The Rochester Americans worked hard on Sunday and it paid off with a victory on Sunday night against the Binghamton Senators. Jordan Henry scored the game winning goal with 30 seconds remaining to give the Amerks a 3-2 win. Tyler Plante had the following to say about the goal, “Jordan Henry looked so graceful for a second I thought he took the form of an Angel.” Yes folks, that is a real quote!
Marc Cavosie went to the penalty box at 1:33 of the first period for tripping giving the Amerks their first of only three power play opportunities in the entire game. The Amerks did a decent job at passing the puck with the man advantage, but that’s about all they did. They weren’t able to get any real scoring chances, but they controlled the puck. Binghamton didn’t record their first good shot on goal until seven minutes into the game.
Riley Emmerson and Matt Carkner dropped the mitts at 5:29 of the first period for a decent fight. Emmerson was the winner in this one with a great quick right square in the face of Carkner. Sorry, no video of this one (at least by us).
The Senators scored first with a power play goal at 13:42 of the first period, Jason Garrison was serving an interference penalty at the time. Brian Lee fed a cross ice pass through the bottom of the face off circles to Peter Regin who put the puck past Tyler Plante. As the puck was crossing the ice Plante slid across the crease and was able to get his left pad in front of the puck, but the puck bounced off his pad and through his legs into the net.
In the second period Binghamton got on the scoreboard for the 2nd time with a goal from Shawn Weller at 7:14. The play started with an excellent open ice hit by Jordan Henry who leveled Jim McKenzie. Henry has a great highlight reel of hits like that this season. Once McKenzie got up from the ice he got himself back into the play, getting a rebound off Plante, attempted to hack away at it, and then Weller finished the play getting the puck in the net.
Michal Repik followed up 22 seconds later with a goal to get the Amerks within one. The puck went into the B-Sens end where Martin Gerber tried to play the puck behind the net. Repik went in chasing after the puck and didn’t stop as Gerber tried to play it. Gerber attempted to get back in net from behind the goal and as he did Repik took a few strides to the bottom of the face off circle where he shot it in high stick side.
Late in the second period the Amerks had a two man advantage for approximately 30 seconds but were unable to get anything going. If this team could build a power play unit next season who knows what could happen.
Judd Blackwater, one of the newest faces in Rochester, tied the game 2-2 at 7:11 of the third period with a shot from the blue line that beat Gerber and went into the net. Blackwater certainly wasn’t expecting the puck to go in, he said, “It was a two on two, I figured I would throw the puck on net and maybe deflect in the corner, certainly wasnt expecting it to go in.” Blackwater commented, “I was excited, tied the game, first goal as an American.”
Tyler Plante has made an impact on this team since he’s came back on and off the ice. Plante knows when he needs to get a job done, but he’s also a player who likes to have fun as you can probably tell with the opening quote from him. Tyler made a number of big saves in the game that he may not have made at the start of the season. We’ll forget about the first half of the season, everything has changed since then.
The game winning goal came with 30 seconds left off a highlight reel short handed goal by Jordan Henry, assisted by David Brine and Keaton Ellerby. Karl Stewart had been sent to the penalty box for high sticking with 73 seconds left in the game which caused the Amerks to be short handed. Binghamton was working the puck along the boards when Ilya Zubov tackled Keaton Ellerby and the ref put up his arm for a delayed penalty. Jordan Henry was getting on the ice to get in the play and as he did he ran into Tyler Plante who was headed to the bench to allow the extra attacker. From that point Keaton Ellerby passed the puck to David Brine who was patient with the puck along the far boards. He fed Henry with a pass at which point Henry took his time, watched Denis Hamel go down to the ice to try and block the shot, and then put the puck glove side beating Gerber for the game winning goal.
Jordan Henry in the locker room after the game said, “I’ve been having a lot of chats lately about getting the puck in the slot like that where I have been shooting and it’s been getting blocked or not going the way i wanted it to, been talking to a lot of the guys lately who said if you get a chance like that just fake the shot, the guy is probably gonna go down and open up the space, and it did, gotta listen to the goal scorers to score goals. It was a credit to Brine with good patience holding it on the wall as I came in late. An all around good effort by the guys coming back. The guys showed a lot of character being down, being able to come back.”
We saw proof on Sunday why Gerber has been spending time in the AHL and not being claimed off of waivers by an NHL team. That can’t be good for a goaltenders resume, getting scored on by one of the worst teams in the AHL.
It was a great effort by the Amerks tonight with the win against a team they have not faired too well against in the past. Another solid weekend with the Amerks getting two wins and four of six possible points. It’s much easier writing about a winning performance than a game like last Sundays 6-2 loss against Toronto.
The Amerks travel to Cleveland next weekend with back to back games against the Lake Erie Monsters, a team they are trying to pass in the standings. They’ll be back at home next Sunday to take on the Providence Bruins.
