(Rochester, NY) – Despite allowing the first goal of the game to their former captain early in the first period, the Grand Rapids Griffins scored six straight unanswered goals and never looked back on their way to a 6-1 win over the Rochester Americans Friday at The Blue Cross Arena. It was the first of two meetings on the weekend between the former North Division rivals, who after spending Saturday on the road, will reconvene for another matchup Sunday back in Rochester.
The Amerks fall to 32-33-2-1 with the loss while the victory snaps a four-game skid for Grand Rapids and moves the Griffins to 42-24-1-1 on the season.
Veteran forward Matt Ellis provided the lone Rochester goal while finding the back of the net for the second straight game. Alex Guptill and Brady Austin each recorded assists and Linus Ullmark, who’s started 18 of the last 24 games for the Amerks, stopped 23 of 29 shots he faced in his fifth straight loss.
Mark Zengerle (1+1), Joakim Andersson (1+1), Nathan Paetsch (0+2) and Xavier Ouellet (0+2) all finished with two points to lead the Griffins behind a 41-save effort from goaltender Tom McCollum (Sanborn, NY) Martin Frk, Eric Tangradi, Tomas Nosek and Andy Miele rounded out the scoring for Grand Rapids, which saw 14 different players record at least one point.
The Griffins were quick to jump on their hosts with four shots on goal before the game was even four minutes old, but any momentum Grand Rapids had established soon tilted in Rochester’s favor after a defensive zone breakdown ended up behind McCollum. Guptill stepped in front of a clearing attempt just inside the blueline and took two strides before firing off a low shot that was blocked away by the Griffins netminder. The rebound, however, kicked out to Ellis at the top of the crease and the former Grand Rapids captain buried it for his sixth of the season and second goal in as many games. Austin also earned an assist on the goal as the Amerks carried the 1-0 lead into the intermission while outshooting the Griffins 16-7.
Grand Rapids soon took over in the second period, scoring twice just over a five-minute span while putting up a 13-9 shot advantage to move in front. Frk knotted the score with a rocket from the top of the right circle off a cross-ice feed that caught the left side of the net and Andersson gave the Griffins the lead for good a short while later when he pushed home his third of the season after Tyler Bertuzzi offered up a shot that clanked off the crossbar.
The Griffins tacked on four more goals in the third period to run away with the game, beginning just 29 seconds in when Tangradi slipped behind the Rochester defense and put a shot over the right shoulder of Ullmark. Nosek widened the gap at 2:07 and Miele found the open net off a pass from Joel Chouinard midway through the final frame to make it 5-1.
Zengerle added his second point of the night with a breakaway goal at 14:15 to cap the six-goal run for Grand Rapids.
Rochester’s three-in-three continues on Saturday, April 2 with one final go-around against the Syracuse Crunch at the War Memorial Arena before returning home on Sunday to close out the weekend in a rematch with the Griffins. The 7:00 p.m. contest will be the 10th and final meeting between the cross-town foes this season and will be carried live on FOX Sports 1280 Rochester. Saturday’s game will also be televised locally on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel 26.
Goal Scorers
RCH: Ellis (6)
GR: Frk (27), Andersson (3), Tangradi (26), Nosek (14), Miele (16), Zengerle (7)
Shots
RCH: 42
GR: 29
Goaltenders
RCH: Ullmark – L (23/29)
GR: McCollum – W (41/42)
Special Teams
Amerks Power Play: 0-4
Amerks Penalty Kill: 3-3
