Adam got the Amerks on the board with his seventh of the year at 9:18 with a nice finish of a Matt Ellis feed at the goal mouth. Tim Schaller earned the second helper on the play.
The Bulldogs would take over from there, beating Andrey Makarov four times including twice on the power play to take a three-goal into the first intermission. Rene Bourque, Jacob de la Rose, Greg Pateryn and Gabriel Dumont scored the Hamilton goals. Sven Andrighetto collected assists on three of the four.
The Amerks would get it together with three unanswered goals in the middle frame to set the stage for an exciting finish.
Ellis picked up his second point of the night when he buried a power play marker at 6:55. Mikhail Grigorenko snapped a four-game funk with an assist on the play. Joel Armia earned the other helper.
The Amerks continued their climb at 11:32 when Ruhwedel stepped into a one-timer for his fourth goal of the year. The Amerks second power play goal of the afternoon was assisted by Adam and Johan Larsson.
Five minutes later, McCabe stepped into the slot for his first professional goal to tie the game. Larsson dug out a puck out of a corner scrum and quickly sent it to McCabe, who made a nice read on the play to slide into scoring position for the clear shot.
The Amerks carried their momentum in third period, out-shooting the Bulldogs by a 16-11 margin, but the teams were unable to light the lamp.
The Bulldogs iced the victory when T.J. Hensick beat Makarov cleanly from the high slot at 2:28 of the overtime period to send the Amerks to their seventh loss in their last eight games.
Makarov settled down after the opening period barrage, finishing with 31 saves on 36 shots to move to 4-4-1 on the year.
Rochester played without fourth-line forward Daniel Catenacci, who earlier in the day was handed a two-game suspension for a boarding incident on Friday's victory over Toronto.
The Amerks are back in action Friday when they host the Utica Comets at Blue Cross Arena.
