By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
Sometimes, Steven Fogarty will admit, it is better to be lucky than good.
Wednesday’s night’s abbreviated overtime period was proof, when Fogarty’s goal provided a 4-3 victory for the Rochester Americans.
About 85 seconds into the extra period, Fogarty found himself alone with the puck in the deep slot, only to be robbed by Syracuse Crunch goalie Samuel Montembault.
Moments later, as Jean-Sebastien Dea was winding up for a one-timer from the left circle, Fogarty moved into the deep slot again just in case there was a rebound.
There was, however, no rebound, just a dead center of the net fluke redirection by Fogarty.
Dea misfired so badly that his shot would have ended up hitting the glass in the right corner. But with Fogarty positioned well above the crease, the puck hit his stick and caromed into the net.
“You gotta take what you can get,” Fogarty said. “Hopefully there will be a few more.”
The victory gave the Amerks a 1-1 record in this no-fans (yet), no-Cup, no full schedule season of COVID-19.
Like Friday, when they lost 3-2 to the Utica Comets, the Amerks started well, and by 1:57 of the second period, they had a 3-0 lead. Remi Elie scored twice and Brett Murray the other.
But then the Crunch (1-1) mounted a rally, and with 8:10 left in the third period the score was tied after goals by Boris Katchouk (4:25 of the second), Ross Colton (:26 of the third) and Taylor Raddysh (11:50 of the third).
“I thought we made the game difficult on ourselves with our breakouts,” Amerks coach Seth Appert said. “We were not clean enough on our breakouts.”
The Amerks did, however, hold off the Crunch, who were riding the wave of momentum for the final 30 minutes, with goalie Ukko Pekka Luukkonen making two clutch saves to keep it tied.
“To give up a two-goal lead as a young goaltender and then to make a couple key saves, tonight was really a good sign for him and for us,” Appert said.
The Amerks lineup was bolstered by the return of Dea, Elie and C.J. Smith. Dea and Smith were in the taxi squad of the parent Buffalo Sabres while Elie was in four-day COVID-19 quarantine protocol since arriving on Friday from Canada.
Elie, who signed his contract last week, didn’t skate with the Amerks until Monday but he was his old self in his first game.
Both of his goals came on net-front deflections of Oskari Laaksonen point shots, at 1:43 of the first period and 1:57 of the second.
The second-period goal actually was credited to Laaksonen and Smith retrieved the puck as a souvenir of the Finn’s first American Hockey League goal.
But the goal was later changed since the shot hit Elie’s stick.
“That’s fine, we got the goal; I’ll get my goal later,” Laaksonen said.
There was a souvenir puck for Appert, however. The victory was his first as a professional coach.
He didn’t exactly have wild celebration plans, though.
“I watch video like all coaches do,” he said. “We don’t celebrate. This isn’t my first win, this is our first win as a coaching staff, our first win as a group.”
They’ll get a chance at victory No. 2 on Friday in Cleveland.
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