By Warren Kozireski —
For about 15 minutes Wednesday night, Rochester dropped into sixth place in the North Division and out of a playoff spot after Belleville defeated Hartford.But defenseman Ethan Prow took a feed from Jack Quinn 4:19 into the three-on-three overtime and roofed a shot over the glove of the Laval goaltender to give the Amerks a 4-3 overtime win and move them back into the fifth and final playoff spot with seven games remaining in the regular season.
“We knew the type of pressure that we would be facing…we know what we have to do and at the end of the day we were able to find it, make a play and win it in OT,” Prow said.
Rochester jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead on goals by Linus Weissbach and Mark Jankowski, but Laval came back to tie it in the second before Sean Malone put the Amerks ahead 3-2 after two.A bad high-sticking penalty by Brandon Biro allowed Laval to again tie the game on the power play midway through the third before Prow’s overtime winner.There are five teams fighting for four postseason spots with two wins separating second through sixth place in the North Division.Next for the Amerks is a key tilt with the team they are currently fighting for the final playoff spot–Belleville on Friday night.
“Guys that are second or third year pros have never been in a playoff race…and never had this level of pressure before (due to Covid year and no playoffs last season),” Rochester head coach Seth Appert said.”The last ten or twelve games we’ve been in a playoff race.. Yes, it may carry more standings significance, but I think we’re going to prepare for it the same way.”
(Amerks Hockey Photo)
