The Marlies dropped a tough one at home tonight, falling 5-2 to the visiting Rochester Americans. The game remained pretty even through 40 minutes of play, but three third period goals propelled the Amerks ahead, and the Marlies were unable to climb their way back.
Chris Mueller notched the opening goal at 13:27 of the first, tapping home a slick feed from Jeremy Bracco. With the assist, Bracco set a new single-season Marlies franchise record with 53 assists in a 76-game season. Timothy Liljegren picked up the secondary assist on Mueller’s 29th of the season. The Amerks responded at 16:51 as Remi Elie beat Hutchinson and evened the score 1-1. Assists on Elie’s seventh of the season went to Wayne Simpson and Kyle Criscuolo. The Marlies were held to only three shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes but sat even at 1-1 on the scoreboard.
The second period was an even back and forth affair with each team exchanging a goal and eight shots. The Amerks jumped ahead 2-1 early in the second on a goal from Criscuolo. At 13:30, Nicolas Baptiste scored his first with the Marlies to even things back up. Pierre Engvall and Liljegren added the assists on Baptiste’s 13th of the season. The score remained locked at 2-2 heading into the final frame.
Things slipped away from the Marlies in the third period as the Amerks jumped ahead by two and added an empty net goal late in the third. The Marlies had a goal waved off in the final minutes and were unable to come back from the three-goal deficit.