Rochester, NY – The Rochester Americans (15-10-2-1) scored midway through the third period to force overtime before Isak Rosén’s(2+0) second goal of the game 2:39 into the extra frame sealed a 3-2 win over the Belleville Senators (11-14-4-0) Friday at The Blue Cross Arena versus the Belleville Senators.
With the comeback win, the Amerks have points in eight of their last 10 dating back to Nov. 22. Rochester goes into its Christmas break in third place in the North Division with 33 points, two back of both Laval and Syracuse.
Leading point-getter Zac Jones pushed his point streak to four games as he notched his seventh multi-point effort of the campaign. Rosén, who leads all Amerks in goals (12), has 16 points (9+7) during his AHL-best 11-game point streak with the Amerks. Konsta Helenius has logged 11 points (4+7) dating back to Nov. 28 while Jones matched his career-high in assists (26) as he produced his third multi-point game since Dec. 6.
Riley Fiddler-Schultz netted his sixth goal of the campaign whereas Anton Wahlberg and Noah Laaouan each picked up an assist in the opening frame.
Goaltender Devon Levi (11-5-3) made his fifth straight start and 19th appearance of the season, stopping 22 of the 24 shots he faced. Levi’s 11 victories this season are tied for second amongst all AHL netminders while his 19 games are tied for most.
Arthur Kaliyev and Philippe Daoust both scored for Belleville, which shows a 1-7-2-0 record over its last 10 games. Goaltender Hunter Shepard (4-4-1), who returned to the crease for the first time since Nov. 14, made 28 saves.
FIRST PERIOD
After surviving a few scoring chances from Belleville, which included a pair from Arthur Kaliyev, Rochester opened the scoring at the 14:00 minute mark.
Skating backwards into his own zone and gathering the puck, Noah Laaouan not only retrieved it, but quickly provided an outlet-pass to the far blueline for Rosén. The two-time AHL All-Star advanced it for Helenius, and the latter returned the favor just inside the line. As Wahlberg tied up a Senators skater to provide a screen, Rosén skated down the right wing and lasered a shot past Shepard’s glove for his 11th of the campaign.
Following the break as the teddy bears were cleaned up, Jagger Joshua dropped the gloves with Jorian Donovan to keep the momentum in the building and the Amerks took the 1-0 lead into the intermission along with a 10-9 shot-advantage.
SECOND PERIOD
Nearly seven minutes into the second with the Senators trailing by a goal, the visitors drew a penalty in the offensive zone. As Wyatt Bongiovanni stepped on the ice in place of Shepard for the extra skater, the puck eventually came made its way up to the left point. Daoust scooped up the puck and after taking a stride towards the net, he sent a cross-ice pass to the far circle for Kaliyev to hammer past the glove of Levi.
The two clubs exchanged penalties in the final 13:37 after the goal but the game remained deadlocked at 1-1 after 40 minutes of play.
THIRD PERIOD
During the third period, Belleville reclaimed its lead in the opening minute of play as Daoust finished off a centering feed from Xavier Bourgault and Donovan just 35 seconds into the stanza.
Five minutes after successfully clearing off a holding infraction, Joshua dumped the puck into the offensive zone. Belleville rimmed the puck from behind its net around the wall before glancing off Wahlberg and to the stick of Jones. Immediately after gathering the puck, Jones sent a low shot that Fiddler-Schultz redirected inside the top corner to even the score.
As the game was tied 2-2 with just under 12 minutes remaining, the two clubs traded chances, however, neither could find the go-ahead tally before regulation expired.
OVERTIME
The Amerks pressured much of the extra frame after Helenius won a draw inside the Rochester zone. Jones, the league’s leading assist-getter, made a return pass to Helenius before Rosén gained possession near center ice.
Rosén carried the puck down the left wing with speed and paused before tucking behind Shepard. As the Senators’ goaltender was caught leaning towards his right, Rosén wrapped around the net before the two-time Calder Cup-winning netminder could get across his crease for his second goal of the night to seal the 3-2 win.
Clearly these Amerks are in dire need of scoring. Isak Rosen has been their goal scoring sparkplug…when he is here. Sabres have been yo-yo-ing him up and down all season. He was recalled to Buffalo right after this game once again. Who knows for how long.
Sabres have won 6 straight and suddenly they seem to have righted their ship under the new GM. There is no reason to believe he has a great interest in seeing the Amerks become an AHL powerhouse if his past history is any indicator. Plus given that Sabres haven’t made the playoffs in 14 years, its pretty clear where is top priority is right now, and I suppose it would be hard to argue that.
Meantime, Amerks, Laval and Syracuse continue to jockey for the top spot in their division. However Cleveland has entered the fray. After having played so few games compared to their opponents for the first 3 months, they are now making up those games in hand and if they win most of them, they will also be vying for the top spot. Amerks next 2 games are against the Monsters. Can’t afford to lose those.