Comets Fall to Rochester, Home Tonight

The Rochester Americans went 4-for-7 on the power play, en
route to a 7-3 victory over the Utica Comets, Friday night at the Blue Cross
Arena.

Jamie Tardif (2-1-3), Brayden McNabb (1-2-3), and Johan Larsson (0-3-3) led
the way with three points apiece, while Chad Ruhwedel (0-2-2), Rasmus
Ristolainen (2-0-2) and Luke Adam (1-1-2) each added two points.

Rochester capitalized on their lone power play of the first period, 10:23
into the game. Jamie Tardiff redirected a Chad Ruhwedel blast from the point
in front of the Comets bench past Joacim Eriksson to give the Amerks an
early lead. Brayden McNabb picked up as assist on the play.

A tic-tac-toe play starting at the point put the Amerks up 2-0, 5:23 into
second period. From just inside the blue line Phil Varone found Ruhwedel on
the back door, Ruhwedel knocked the puck down and immediately hit Tardif
with a pass across the top of the crease for the tap-in goal.

Just a minute later Rochester struck again. Johan Larsson dug the puck out
of a scrum from behind the net and passed it out to Rasmus Ristolainen at
the point. A bullet from Ristolainen beat Eriksson high stick side to extend
the lead to 3-0. Former Comets player, Brayden Irwin recorded the secondary
assist.

A goal just 2:14 later capped off Rochester’s three goals in 3:16 run.
Frederick Roy found Tim Schaller streaking down the center of the ice to
set-up a one-on-one against Benn Ferriero. Schaller beat the Utica defender
to the outside and beat Eriksson through the legs with a backhand. Kevin
Porter was credited with an assist on the goal.

Tardif found his third point of the night on the Amerks fifth goal. Off a
feed from Tardif, McNabb skated across the high slot unharassed and let
loose a wrist shot that extended the Amerks lead to 5-0. Luke Adam picked up
his first point of the night with the assist.

The Amerks continued to add to their scoring 7:55 into the third period.
Larsson fired a shot on goal off a feed from McNabb. The rebound found Adam’
s stick in the slot for the Amerks sixth goal.

The Comets finally got on the board 12:07 into the third. From a step inside
the blue line, Colin Stuart one-timed a Guillaume Lepine feed that Brandon
DeFazio redirected past Lieuwen for his seventh goal of the game.

A funky bounce gave the Comets their second goal of the evening. Kent
Huskins, from his own blue line, fired a shot that was intended to go off
the glass and deep into the Amerks zone, but instead kicked off a stanchion
and into the Amerks net while Lieuwen was behind the net awaiting the dumped
in puck. Benn Ferriero was credited with the assist.

A fourth power-play goal was added by the Amerks with 2:03 to play. A quick
wrist shot from Ristolainen, from the face-off dot beat Joe Cannata down low
to the far side. Larsson and Mark Pysyk recorded assists on the goals.

The Comets concluded the scoring for the night with 5.7 seconds to play in
the game. Frank Corrado put home a rebound off of a shot from Alex Friesen.
Alex Biega recorded his 12th assist on the goal.

With the loss the Comets slip to 18-23-3-4, while the Amerks improved to
24-17-3-3.  The Amerks converted on 4 of 7 power play opportunities, while
the Comets failed to score on six power plays.

The Comets look for retribution tomorrow night at The AUD against the
Rochester Americans. Game time is set for 7 pm.