The Amerks showed up with a solid effort on Saturday afternoon and beat the San Antonio Rampage 3-2 in a shootout, it was only the fourth win in the previous 30 games and only second win at home since November.
Rob Globke was the #1 star of the game with two goals in regulation and one in the shootout to help lead the Amerks to victory.
The Rampage took the early lead with a goal 6:30 into the game and seemed to control the game throughout the first period but the Amerks battled back, which seems like an odd thing to write.
There was no scoring in the second period, but the Amerks outshot the Rampage by a margin of 15-2 and didn’t back down like they’ve been known to in the second period. Mark Mancari also appeared to step up to remarks by Cunneyworth that the players needed to stand up for each other. He got in the middle of a scrum behind the Rampage net and threw a few punches, a roughing penalty worth taking.
It sure did take a lot of courage for Logan Stephenson of the Rampage to push, shove, and try to throw punches all while he was wearing a full face mask.
Daniel Carcillo of the Rampage was given a 10 minute misconduct for unsportsmanlike conduct after he stopped at the Amerks bench, reached over, and tried to get Mike Weber who was already on the bench into a fight. It’s too bad the entire team didn’t take that opportunity to throw punches right back at the guy, what would they really have had to lose?
Adam Dennis seemed to be in slow motion at the start of the game, but like the rest of the team put on a solid effort to finish the game. He’ll probably be starting in goal on Sunday night as well, it’s rumored that Tyler Plante is nursing a minor shoulder injury.
Yannick Tifu recorded five shots on goal, probably could have had a few more but held the puck too long a few times looking for the perfect shot. He appears to be a great addition to the team in bringing speed and great puck handling skills, would be nice to see him stick around.
Andrej Sekera had an excellent game which made up for Wednesday night when he gave up the puck which led to a Crunch empty net goal to finish off the Amerks. He was a +2 with four shots and an assist. When he’s playing his ‘A’ game he is exciting to watch, given a full time opportunity he’ll be a success in the NHL.
It was highly amusing to watch fans leaving the game with less than two minutes left only to come running back to there seats.
Thunderstick giveaway day was a great promotion as it created a noise level in the arena not heard in some time. Although thinking back it’s depressing that was considered a great noise level after being at the Knighthawks game as well tonight.
Rob Globke had his best game of the season, would it have been that much more of an effort to take more than one step out onto the ice? He was named first star of the game, wouldn’t think it’d be tough to skate out and accept the appreciation of the few fans left who do stick around at the end to cheer.
A video of the entire shootout is being uploaded as are pictures from the game.
The Amerks are at home again on Sunday night at 6:05pm and play against the Grand Rapids Griffins.
Below is a full scoring recap of the game, Amerks.com had a great writeup so why bother basically writing the same thing all over again:
From Amerks.com –
Goaltender Josh Tordjman kept the visitng Rampage in the game, stopping 35 of 37 shots. Tordjman got a well deserving second star of the game with his effort this afternoon. Tordjman made the save of the game when he flicked out his left pad to deny Anthony Stewart at a wide open net.
The Rampage was only able to manage 18 shots on Adam Dennis throughout the contest. Dennis, stopped 16 of those 18 shots and was only scored on once in the shoot out to earn his 11th win of the season.
Daniel Carcillo opened the scoring for the Rampage at 6:30 of the first period. He tipped a shot from Nate DiCasmirro past Amerk goalie Dennis for a 1-0 lead. Tordjman kept Rochester off the scoreboard, despite facing 25 shots over the first two periods.
The Amerks finally beat Tordjman on Globke’s seventh goal of the season at 11:54. Just 16 seconds before that, Globke was denied by a sliding save by Tordjman.
With 2:35 left in the third, the Amerks bench took a costly penalty that gave the lead back to the Rampage. The goal was scored by Bill Thomas from a bad angle shot that snuck through Dennis’ pads. The rampage only needed 30 seconds of the power play to take the lead back.
In the final 30 seconds of the game Globke was able to get his second of the afternoon on a flutter shot over Tordjman’s left arm. Globke’s eighth sent the game in overtime where there was no scoring.
In the shoot out Globke was first to shoot and he had Tordjman flopping on the ice as he slid the puck in the net. Brendan Bell answered Globke’s goal as he beat Dennis in a similar fashion. After that Dennis was able to shut out the Rampage in the shoot out. The Amerks third shooter Drew Larman was the one that got the game winning goal in the shoot out.
