Sens Voted Down By Amerks
By: Thad Brown
Updated: March 10, 2012
The Rochester Americans
picked up their third consecutive win and sixth over the past seven
games on Friday night, defeating the Binghamton Senators by a score of
3-1 at The Blue Cross Arena. The victory, which came in front of 6,299
fans, also extended Rochester's home winning streak to a season-high
five games.
The
same two teams get right back at it on Saturday night as the Amerks and
B-Sens close out their two-game weekend set. Game time is slated for
7:35 p.m.
Paul
Szczechura, Luke Adam and Derek Whitmore tallied a goal apiece for
Rochester, while David Leggio finished with 35 saves in what was another
stellar performance between the
pipes.
"Early
on they were taking it to us and David gave us an opportunity to get
our legs under us, re-focus, and open things up. He made a lot of good
saves in the third, too."
said Head Coach Ron Rolston. "We knew that (the Senators) were a
hard-working team, and it will be the same tomorrow night."
Craig
Schira netted the lone goal for Binghamton in the losing effort and
netminder Robin Lehner turned away 26 of 29 shots on goal.
After
a scoreless first period, the Amerks capitalized on a turnover by the
Senators at 4:19 of the middle frame to take a 1-0 lead. Szczechura
picked up a loose puck on the
left wing boards and made a nifty drag move around a defender before
lifting a backhander into the open side of the net. The unassisted goal
was Szczechura's 13th
of the season.
Binghamton
knotted things up at the 9:08 mark of the second period when a
left-point wrister off the stick of Schira eluded a maze of bodies in
the slot and beat Leggio high
over his right shoulder, tying the game at one. Pat Cannone and Andre
Petersson collected the assists.
Adam
notched his second goal of the season with the Amerks in the closing
minutes of the second period to restore Rochester's one-goal advantage.
The centerman corralled a bouncing
puck just inside the offensive blueline, made his way past a defender in
the slot, and finally slipped a backhander between the legs of the
Binghamton netminder with 3:28 remaining in the period. Defenseman Matt
MacKenzie, who was skating as a forward in the
game and recently returned from an injury absence, earned the assist for
his first point since Nov. 25.
Rochester
extended its lead to 3-1 at 10:50 of the final period as Whitmore
tipped home a Nick Crawford bid from the right-point for his
team-leading 24th
goal of the season. Travis Turnbull also picked up an assist on the insurance goal.
