th goal of the season past Beckford-Tseu at the 2:34 mark to make it a 5-1 game.

Sweetland responded five minutes later with his second of the night, but Aucoin would deny him the hat trick with one of his own midway through the final frame to guarantee the win for the hometown Bears.

The Amerks host the Syracuse Crunch on Tuesday, December 15th at 7:05 p.m. at The Blue Cross Arena. Game time remains the same at 7:05 p.m. The 7:05 p.m. contest will be broadcast live on SportsRadio 1280 WHTK and FM 107.3, Rochester's Sports Talk. The game will also be televised live on Time Warner Cable SportsNet Channel 26.

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