The story of the night once the game started was the enormous crowd that showed up to see the Rochester Americans tonight.  The line to get tickets at the box office and will call nearly filled the lobby well past the start of the game.  The attendance announced was 9,7771 which is the largest crowd I’ve ever seen in that building since I started going to games in 2006.  A crowd of 10,136 was announced on January 12, 2007 but no one I’ve talked to ever remembers that large of a crowd that season.  That was the end of an era of padded numbers with tickets printed, not actual attendance which is reported now.  Anyways… hopefully everyone was entertained and comes back again!

I don’t have the time to do a typical post game report so here’s a few random thoughts:

** This was the Amerks 11th loss by one goal.  Include a game where an empty netter was scored and it’s really their 12th.  There’s probably a few ways you can look at a stat like that.  Is it due to goaltending letting in one too many soft goals?  Typically the case.  Is it due to the lack of a real finisher that can be relied on to score a goal when needed?  That’s also an issue.  Either way it shows how close the games continue to be.

** It wasn’t awesome to see Derek Whitmore hit hard into the boards but it was awesome to see him get right back up and drop the gloves.

** Marcus Foligno was everywhere tonight.  Great pass to Phil Varone for the the second goal of the game.

** The Bulldogs had a 5 on 3 power play and the crowd was the loudest at that point.  Unfortunately the Bulldogs scored but the building got behind the team which was great to see.

** I typically have the “in game entertainment” tuned out but after seeing so many people complain about what they hear in Buffalo lately I paid attention a little more and have to give the Amerks some credit.  When the crowd was trying to chant they would play something to try and fuel that.  They didn’t just go to some promotion and kill any momentum.  There’s always work to do and you can never please everyone but whoever is in charge does a good job.

** Mitch Wahl has a wicked shot and Drew MacIntyre gave him the openings to put the puck in.  MacIntyre isn’t playing like the veteran goaltender he’s supposed to be.

** Mark Voakes and Travis Turnbull lost some blood tonight but got right back into the games.  Two players that put their bodies out there on every shift.

** The players all said that the large crowd gave them instant energy which is awesome. It was noticeable too at the way they didn’t let down all game.  Hopefully everyone in the building isn’t put off by the loss and will come back.  At least it wasn’t as bad as the opening night loss in front of a large crowd.

** The game was tied 4-4 after two periods so it was an interesting coaching move by Ron Rolston changing things up and putting David Leggio in net.  He knew he needed to make some sort of change and went with it.

** TJ Brennan is being called up due to Christian Ehrhoff being injured with the Sabres tonight and it’s being reported that Ehrhoff will be out for “weeks.”

Sorry for the lack of a more in depth post game story, I’ll return with one next game.

The Amerks are off until next weekend when they play three games in a row in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Binghamton and Hershey.