ROCHESTER, NY – Despite outshooting the Phantoms 34-16, the Rochester Americans closed out their first three-games in three-nights stretch of the season with a 3-1 loss to Adirondack on Sunday evening. The loss extended the AMerks’ winless streak to three games as it secured two out of a possible six points on the weekend. The lone Rochester goal came from Marcus Foligno, with assists going to Brayden McNabb and Colin Stuart. Goaltender Drew MacIntyre stopped 14 of 16 shots sent his way by the Phantoms. Both teams came out with jump early, as they each lit the limp before the game was even three minutes old. The Phantoms struck first at 1:47 after a quick neutral zone transition turned into a two-on-one and Wellwood beat MacIntyre under the arm to the blocker side with a wrister from the right face-off dot.
The Amerks responded quickly, however, knotting the score at one apiece less than 30 seconds later when Foligno, fresh off a two-game absence, tipped a drive from the left point, courtesy of McNabb, in the slot past Bacashihua. Adirondack restored its lead with just under three and a half minutes to go in the opening period when Zolnierczyk capitalized on a breakaway with his team shorthanded. After intercepting an attempted pass across the middle of the ice at the point by the Rochester defense, Zolnierczyk found himself all alone from center ice in and tucked the puck around MacIntyre following a quick backhand-to-forehand deke.
After neither team was able to find the back of the net for nearly forty minutes of play, the Phantoms doubled their lead to 3-1 with just 3:07 remaining in regulation time. Rinaldo received a centering pass out of the near corner from linemate Garrett Rowe and let a shot go from the left face-off dot that beat MacIntyre to the far side.
David Sturm was there to cover the match for Pro Hockey News and filed these images for this photo essay.
Photo by David Sturm
Photo by David Sturm
Photo by David Sturm
Photo by David Sturm
Photo by David Sturm
Photo by David Sturm
Photo by David Sturm
Photo by David Sturm
Photo by David Sturm
Comment@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.