Amerks Rally To Beat Marlies
By: Thad Brown
Updated: March 5, 2012
The
Rochester Americans rallied from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Toronto
Marlies 3-2 in a shootout at The Blue Cross Arena on Sunday evening. The
victory,
in front of 5,429 fans, completed the home-and-home sweep for Rochester
and moved them into seventh place in the Western Conference standings
with 65 points. It also marked Rochester's fifth win in the last six
games.
"I
thought we caught our legs and turned the game around," Head Coach Ron
Rolston said. "We have been a good third period team at home all year
and wanted to come out
and make a bit of a statement and leave it out there. It was a gritty
win, no question about it."
Goaltender
David Leggio produced another stellar effort between the pipes for
Rochester in his sixth straight start, turning aside 33 of 35 shots in
addition to denying
all five Toronto shooters in the shootout. T.J. Brennan and Mark Voakes
each scored a goal in regulation and Phil Varone netted the lone
shootout tally.
Philippe
Dupuis and Nazem Kadri each lit the lamp for Toronto while netminder
Jussi Rynnas finished with 18 saves in his first action since January
10.
After
a scoreless opening period, the Marlies found the back of the net 3:13
into the middle frame for a 1-0 lead. After a puck ended up loose in
the Rochester crease,
Dupuis got a stick on it and jammed it over the goal-line for an
unassisted tally.
Kadri scored his 11th
goal of the season at
the 13:19 mark of the second to double Toronto's advantage to 2-0. The
21-year-old accepted a pass in stride from Mike Zigomanis at the
offensive blue line and proceeded to bury a wrister just inside the far
post.
Rochester
got on the board with a power-play goal with just six seconds remaining
in the second period. Brennan blasted a one-timer from the right point
that beat the
Toronto netminder clean. The tally represented Brennan's 13th of the season, tying him for the lead among all AHL blueliners. Varone and
Brayden McNabb each extended their point streaks to four games with the assists on the play.
The
Amerks knotted the score at two 7:38 into the third period, as Voakes
finished off a slick feed from behind the net off the stick of Travis
Turnbull. Voakes accepted
the pass in the low slot and quickly one-touched it under the arm of
Rynnas for his eighth of the season.
After
the teams were unable to settle the score for the remainder of
regulation and overtime, Rochester was able to come out on top in the
shootout to secure the two
points.
The
Amerks return to action on Friday, March 9 when they host the
Binghamton Senators at The Blue Cross Arena in the first of two straight
meetings between the teams in Rochester. Faceoff is at 7:35pm.
