(Syracuse, NY) – Rookie forward Justin Bailey scored twice, including the game-winner, and Andrey Makarov posted a season-high 42 saves to power the Rochester Americans to a convincing 5-1 win over the host Syracuse Crunch Saturday at the War Memorial Arena. The win snaps a four-game skid for the Amerks, who improve to 33-33-2-1 on the season with seven games remaining.
Bailey continued his second-half surge with his second two-goal outing in eight games to move into the top 10 in scoring among American Hockey League rookies. Bailey, the first Amerks rookie to reach the 40-point mark since the 2012-13 campaign, has recorded 30 points (16+14) over his last 24 appearances and has compiled nine different multi-point outings dating back to Jan. 2.
Spiro Goulakos, recalled by Rochester earlier in the day, also made an immediate impact in his return to the lineup, scoring his first goal as an Amerk while also adding an assist for the first two points of his AHL career. Eric O’Dell and Nick Baptiste also scored in the win for Rochester, which scored four straight unanswered goals over the final two periods. Michael Sdao, Matt Donovan, Cole Schneider, Dan Catenacci and Jerry D’Amigo all notched assists while Makarov has now won two of his last three starts.
Jonathan Drouin scored the lone goal for the Crunch and Adam Wilcox stopped 27 of the 32 shots he faced in the losing effort.
The first period featured quite the goaltending duel between Makarov and Wilcox with both netminders virtually going save for save for the better part of the opening frame that produced 31 total shots. Despite each side benefitting from solid goaltending, the Amerks would eventually break through with less than a minute remaining on a redirection by O’Dell. Rodrigues retrieved a loose puck in the left corner and swung a pass up to Goulakos, who was stationed at the near point. Goulakos immediately stepped into a one-timer from inside the blueline that caught the stick of O’Dell before finding its way through traffic with 50 seconds to spare.
The Amerks carried the lead into the second, but a delay of game penalty to Sdao just 3:39 in soon proved costly as the Crunch needed just 28 seconds into their first power-play opportunity to knot the score at 1-1 apiece. Matthew Peca’s rink-wide pass reached the hot hand of Drouin, who picked the upper corner from the left face-off dot for his ninth goal in as many games.
Rochester retook the lead just 2:23 later after Sdao made a nifty play at the blueline before setting up Bailey for his first of two on the night. The big Amerks defenseman carried the puck along the left wing boards and sent a diagonal pass towards the slot that Bailey one-touched inside the right post for his 18th of the year.
Goulakos followed up with his first as an Amerk at 11:55, snapping a shot past Wilcox following a defensive zone turnover to give Rochester a 3-1 advantage.
Bailey added his second of the game at 15:19 of the third off a centering feed from Schneider before Baptiste sealed the win into the empty net with 1:11 remaining.
The Amerks close out the weekend at home on Sunday, Apr. 3 when they host the Grand Rapids Griffins for the second time in three days at The Blue Cross Arena. Game time is slated for a 5:05 p.m. start and will be carried live on FOX Sports 1280 Rochester.
Goal Scorers
RCH: O’Dell (24), Bailey (18, 19), Goulakos (1), Baptiste (12)
SYR: Drouin (11)
Shots
RCH: 32
SYR: 43
Goaltenders
RCH: Makarov – W (42/43)
SYR: Wilcox – L (27/32)
Special Teams
Amerks Power Play: 0-2
Amerks Penalty Kill: 4-5
