Rochester Americans Fumble In Weekend Rumbles
The Rochester Americans have now lost four games in a row, including three in the past week and two of which were lost by three-goal margins.
Last week’s action for the Rochester Americans began on Wednesday, as they traveled to Hamilton to face off with the Bulldogs.
Brayden Irwin scored the lone goal as the Amerks fell 4-1. Phillip Varone and Jake McCabe tallied the assists.
More from Sabres News
- 3 biggest standouts at Buffalo Sabres 2023 Prospects Challenge
- 3 takeaways from the Buffalo Sabres final Prospects Challenge game
- Buffalo Sabres experiment with lesser-known talent in loss to Pens
- Buffalo Sabres 75 Bold Predictions for 2023-24: Prediction 51
- Buffalo Sabres vs. Pittsburgh: A quick look at the Penguins prospects
Sven Andrighetto, Nick Sorkin, T.J. Hensick and Jake Dowell all scored for the Bulldogs.
Chad Ruhwedel and Zac Dalpe each registered seven shots on goal, while the team as a whole put up 33 shots against Hamilton goalie Joey MacDonald. It simply wasn’t enough. Matt Hackett stopped 24 shots, with the final Bulldogs goal coming on an empty net.
Next up, the Rochester Americans hosted the Texas Stars on Friday night.
It began with a four-goal first period, as each team put up a pair of goals. Zac Dalpe and Dan Catenacci scored for Rochester, with Texas goals coming from Scott Glennie and Justin Dowling.
However, that two-goal first period would prove to be all the Amerks could put up. Dowling notched two more goals to rack up the hat trick, and Greg Rallo also scored for Texas, who won 5-2.
Dalpe led the Amerks with five shots on goal. Matt Hackett had 36 saves, with the Amerks once again allowing an empty-net goal against. Jussi Rynnas had 30 saves for the Stars.
More from Sabre Noise
- 3 biggest standouts at Buffalo Sabres 2023 Prospects Challenge
- 3 takeaways from the Buffalo Sabres final Prospects Challenge game
- Buffalo Sabres experiment with lesser-known talent in loss to Pens
- Buffalo Sabres 75 Bold Predictions for 2023-24: Prediction 51
- Buffalo Sabres vs. Pittsburgh: A quick look at the Penguins prospects
Finally, the Rochester Americans hosted the Syracuse Crunch on Sunday at 5 p.m.
The Amerks headed into Sunday’s game with a chip on their shoulders, as they lost defensemen Jake McCabe and Mark Pysyk that same day, both recalled to the Buffalo Sabres just hours earlier. As a result, the Amerks signed Nick Tuzzolino to a PTO. The team had also previously signed Cameron Burt (former RIT Tiger) to a PTO on Friday, so they were able to put together a full defense corps, but were missing arguably their two best blueliners.
Things didn’t start off well for the Amerks. Syracuse took a 3-0 lead with less than four minutes left in the second period, thanks to goals by Vladimir Namestnikov, Dalton Smith and Matthew Corrente.
But the Amerks began to rally back, despite the odds. They’d end up exchanging goals with the Crunch – first Brodie Reid to make it 3-1, then Namestnikov to make it 4-1. But Phillip Varone and Jerry D’Amigo would score the next two, making it a 4-3 game with 11:27 left on the clock in regulation.
Unfortunately, the Amerks weren’t able to complete the comeback and walked off the ice with no points. Andrey Makarov had 19 saves in Sunday’s loss.
Coming up for the Rochester Americans — this week is a little bit different. The Amerks will visit the Lake Erie Monsters for a school-day game on Tuesday at 10:45 a.m. The Syracuse Crunch will then visit Rochester on Wednesday, 7:05 p.m. Finally, the Toronto Marlies head into town on Friday for another 7:05 p.m. matchup.
Following that, the Amerks are off until March 4.