Danforth, Muzito-Bagenda power Amerks to victory

Pickin Splinters staff

The Cincinnati Connection came up big for the Rochester Americans on Sunday evening.

Justin Danforth and Daniel Muzito-Bagenda — who had been playing in the ECHL before recalls last month — each scored one goal and assisted on one as the Amerks defeated the Laval Rocket 4-2 in downtown Rochester.

For Danforth, the goal was his first in 10 games after a Feb. 12 recall from the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones. He was leading ECHL rookies in scoring (28-31-59 in 44 games) at the time of his promotion and ranked third overall in league scoring.

He picked a perfect time to find the net for the first time for the Amerks, breaking a 2-2 tie at 15:15 of the second period. Taking an up-the-middle pass from defenseman Nathan Paetsch, Danforth raced in alone on a breakaway and fired a shot from the middle of the slot past goalie Michael McNiven.

The former Sacred Heart University standout also set up Muzito-Bagenda’s first AHL goal of the season, firing a pass from the right corner to the left of the slot where the second-year forward was free to steer it in.

Danforth’s alma mater was to play at RIT Sunday night in the deciding game of the best-of-three first-round Atlantic Hockey playoff series.

Muzito-Bagenda played all of last season with the Amerks but was assigned to Cincinnati out of training camp. He was promoted on Feb. 19 and had not had a point in three games before Sunday after producing 10-23-33 in 33 games for the Cyclones.

Kevin Porter‘s empty net goal in the waning seconds assured victory as the Amerks won both games on the weekend. They hadn’t won back-to-back games in nearly two months, since Jan. 5-6.

Zack Redmond scored the other goal for the Amerks (29-15-9-6), who are third in the AHL’s North Division with 73 points, three fewer than Syracuse and five more than Utica.

The victory on Sunday came after the afternoon recall of defenseman Brendan Guhle and forward Kyle Criscuolo by the parent Buffalo Sabres. There’s a chance one or both could be back by the time the Amerks play again on Friday.