Courtesy of Amerks.com
Rochester, NY – Brett Murray scored a pair of goals prior to Zach Metsa capping a 4-3 win in the first minute of overtime to help the RochesterAmericans (26-20-6-2) prevail in the first of back-to-back meetings against the Syracuse Crunch (32-17-4-2) Friday at The Blue Cross Arena.
With the overtime victory, the Amerks have recorded at least one point in 14 of their last 20 games dating back to Jan. 17. Tonight was Rochester’s 19th contest this season decided beyond regulation, which is most in the AHL.
Along with Murray’s second-two goal outing of the campaign and seventh of his career, Metsa found the back of the net for Rochester, which improved to 8-0-0-0 against Syracuse when they score two more goals dating back to the start of the 2022-23 campaign. Metsa has recorded goals in back-to-back games for the first time in his career and has points (2+1) in three straight.
Isak Rosen tallied two assists, including the lone helper on the game-winner, for his third multi-assist game of the season while Graham Slaggert logged his third goal of the campaign. Ethan Prow and Linus Weissbach each registered an assist to complete the scoring.
Goaltender Devon Levi (8-5-3), who’s started four straight and 14 of the last 17 games since being reassigned to Rochester on Jan. 20, made 20 saves in the win, his first against the Crunch. Levi has faced 20 or more shots in each of his last 12 appearances and 14 of his 16 appearances overall.
Waltteri Merelä (1+1) collected his second two-point performance over his last three games for Syracuse, which entered the contest with a perfect 6-0-0-0 record on the road this season in Rochester. Gabriel Fortier and Sean Day both scored to wrap up the scoring.
Goaltender Matt Tomkins (13-9-2) made his 24th appearance of the campaign and fifth opposite the Amerks. The netminder stopped 22 of the 26 shots he faced but saw his three-game win streak end as he was dealt the overtime defeat.
In the first minute of the overtime period and the game deadlocked at 3-3, Metsa scooped up the puck in the right corner of the Amerks end.
The Quinnipiac University product helped jumpstart an odd-man rush with Rosen and Murray flanking the left and right wings, respectively. After Rosen gathered Metsa’s initial pass inside the offensive zone, the duo exchanged a series of passes as they converged towards the center of the crease. Rosen returned a pass to Metsa, who steered it inside the right post for his first-career game-winning marker as Murray occupied the other Crunch skater.
Less than four minutes into the first period, the Crunch cycled the puck back to the right point. As the blueliner fired a shot, Murray stepped in-front to block it before pushing the puck up the ice to himself. The Bolton, Ontario, native raced into the offensive zone, and as he reached the hashmarks, he rifled in his 13th goal of the season to give the Amerks a 1-0 lead.
Later in the frame, it was Rochester who had possession of the puck in the offensive zone, however, following a turnover, Syracuse earned a breakaway. Merelä grabbed the puck in the neutral zone, and after reaching the left circle, he cut towards the center of the crease and tucked a shot in-behind Levi to even the score at 1-1.
Following the intermission break, the Amerks nearly took a 2-1 lead as Rosen centered Murray a pass across the crease, but Tomkins denied the attempt.
On the ensuing shift, Tristan Allard initiated a play in transition as he slid a feed to Edmonds at the right face-off dot. Edmonds carried the puck along the right side of the ice as he raced into the Amerks zone, and as he reached the face-off circle, he hit Day with a pass as he was dashing through the top of the crease for his fifth of the slate.
Trailing 2-1, Rochester drew the game’s first penalty of the night with 11 minutes to play in the second period.
With the man-advantage, Murray nearly poked home a loose rebound but the puck trickled just wide of the cage. The forward reclaimed the puck and wrapped it around the wall for Rosen before parking himself to the left of the blue paint. Rosen skated down the left wing and provided a nifty feed to the far post for Murray to tap in and knot the game at 2-2.
During the third period, Slaggert added his third of the campaign after being sprung on a breakaway following a miraculous diving pass from Weissbach before Fortier sent the game beyond regulation with his ninth at the 16:16 mark.
In the extra frame, Metsa and Rosen combined to conclude the 4-3 victory in the first minute of play.
The same two teams meet again on Saturday, March 10 when the home-and-home series shifts to downtown Syracuse for a 7:00 p.m. rematch at Upstate Medical University Arena. The North Division showdown will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV.
Stars and Stripes:
Graham Slaggert scored his second goal of the season on home ice and third overall … Both home goals came in wins when the Amerks allowed three goals … By notching an assist on Slaggert’s goal, Linus Weissbach has notched 13 (7+6) of his last 15 points at The Blue Cross Arena … With a pair of helpers, Isak Rosen (20) became the second forward (Lukas Rousek) and third Amerk (Kale Clague) overall to record 20 or more assists this season.
A surprise win in front of an abysmally small Friday night crowd in March, against our fiercest rival. Hometown fans possibly showing some displeasure at the team’s lousy performances on home ice this season?
Still, winning is fun. Particularly a surprise win. Which last nights win surely was. Telling us we have earned points in 14 of our last 20 is pretty meaningless. But telling us that when we score more than 2 against the Crunch we are undefeated is very meaningFUL. Liked that one!
Rosen perked up last night, showing us he is more than just a penalty killer. Kulich OTOH is still in a funk which has lasted far too long. That kid really needs a big game.
since coming down Levi is 8-8. (I’m counting the OT/SO losses as ‘losses’) He has at times been brilliant. Lately he has kind of settled in to being decent, all right, not as spectacular. Much has to do with the team in front of him, but I miss those incredible performances he gave us early on. We need the spectacular Levi if we are to do anything in the postseason. Its good that he is playing here, regularly. Probably should have started the season here.
When Murray uses his size, he can dominate, on a team that has no size. He played a solid game last night. Amerks did manage one PP goal, but both teams actually had their best scoring chances while killing penalties.
Amerks are only 1 point out of 3rd. A win tonite would be excellent. That won’t come easy, but you never know.
Great to see they won, myself and my son decided to skip the game in favor of the John Cougar Mellencamp concert. normally we would choose the game but the incredibly poor play on home ice this season made it a very easy choice. A step in the right direction but will not get too excited until we see what the rest of the weekend brings, team is really needing to string together some wins right now!
A predictable outcome in Syracuse once again special teams were the death of this team. Team continues to give up more points then they gain against division foes in these 2 game matches as the trainwreck we call the “Amerks” is getting closer and closer to not making the playoffs and really maybe all for the better.