AHL Rochester Americans

Amerks tame 'Dogs in shootout

January 15, 2010 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Rochester Americans News Release


(Rochester, NY)... Evgeny Dadonov, Daniel Steiner and Jeff Taffe each scored in the shootout as the Rochester Americans earned their second straight win with a 6-5 victory over the Hamilton Bulldogs tonight at Copps Coliseum. The game was the first that was decided via a shootout for Rochester, who captured its first win in Hamilton since November 24th. The win also snapped a season-high six-game road losing streak for the Amerks who improved to 24-15-2-0 on the season.

Second-year forwards Michael Duco and Shawn Matthias each scored a goal and an assist as Jamie Johnson and Steiner both contributed a pair of assists for the visiting Amerks. Rookie goaltender Alexander Salak turned away 27 saves to collect his 18th win of the season.

Hamilton's Brock Trotter (2+1) and David Deharnais (0+3) each collected three-point nights and defenseman Yannick Weber provided two assists for the hometown Bulldogs. Cedrick Desjardins posted a 32-save performance in the losing effort.

After a scoreless opening period, both teams came out flying in the second stanza, with Hamilton getting on the board first off Trotter's first of the night and 17th of the season at 3:37 of the period. Desharnais and Weber each picked up their first points of the night on the goal with the helpers.

The Amerks quickly responded just over a minute later as Taffe found the back of the net on the power-play at the 4:45 mark to knot the game at one apiece. Johnson and Steiner assisted on Taffe's 11th tally of the season.

Mathieu Darche would help the Bulldogs regain the lead as he put his 16th goal of the season by Salak at exactly the 8:00 mark. The lead would be short-lived, however, as Rochester's Duco and Clay Wilson scored back-to-back tallies within a 22-second span to give the Amerks their first lead of the contest heading into the final frame.

The Bulldogs evened the game at 3-3 with Trotter's second of the game just 1:05 into the final frame. The Amerks, however, would once again take the lead and a two-point cushion off consecutive tallies from Michal Repik and Matthias 54 second apart to round out the scoring for Rochester.

Ben Maxwell made it a 5-4 game and put Hamilton within one at 8:25 of the period before Mike Glumac tied the contest at 5-5 with his shorthanded tally at 16:30 that would ultimately force overtime.

After a scoreless extra frame, Trotter and Maxwell would score for the Bulldogs in the shootout, but it was three consecutive goals from Dadonov, Steiner and Taffe that would cap the high scoring affair between the North Division rivals.

The Amerks conclude their two-game road set against the Syracuse Crunch on Saturday, January 16th at the War Memorial at Oncenter. The 7:30 p.m. contest will be the eighth of 10 get-togethers and the first time in a month the longtime rivals will exchange pleasantries. Rochester shows a perfect 7-0-0-0 record against the Crunch this season, including a 2-0-0-0 mark on the road, and have more than doubled Syracuse's offense in scoring (31-15) through the last seven meetings. The matchup will be broadcast live on SportsRadio 1280 WHTK and FM 107.3.

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