Armia got the Amerks on the board at 14:09 when he drifted just inside the faceoff circle and got a piece of a Nick Crawford shot. Johan Larsson made a nice play along the boards to kick it back to the point and earn the secondary helper on the play.
Less than two minutes later, Deslauriers connected from the right point on the power play to give Rochester a 2-0 lead. Armia and Ruhwedel earned the assists on the first of the Amerks two power play goals on the night.
Chicago would halve the deficit with a late first period goal, but the Amerks would restore the two-goal lead early in the middle frame when Ruhwedel made a great zone entry with the man advantage, fed the puck to Luke Adam on the left wing, and continued on his path to the net to deflect the Adam shot for the goal.
The Amerks would maintain the two-goal lead with under five minutes left to play in regulation before a bad bounce off the glass put the puck right in the slot, where Sebastian Wannstrom buried it past Makarov to once again make it a one-goal game.
The momentum had officially shifted from there, with the Wolves' Mark Cundari sneaking in from his point to score off a low shot and force extra time with 2:19 left. Dmitrij Jaskin used his big body beneath the hash marks to end it just 1:06 into overtime.
The Amerks will look to even series Saturday when the teams meet again at Blue Cross Arena.
In the USHL, Cal Petersen stopped 31 of 33 shots to earn the game's number three star as Waterloo edged Sioux City in Game One of the Clark Cup Semifinal series. Petersen improves his postseason record to 4-0, while posting a 2.75 GAA and .904 save%. The two clubs will reconvene Saturday for Game Two.
