(Cleveland, OH) – The Rochester Americans saw their three-game winning streak snapped Thursday night in Cleveland, falling 5-2 to the Lake Erie Monsters at Quicken Loans Arena. Jerry D’Amigo scored both Rochester goals, but it was not enough as the Amerks moved to 26-25-2-1 on the season as they began a two-game road trip.
Nick Baptiste assisted on both goals by D’Amigo, who now has 10 on the season. Dan Catenacci and Matt Donovan also collected assists in the contest. With his assist, Catenacci now has at least one point in nine of his last 11 games with the Amerks. Goaltender Linus Ullmark, who entered the game as the reigning CCM/AHL Player of the Week, stopped 25 of 29 shots in the loss.
Lake Erie goalie Anton Forsberg finished with 25 saves on the night, with three of those stops coming on breakaway opportunities by the Amerks. The Monsters got goals from John Ramage, Daniel Zaar, Alex Broadhurst, Sonny Milano and Josh Anderson. Broadhurst added an assist and Michael Chaput registered two helpers.
Lake Erie scored a power play goal early in the first period and never relinquished the lead, building up a 3-0 advantage before D’Amigo chipped away at it. The opening goal came off the stick of Ramage 8:39 into the contest with the Monsters on a power play. As Lake Erie worked the puck around the Rochester zone, Ramage took a pass from Oliver Bjorkstrand and teed up a slapshot from the blue line that found its way through traffic and past Ullmark for the goal.
Lake Erie wasted little time increasing its lead to begin the second period as Zaar scored just 1:48 into the frame. Broadhurst and Chaput worked a give-and-go in the right corner before Broadhurst took the puck at the bottom of the face-off circle and made a perfect feed to the slot for Zaar, whose one-timer found the back of the net.
Shortly after Matt Ellis was denied on a breakaway by Forsberg, Broadhurst gave the Monsters a 3-0 lead with a power-play goal, walking the puck out of the corner and tucking it underneath Ullmark.
Forsberg then stopped his second breakaway chance of the period, this time against Jason Akeson. But the Amerks continued to apply pressure and got on the board at the 14:18 mark of the second period when D’Amigo stuffed in a rebound off a shot by Catenacci as the forwards attacked the zone on a 2-on-1 rush.
The two-goal deficit quickly went back to three goals as Milano roofed a back-hander from in tight to put Lake Erie up 4-1 heading into the third period.
Rochester continued to generate chances early in the third as Catenacci rang a shot square off the cross-bar and Forsberg stopped Robak on a breakaway. Eventually, D’Amigo netted his second of the night with 5:30 remaining in the contest, finishing off a nifty passing play by Donovan and Baptiste.
Rochester kept up the pressure, but Anderson tacked on an empty-net goal to give Lake Erie a 5-2 victory to snap the Amerks’ win streak.
The Amerks bring the weekend to a close on Saturday, Feb. 27 when they head north of the border for a tough divisional showdown against the league-leading Toronto Marlies at Ricoh Coliseum. The 3:00 p.m. matinee will be the fifth of eight meetings between the two teams this season and will be broadcast live on FOX Sports 1280 Rochester.
Goal Scorers
RCH: D’Amigo (9, 10)
LE: Ramage (6), Zaar (14), Broadhurst (3), Milano (6), Anderson (12)
Shots
RCH: 27
LE: 30
Goaltenders
RCH: Ullmark – L (25/29)
LE: Forsberg – W (25/27)
Special Teams
Amerks Power Play: 0-3
Amerks Penalty Kill: 0-2
