The Rochester Americans defeated the Syracuse Crunch 4-3 tonight at the War Memorial at Oncenter. The win improves Rochester to 25-15-2-0 (52 points), boasting an 8-0-0-0 record against the I-90 rivals. Syracuse falls to 16-20-3-3 (38 points) with the loss.Leading the way for Rochester was Jeff Taffe and Clay Wilson who both recorded two points on the night, Taffe’s coming on two goals, while Wilson picked up a goal and an assist. Wilson scored the final goal of the contest in the 13th minute of the third period, which proved to be the game-winner. Wilson’s sixth goal of the season was assisted by Andrew Sweetland and Shawn Mathias.
Michal Repik scored the game’s first goal just 31 seconds in to give Rochester a 1-0 lead. Assisting on Repik’s goal was Evgeny Dadonov and Keaton Ellerby. Syracuse followed nearly six minutes later with a goal from Maksim Mayorov, who was assisted by Jared Aulin and Dylan Reese. Taffe closed out the first period with his first goal of the night, an unassisted backhander past Syracuse goaltender Dan LaCosta.
Syracuse’s Jordan Smotherman scored the only goal of the second period, with help from Nick Holden and Aulin, to even the playing field entering the third.
In the final period, Taffe found the back of the net yet again, with assists going to Wilson and Jamie Johnson. Syracuse responded to make the game 3-3 when Derek MacKenzie beat Amerk netminder Alexander Salak.
Salak finished the night with 29 saves in his 19th win, while Dan LaCosta had 19 stops in the defeat.
In their next game, Rochester will face the Hamilton Bulldogs on January 22nd at The Blue Cross Arena. Face-off is slated for 7:05 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on SportsRadio 1280 WHTK and FM 107.3, Rochester Sports Talk. The matchup will also be televised live on Time Warner Cable SportsNet Channel 26.
From www.amerks.com