Quad City Flames’ forward Grant Stevenson scored four goals, including a natural hat trick, to defeat the Rochester Americans 4-2 tonight at the I Wireless Center. The contest was the first ever meeting and the first of two this season between the two teams.
Stevenson scored one in the first, one in the second and two in the third to hand Rochester its fourth straight loss and the 20th in the last 22 games. Quad City also got a four-assist night from Carsen Germyn. Curtis McElhinney made 21 saves in the win. Rochester’s Adam Dennis stopped 30 shots in the loss. The Amerks got single goals from Mark Mancari and Kenndal McArdle.
Mancari gave the Amerks a 1-0 with his 13th goal of the season from Marc-Andre Gragnani and David Brine at 1:40 of the first period. Stevenson, however, tied the game at one at 16:32 of the first.
Stevensons second straight goal at 19:44 of the second gave the Flames a 2-1 lead after two periods. He completed the natural hat trick with a goal at 12:49 of the third period. McArdle answered for the Amerks at 18:15 of the third with a power-play goal, but Stevenson notched an empty-netter with 44 seconds to play for a 4-2 Flames’ victory.
Rochester will complete its road trip the following night as the Amerks travel to Wells Fargo Arena to battle the Iowa Stars in a non-divisional matchup.