Amerks Top Crunch in Overtime for First Win of Season
Published on February 11, 2021 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Rochester Americans News Release
(Rochester, NY) ... On the strength of multi-point efforts from Oskari Laaksonen (0+3), Remi Elie (2+0) and Jean-Sebastien Dea (0+2), the Rochester Americans (1-1-0-0) survived a late push from the Syracuse Crunch (1-0-1-0) and earned a 4-3 overtime victory over their North Division rivals Wednesday night at The Blue Cross Arena.
While Rochester was led offensively by Laaksonen, Elie and Dea, team captain Steven Fogarty capped off the win with his first goal as an Amerk 1:39 into the extra session as second-year winger Brett Murray chipped in his first marker of the campaign. Goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 20 saves to record his first win in his season debut with the club.
Syracuse's Boris Katchouk (1+1) and Alexsi Heponiemi (0+2) each turned in a two-point performance as Taylor Raddysh and Ross Colton rounded out the scoring. Netminder Samuel Montembeault (1-0-1) stopped 22 of the 26 shots he faced but suffered the loss in his second straight appearance for the Crunch.
Trailing by a pair of goals to start the third period, the Crunch scored to pull within one just 26 seconds into the frame as Colton buried a back-door feed past a diving Luukkonen. The forward stopped the puck with his skate after getting a pass from Riley Stillman and Ben Thomas to trim the lead to 3-2.
Midway through final frame, Syracuse evened the score at 3-3 when Raddysh snuck behind the Amerks defense and beat Luukkonen on a breakaway opportunity at the 11:50 mark.
The two teams traded chances for the remaining nine minutes of regulation prior to overtime, but Rochester drew its fourth power-play of the night with 17 seconds left in third period.
With the extra skater to begin the overtime period, the Amerks thought they had won the game only to have Fogarty stone-walled by Montembault in the first minute. However, as fortune would have it, Laaksonen handed Dea the puck outside the offensive blueline. Once inside the Crunch zone, Dea stepped into a shot from the left face-off dot and it caromed off the stick of Fogarty to send Rochester to its first win of the slate.
Rochester took control of the contest early with Elie scoring off a redirection just 1:48 after the opening face-off before Murray finally converted on his third opportunity amid a goal-mouth scramble on the power-play to give the Amerks a 2-0 lead going into the first intermission.
In the opening two minutes of play, the experienced line trio of Elie, C.J. Smith and Dea teamed up to pressure the Crunch inside their own zone before Laaksonen fired a shot from the right point. As the puck made its way towards Montembault, Elie steered it behind the netminder just 1:48 into to break the scoreless game.
Later in the opening frame while on their second power-play of the night, the Amerks kept the Crunch inside their zone for much of the infraction before Murray doubled Rochester's lead. Andrew Oglevie and Arttu Ruotsalainen, who was appearing in his 250th professional game, each earned an assist on the marker that gave the Amerks the two-goal advantage.
Much like the first goal to open the scoring, Rochester added a marker early in the second to take a 3-0 lead just 1:57 into the period. After collecting a pass from Dea inside the right point, Laaksonen fired a shot that found the stick of Elie, who was providing a screen in front of Montembault for his second tally of the night.
Facing a three-goal deficit, Syracuse scored three straight goals over the final 36 minutes of play to force overtime before Fogarty ended the night 99 seconds into the extra period.
The Amerks look to make it two straight on Friday, Feb. 12 when they travel to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse to take on the Cleveland Monsters for the first of six meetings this season between the two teams. Game time is slated for a 7:00 p.m. start and will be carried live on The Sports Leaders 95.7 FM/950 AM ESPN Rochester as well as AHLTV. The matchup will also be the AHL's featured matchup of the week on Facebook Watch.
Post-Game Interviews
Amerks forward Steven Fogarty - https://youtu.be/EbVqtCeXJOU
Amerks forward Remi Elie - https://youtu.be/NaA30hKD8R8
Amerks defenseman Oskari Laaksonen - https://youtu.be/tDLD_KUGr0g
Amerks goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen - https://youtu.be/gqyWlLEI3O8
Amerks head coach Seth Appert - https://youtu.be/7jBBJontqhY
Goal Scorers
ROC: R. Elie (1, 2), B. Murray (1), S. Fogarty (1 - OT GWG)
SYR: B. Katchouk (1), R. Colton (1), T. Raddysh (1)
Goaltenders
ROC: U. Luukkonen - 20/23 (W)
SYR: S. Montembault - 22/26 (OTL)
Shots
ROC: 26
SYR: 23
Special Teams
ROC: PP (2/3) | PK (1/1)
SYR: PP (0/1) | PK (1/3)
Three Stars
1. R. Elie (ROC)
2. J. Dea (ROC)
3. B. Katchouk (SYR)
American Hockey League Stories from February 11, 2021
- McMichael's First Pro Goal Leads Hershey to First Win of Season - Hershey Bears
- Wolves Power Past Griffins, Push to 4-0 - Chicago Wolves
- Wolves Push Past Griffins in Third to Stay Perfect - Grand Rapids Griffins
- P-Bruins Fail to Score, Lose to Hartford Wolf Pack, 4-0 - Providence Bruins
- Goaltender Kevin Carr Signs AHL Two-Way Contract - Colorado Eagles
- Game Preview: Bears at Penguins, 5 p.m. - Hershey Bears
- Andree and Calisti Join Belleville on Amateur Tryouts - Belleville Senators
- Dostal Unflappable, Lowe Scores Late to Send Gulls to 3-0 - San Diego Gulls
- Amerks Top Crunch in Overtime for First Win of Season - Rochester Americans
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