UTICA, NY – The Rochester Americans dropped a 5-1 decision to the Utica Comets on Wednesday night at the Utica Memorial Auditorium. Dan Catenacci scored the lone goal for the Amerks, who saw their record drop to 27-35-5-1 on the season after their final visit to Utica.  
Catenacci extended his point streak to a career-high four games with his second period power-play goal on assists from Tim Schaller and Jerome Leduc. Anthony Peters got the start in goal for the third time in four games and made 25 saves on 28 shots in two periods of action. He was relieved by Sam Marotta to start the third period, and Marotta stopped nine of 11 shots in his first AHL appearance.
Former RIT standout and Hobey Baker Award finalist Matt Garbowsky made his professional debut for the Amerks in the game.
Sven Baertschi led the way for Utica with two goals, while Hunter Shinkaruk, Ben Hutton and Alexandre Grenier each scored as well. Alex Friesen collected two assists and Joacim Eriksson got the win in net by stopping 24 of 25 shots.
Peters was strong throughout the first period, turning aside 18 of 19 shots in the opening 20 minutes. The only puck that got by him came off the stick of Shinkaruk, who capitalized on a power-play opportunity at the 17:33 mark. Following a face-off win, Nicklas Jensen dropped a pass to the front of the net for Shinkaruk, who was alone in the slot and found the back of the net to open the scoring.
Utica extended its lead to 3-0 with two quick goals to open the second period. First it was Hutton, who was appearing in his first professional game, weaving up the ice and firing a wrist shot from the top of the right circle that was tipped past Peters for his first career goal.
Less than three minutes later, the Comets scored their second power-play goal of the game when Baertschi took a cross-ice pass from Friesen and teed off on a one-timer from the right face-off circle for the tally.
Catenacci put Rochester on the board with a man-advantage goal late in the second period. Schaller won a face-off back to Leduc at the blue line, and the defenseman immediately put a slap-shot on net. Eriksson made the initial save, but Catenacci was there to sweep in the rebound and cut the deficit to two goals heading into the final period.
Utica quickly regained its three-goal lead just 20 seconds into the third period when Grenier’s shot beat Marotta, who had relieved Peters in net to begin the frame. Baertschi would add his second of the night at 17:19 of the final period with a breakaway goal to make it a 5-1 game.
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