Saturday, April 26, 2014

4/26 Recap: Amerks even series; Petersen locked in

Colton Gillies (first star) and Chad Ruhwedel (second star) each scored a goal and an assist Saturday as Rochester held on for a 3-2 victory over Chicago in Game 2 of the AHL Western Conference quarterfinal series. The best-of-five tilt is now even at one game apiece with the teams heading to Chicago for Thursday's Game 3.

A Nathan Longpre goal gave the Wolves a 1-0 lead at the first intermission, but the Amerks would take control with a pair of markers in the middle frame beginning with Gillies pouncing on a bouncing puck at 6:14. Gillies picked up his second point of the night in the game's 31st minute when he hit Ruhwedel in the high slot from beneath the goal line to give the hosts a 2-1 lead at the end of forty minutes.



Rochester would find themselves in familiar territory with another early power play opportunity in the third period, and this time they connected with Luke Adam (third star) capitalizing on a rebound at 4:07 to make it a 3-1 game.



A night after coughing up a two-goal lead in the final five minutes, Rochester hit the highway to the danger zone again when penalties to Rasmus Ristolainen and Nick Petrecki gave the Wolves a two-man advantage with 3:47 to play. Chicago's Keith Aucoin would get one back while on the five-on-three at 16:38, but there would be no déjà voodoo as this time the Amerks shut the door the rest of the way to get the win.

Andrey Makarov made 26 saves to record his first career playoff win, while Jerome Gauthier-Leduc earned an assist on the Gillies goal for his first career AHL playoff point.

In the USHL, Cal Petersen made his fifth consecutive start, stopping 25 of 26 shots as Waterloo defeated Sioux City 3-1 in Game 2 of the Clark Cup Semifinal. The victory puts the Black Hawks ahead 2-0 in the series with Game 3 taking place Friday in Sioux City. Petersen has posted a perfect 5-0 record thus far in postseason play while managing a 2.40 GAA and .915 save%.