Comets Rally for 4-2 Win over Amerks
March 20, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Rochester Americans News Release
(Utica, NY)... Despite scoring twice in the final two minutes of the first period, the Rochester Americans allowed four straight goals from the Utica Comets in a 4-2 loss to their North Division rival Friday night at the Utica Memorial Auditorium. The game was the first of two in three days between the intrastate foes, who will close out the weekend on Sunday with an afternoon matchup in Rochester. The loss drops the Amerks to 2-3-1-1 against the Comets this season and 25-31-5-1 overall.
Evan Rankin recorded his 100th AHL point with a goal and Justin Kea scored the first goal of his American Hockey League career in the loss. Brady Austin and Michael Pelech, who was playing in his 400th professional game, each picked up assists. Andrey Makarov earned his second straight start for the Amerks and finished with 33 saves on 37 shots, including stopping all 16 Utica shots he faced in the first period.
Bobby Sanguinetti (0+3), Cal O'Reilly (0+2) and Alex Grenier (1+1) all posted multi-point nights for the hometown Comets, while Joacim Eriksson turned in a 20-save effort to pick up the win. Darren Archibald, Sven Baertschi and Brendan Gaunce also scored for Utica, which rallied back from a two-goal deficit to extend its current winning streak to three games.
Makarov was tested early on when a goal-mouth scramble almost ended up in the net, but he was able to locate the puck through traffic and immediately smother it. Minutes later, Makarov was forced to come up big again after O'Reilly sent a centering feed toward the low slot that would have trickled over the goal-line if he didn't reach back and snag it at the last second.
Utica controlled most of the first period and outshot Rochester 16-9, but a pair of late goals in the final 1:54 and several more big saves by Makarov throughout the opening frame quickly turned a scoreless affair into a 2-0 lead in favor of the Amerks.
Rankin got things going for Rochester when he deflected Austin's shot past Eriksson to give the Amerks a 1-0 lead with his fourth goal of the season at 18:06. The Amerks added their second goal of the period just 1:36 later on a tremendous individual effort from Kea, who caused a turnover inside the Utica blueline and converted for his first career AHL goal. The rookie forward stripped the puck of a Comets defenseman, and while fighting off his attacker, slipped a back-hander through the legs of Eriksson with his one free hand to send Rochester into the intermission up by a pair.
After giving up two goals late in the first, Utica came out firing on all cylinders in the second period and stormed back to score three straight unanswered goals, beginning with Brandon DeFazio setting up Archibald for his ninth of the season just 12 seconds in. DeFazio won a loose puck battle behind the Rochester net and zipped a no-look pass to a wide-open Archibald, who one-timed the offer to the top of the net to bring the Comets within a goal.
The Comets, who failed to capitalize on their first two power-play opportunities, made good on their third chance as Baertschi beat Makarov with a slap-shot from the point that founds its way through traffic. Sanguinetti and O'Reilly would earn the assists on Baertschi's 10th goal of the season to even the score at two apiece.
Utica took its first lead of the night at 12:52 of the middle frame after Gaunce steered in a cross-ice feed from Grenier off a 2-on-1 fastbreak. Using Austin as a decoy, Grenier outwaited the rookie defenseman and floated a pass to Gaunce for the tap-in and a 3-2 advantage.
The Comets struck again on the power-play midway through the third period as Grenier put the game out of reach, redirecting Sanguinetti's wrist shot inside the left post to make it 4-2. Rochester pulled Makarov with under a minute remaining for the extra attacker, but the Amerks wouldn't come any closer.
The Amerks continue their three-in-three weekend on Saturday, March 21 with an afternoon tilt in Toronto against the Marlies as the North Division rivals face-off at 3:00 p.m. at Ricoh Coliseum. The game can be heard live on FOX Sports 1280 Rochester.
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