This time, the OT loser point was good for the Amerks

By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA

Over the course of the season, there have been nights that Rochester Americans players left the rink muttering about how they let one get away.

Like three weeks ago, when on back-to-back nights they couldn’t beat the team with the worst record in the American Hockey League, the Binghamton Devils.

Actually, it’s a fairly lengthy list of should-have-been wins that became overtime or shootout losses.

But on Friday night, following a 2-1 overtime loss to the Providence Bruins, Amerks coach Chris Taylor was fairly content.

With a roster ravaged by recalls and injuries at forward, a point against the team with the third-most wins (36) in the AHL was a solid consolation prize.

“This is one of the good points,” said Taylor, whose team has gone to overtime in 25 of 60 games. “They’re a really good team, a veteran team with skilled forwards, big D.”

The Amerks, meanwhile, used a lineup that included just seven of their top 14 forwards. Justin Bailey on Friday afternoon joined Nick Baptiste, Seth Griffith, Kyle Criscuolo and Danny O’Regan on recall to the parent Buffalo Sabres.

The Amerks still allowed just one goal in regulation, and that came on a twice-deflected Paul Postma shot from the point that last hit the stick of Ryan Fitzgerald at 3:10 of the second period.

On shots not deflected or that came at the net straight, goalie Linus Ullmark wasn’t beaten. He finished with 27 saves, including six in the 3 minutes and 13 seconds of overtime.

The winning goal came right off a faceoff to the left of Ullmark. Postma powered his way to the net, had his shot stopped by Ullmark but Fitzgerald was left free to slam home the rebound.

The Amerks were by far the better team in that second period, outshooting the Bruins 12-4 and spending an extended amount of time in the offensive zone. Bruins goalie Jordan Binnington, whose cousin, Ali, played goalie on RIT’s women’s team from 2012-2015, was also sharp, stopping 23 shots.

The only one that beat him came off the stick of Sahir Gill with just 5:57 remaining in the third period, a slap shot from high in the left circle. It was Gill’s 15th goal of the season and was set up by from Eric Cornel, who returned after missing five games because of injury.

While the Amerks were missing half of their forwards, their defense was still solid with Nathan Paetsch, Matt Tennyson, Andrew MacWilliam, Zach Redmond, Stuart Percy and Taylor Fedun. That’s one reason the Bruins weren’t able to mount sustained O-zone pressure.

“I thought our D played really, really well tonight,” said Taylor, whose club fell to 29-15-10-6.

The weekend doesn’t get any easier for the Amerks. They play at Syracuse on Saturday night, then return home to play the Crunch at 3:05 p.m. Sunday. The Crunch are second in the AHL North, two points ahead of the Amerks.