Griffins Edge Amerks in Overtime, 5-4
February 6, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Grand Rapids Griffins News Release
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The Rochester Americans pushed Grand Rapids to overtime on Friday at Van Andel Arena, where defenseman Nathan Paetsch notched the game-winning goal 2:03 into the extra stanza to lift the Griffins to a 5-4 victory.
Grand Rapids goaltender Jared Coreau, who earned back-to-back road shutouts last Thursday against the Iowa Wild (6-0) and last Friday against the Milwaukee Admirals (3-0), entered the game with a perfect streak of 140:32. A late first-period goal by Johan Larsson saw Coreau's streak come to an end at 160:06, which broke the Griffins franchise record that was previously held by Marc Lamothe (153:58, 11/7/02-11/16/02).
The Griffins (25-17-3-1), who have won six of their last seven games, will host a rematch against the Americans (19-26-2-0) at Van Andel Arena on Saturday at 7 p.m.
The scoring kicked off after a holding call against Rochester defenseman Chad Ruhwedel at 6:10 sent the Griffins to their second power play of the game. Set up in the left circle, Teemu Pulkkinen collected a cross-ice pass from Mitch Callahan and fired at the net, where Jeff Hoggan was waiting for Andrey Makarov's rebound at 7:44 to give Grand Rapids a 1-0 lead.
Coreau's shutout bid was nearly spoiled at 13:17 of the first period when heavy traffic in front of the Grand Rapids cage found Brodie Reid with both possession of the puck and a wide-open net. However, a diving glove save by Coreau maintained his streak just long enough to break Lamothe's record.
With 26 seconds remaining in the first frame, Jake McCabe passed the puck from inside the blue line to Larsson, whose quick wrister at the doorstep rolled up and over Coreau's chest to tie the game at 1-1.
Rochester took its only lead of the night at 6:49 of the second, when Jerry D'Amigo came streaking through the right circle and beat Coreau glove-side high in the left corner.
Rookie defenseman Scott Czarnowczan evened matters at 12:54 on a long wrist shot from inside the blueline, marking his first professional goal. The first assist was awarded to Andreas Athanasiou, who made his debut tonight after missing 20 games recovering from a broken jaw.
Paetsch put the Griffins up 3-2 at 17:48 of the second by releasing the puck from between the circles while Callahan screened Makarov.
The Griffins maintained their lead for a majority of the third period, until Reid set up shop in the left circle and rifled the puck into Coreau's top-right corner at 14:24 to tie the game at 3-3.
With William Carrier in the box for hooking shortly thereafter, Pulkkinen entered the right zone challenged by a Rochester defender, but he sent a low wrist shot past Makarov at 15:38 to put the Griffins up 4-3.
Rochester responded by pulling Makarov in favor of the extra attacker, which resulted in a top-shelf goal by Larsson with 1:58 remaining in the game to set up Paetsch's eventual overtime heroics.
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