Courtesy of Amerks.com
Rochester, N.Y. – After jumping out to a 2-0 lead, the Rochester Americans (2-2-0-0) allowed five unanswered goals Friday night before falling 5-2 to the Charlotte Checkers (4-1-0-0) at The Blue Cross Arena.
The Amerks were paced by forward Adam Krause, who appeared in his 100th professional game, and defenseman Zach Redmond as each scored their first goals of the 2017-18 season. Goaltender Linus Ullmark finished the night with 12 saves before being replaced by Adam Wilcox late in the second period.
Roland McKeown, Trevor Carrick, Zack Stortini and Andrew Poturalski all scored their first markers of the season for the Checkers while rookie Warren Foegele finished the scoring for Charlotte with his fifth of the year. Second-year netminder Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 20 of the 22 he faced to pick up his third straight win to begin the campaign.
After the Amerks took 2-0 lead going into the first intermission, the Checkers responded with the next four goals to grab a 4-2 Charlotte lead after 40 minutes of play.
“We just didn’t play with confidence, we didn’t finish hits, we didn’t do anything very well tonight,” said Amerks head coach Chris Taylor. “It was just evident. We were lucky to be up 2-0 after the first. We just weren’t good enough.”
The Amerks had their second five-on-three-man advantage of the contest during the second period but could not capitalize. Despite several scoring opportunities, the Checkers killed off both infractions before Foegele knotted the game at 2-2 with 11:04 to play in the second stanza.
Charlotte would put an early end to Ullmark’s night with 5:10 left in the period as they tacked on a pair of tallies 59 seconds apart from Carrick and McKeown to take a 4-2 lead.
“We were not good enough tonight,” Taylor said. “I understand it is a process but a loss like tonight is unacceptable. We have to put this one behind us. I expect us to come out strong and hard.”
The Checkers rounded out the scoring 47 seconds into the final period before Nedeljkovic held off all 12 Amerks shots to give the Amerks their second lost in as many games.
The Amerks return to action at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21 when they welcome back the Utica Comets to The Blue Cross Arena for the second time in eight days to bring the weekend to a close. All the action will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM ESPN Rochester.
Goal Scorers
RCH: Krause (1), Redmond (1)
CHA: Stortini (1), Foegele (5), Carrick (1), McKeown (1), Poturalski (1)
Goaltenders
RCH: Ullmark – 12/16 (L) | Wilcox – 15/16
CHA: Nedeljkovic – 20/22 (W)
Shots
RCH: 22
CHA: 32
Special Teams
RCH: PP (1/8) / PK (4/4)
CHA: PP (0/4) / PK (7/8)
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