Rochester Americans defeated the Iowa Stars 5-3 tonight at The Blue Cross Arena to give Randy Cunneyworth his 300th career win as the Head Coach of the Amerks. Cunneyworth joins John VanBoxmeer as the only other Amerk coach to win 300 games. The win also snaps the Amerks three-game losing streak and gives Tyler Plante his first victory since January 12th. The Amerks effort tonight improves the team to 18-36-4-4 on the season. The Stars jumped out to an early lead when Tobey Peterson extended his team lead in points (51) and goals (21) just 26 seconds into the first period on a one-timer from Konstantin Pushkarev. Rochester answered the quick goal with one of their own as Marc-Andre Gragnani put the puck past Stars goalie Tobias Stephan to extend his point streak to 10 games. Gragnani was fed a nice pass from Mark Mancari while the Amerks had the man advantage. The Stars regained the lead at the 6:41 mark of the first when Pushkarev tallied his second point of the night (1+1). He scored off a pass from Chris Conner who was positioned behind rookie goalie Plante. Pushkarev's 10th goal of the year came on the power-play. Gragnani did not allow that lead to stand when he punched in his second of the night and ninth of the year. This was the Amerks second power-play goal of the night. Helping out on the goal was Dylan Hunter who got his second assist of the night. Stefan Meyer also helped on the power-play goal. The goal was the fourth one scored on the night before the game was even 10 minutes old. Early goals continued to come in the second when Anthony Stewart, Mike Funk and Meyer broke in three-on-one. Meyer was the trailer who ended up knocking the puck in the net for his team leading 17th goal of the season at the 1:41 mark of the second. The Amerks extended their lead to two when Hunter banked the puck off Stephan's skate to net his 12th of the year. Gragnani returned the favor from the first two goals when he assisted Hunter at the 12:05 mark of the second. It did not take long in the third for the Amerks to record their third power-play goal of the night. Hunter took a rebound from Stephan and flicked the puck into an empty net. The goal was Hunter's second of the night and fourth point of the game. Helping out was Andrej Sekera and Gragnani. Hunter’s two goals and two assists earned him first star honors. Gragnani’s four point night (2+2) moved him to fourth among AHL rookies in points as he earned the game's second star accolades. Meyer also had a multiple point night netting one and helping on two, earning him the third star. The Amerks power-play was perfect scoring three goals on three chances tonight. The penalty kill was equally as good killing off seven of eight shorthanded opportunities. Rochester kicks off a five-game road trip on Friday, March 7th as it takes on the San Antonio Rampage at the AT&T Centre.
