AHL Rochester Americans

Pirates plunder Amerks for franchise-record 11th straight win

February 20, 2010 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Rochester Americans News Release


(Rochester)... The Portland Pirates used a two-goal third period to rally from behind and defeat the Rochester Americans 4-3 tonight at The Blue Cross Arena. Rochester falls to 31-25-2-0 (64 points) with their fourth-straight loss. With the win, Portland set a new franchise record with its 11th consecutive win to improve to 32-16-5-2 (71 points).

Jamie Johnson, Clay Wilson and Shawn Matthias each added a goal in the game, while netminder Tyler Plante finished with 25 saves for Rochester.

Philip Gogulla and former Amerk Derek Whitmore scored the only goals of the third period to cap the Pirates come-from-behind win. Gogulla scored just 2:15 into the period, his ninth of the season, off assists from Matt Caruana and Kyle Rank. Four minutes later, Whitmore netted the game-winning goal. Whitmore's goal came off feeds from Joe DiPenta and T.J. Brennan, who finished with three in total.

The Amerks took an early 1-0 lead just 2:19 into the opening period as Johnson potted his team-leading 22nd goal of the season. Johnson won the draw cleanly back to the point where defenseman Mike Caruso boomed a one-timer on net. The rebound hit Jeff Taffe on the right side of the crease, but he managed to slide a goal-mouth pass across to Johnson who deposited the back-hander past Pirates goaltender Jhonas Enroth. Enroth finished with 23 saves in the game.

Rochester extended its lead to 2-0 when Wilson's slapper from the point caromed off the leg of Portland's Matt Generous and into the net on the power-play at 10:55. Just four seconds after Pirates forward Joe DiPenta was sent off for an interference infraction, Chris Taylor won the ensuing faceoff back to Michal Repik who then slid it to Wilson for the one-time setup. With the goal, Wilson moved into the No. 2 spot among the American Hockey League's top scoring defensemen.

The Pirates cut Rochester's lead in half just 1:49 into the second stanza as Felix Schutz's wrister from the top of the circle beat Plante low blocker-side to make it a 2-1 game. The power-play tally was assisted by Brennan. Portland's power-play struck again minutes later as Gogulla put a shot from five feet out under the crossbar to knot the game at 2-2. Brennan picked up his second assist of the night on the goal, in addition to former Amerk Mike Kostka.

Matthias gave Rochester the lead after he and Mike York capitalized on a 2-on-1 break. Matthias nailed the top left corner at 15:01 to give the Amerks a 3-2 lead going into the second intermission. However, Rochester was not able to capitalize in the third.

The same two teams meet again on Sunday, February 21st to close out the two-game set on Hall of Fame night. With the game, Rochester will look to capture its 2,000th win in the 54-year history of the franchise. The 3:00 p.m. matinee will be carried live on SportsRadio 1280 WHTK and FM 107.3, Rochester's Sports Talk. The matchup will also be televised live on Time Warner Cable SportsNet Channel 26. Prior to the game, the Amerks will induct Randy Cunneyworth, Jim Wiemer and Kent Weisbeck as the 46th, 47th and 48th members enshrined into the club's prestigious Hall of Fame as the Class of 2010.

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