Courtesy of Amerks.com
Rochester, NY – Forwards Brandon Biro and Lukas Rousek (1+1) each recorded a multi-point effort, but the Rochester Americans (12-9-2-1) fell 5-3 to the first-place Cleveland Monsters (17-7-1-0) Wednesday night at The Blue Cross Arena.
Despite the defeat, Rochester boasts a 40-21-6-4 record against Cleveland over the last 10 years dating back to the start of the 2011-12 campaign and has earned at least one point in 29 of the last 45 games overall.
While Biro and Rousek both notched a goal and an assist, Brendan Warren, who missed the previous 16 games due to an injury, scored his second goal of the campaign in second period in his return to the lineup. Former Monster Justin Richards, Viktor Neuchev and Brett Murray all each recorded a helper for Rochester, which shows a 1-2-0-0 record against Cleveland this season.
Goaltender Dustin Tokarski (4-5-1) made 26 saves in his 10th appearance of the year.
Jake Christiansen recorded a season-high in both assists (3) and points (4) while Luca Del Bel Belluz and Carson Meyer each tallied two points (1+1) for Cleveland. Trey Fix-Wolansky opened the scoring for the Monsters while Cole Clayton sealed the win.
Netminder Jet Greaves stopped 35 of the 38 shots he faced to improve to 12-3-0 on the season. His 12 victories are tied for the most in the league while his 15 appearances are tied for seventh-most.
After Rousek reclaimed Rochester’s lead just 55 seconds into the first minute of the final frame, the Monsters evened the score at 3-3 nearly five minutes later.
With the score tied, the Monsters drew their third power-play of the contest at the 8:20 mark.
As the penalty clock was nearing its final seconds, Christiansen retrieved James Malatesta’s pass along the right boards by the face-off circles. The blueliner dished a feed through the zone for Del Bel Belluz to scoop and wrist over the shoulder of Tokarski.
Facing a one-goal deficit for the second time of the night, Rochester hoped to force the matchup beyond regulation as they pulled Tokarski for an extra-skater in the final 100 seconds of play.
The Amerks attempt to dump the puck inside the Cleveland zone, however, Clayton intercepted the pass and lobbed it nearly the length of the ice to seal the 5-3 win with his first of the campaign.
Less than seven minutes into a scoreless game, Biro and Rousek crossed paths and exchanged passes upon entering the offensive zone. Biro pulled up inside the blueline before attempting a centering pass to Neuchev in-between the face-off circles, however, the puck glanced off the skates of the rookie forward. As the puck reached Rousek, he returned a pass back to Biro to wire inside the post for his eighth of the season at the 6:20 mark.
To close out the first period, the Monsters drew back-to-back penalties and were able to capitalize on both occasions.
Fix-Wolansky evened the score at 1-1 with his seventh goal of the slate near the 8:00 mark before Christiansen blasted home his fifth nearly nine minutes later to give the Monsters a 2-1 lead.
During the second period in which the Amerks outshot the Monsters 18-5, Rochester pressed to regain its lead.
Early in the stanza, the Amerks found the back of Greaves’ net after a tenacious forecheck by Warren caused a turnover deep in the offensive zone. With Warren tangled up with a player to the right of the Cleveland crease, Richards rimmed the puck around the wall to the left point for Davies, who fired a shot that pinballed its way before glancing off Warren and into the net to even the score at 2-2.
While Rochester reclaimed the lead in the first minute of the third period, the Monsters used a three-goal run to cap the 5-3 score.
The Amerks remain at home for their final home game prior to the Christmas break on Friday, Dec. 22 when they welcome the Providence Bruins to The Blue Cross Arena for a 7:05 p.m. face-off. All the action will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV. The matchup will also be televised live on CW Rochester.
no disrespect intended but seriously the ‘despite the defeat’ thing is totally irrelevant. I don’t think anyone particularly cares about our 10 year record against Cleveland…and certainly not after yet another disheartening loss at home…which is getting more and more common with every passing day.
It rings very hollow to try and cover up or soft peddle another loss…another poor result. I don’t care to hear how good our opponent is; or how so-and-so really looked good for a few shifts..when the team has forgotten why they play the games….to win. If that isn’t the goal, the objective, then don’t charge admission and don’t put your team in the standings.
No regulation wins since Nov 18th. How can that happen with players of this caliber. Coach doesn;t have to go postal but a little fire and brimstone might be worthwhile to kick these guys back in the game. Wednesday was just another game in a long line of games where this team just isn’t there for 60 minutes. And would it kill them to score twice in the 3rd period?
Starting tonight, I’d like to see a real change. A game like the Sabres played against Toronto is in order.