By: Jason Alwang, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT: The Rochester Americans were led by a hat trick from their leading goal scorer, Isak Rosen, en route to a 6-3 victory over the Hartford Wolfpack 6-3 in front of an electric crowd of 8,494 at the XL Center.
“This team doesn’t have any quit, I will say that,” Wolf Pack Head Coach Grant Potulny said on the way his team plays. “We have to figure out how we can start better so we’re not in that position where we’re having to chase the game.”
The Amerks’ game-winner came at 4:10 of the third period following the Wolf Pack taking several penalties. There were even a couple of 5-on-3 power plays for the visitors and they took full advantage. On Rosen’s second of the night, a couple of passes caused Dylan Garand (34 saves) to move just enough out of position for the wrister to extend the lead to 4-1.
The action began in the first after Chad Ruhwedel was sent off for holding, the Americans would capitalize on a feed from behind the net from Brett Murray who fed it to the one-timing Mason Jobst for his ninth of the season and the power play goal to put the Americans up 1-0 at 9:08.
Alex Belzile couldn’t handle the puck from Rosen, and with just two seconds remaining in the period, Rosen rushed up the ice on a breakaway and faked Garand out to double the score at the end of the first period for his first tally of the night.
“Was probably one of our poorest periods we’ve had,” Potulny said. “All of a sudden you’re down 2-0.”
Kale Clague scored his 8th of the season from the circle to the right of Garand and wristed the puck past him to take the 3-0 lead. Assists on the play to Vsevolod Komarov and Murray.
After killing off a penalty, Anton Blidh took the puck into the offensive zone along the boards, skated toward the net, and fired a wrister, creating a rebound that he cashed in on to put the Wolf Pack on the board at 19:12 of the second period.
As the second period ended, chaos broke out at the XL Center as Matthew Robertson, Brett Berard, Casey Fitzgerald, and Belzile all dropped the gloves. Garand even came to the opposite end to challenge Felix Sandstrom (26 saves) and got a couple of shoves in before refs separated the goalkeepers. Ty Tullio, Vsevolod Komarov, Jagger Joshua, and Graham Slaggert were the Americans who dropped the gloves. All eight players assessed with fighting majors were kicked out of the game with a game misconduct. At the start of the third period, Garand received the extra penalty for leaving the crease.
“Just happened so fast,” Potulny said on the scrum. “There’s multiple fights; I just think it was emotions.”
The penalties kept coming early in the third for the Wolf Pack. After the multiple 5-on-3 penalties were killed, Rosen scored his third for the hat trick on the 5-on-4 power play for the American’s fifth goal of the night at 6:20.
“Unfortunately, we started on the penalty kill right away, and then the rest is history.” Potulny on the penalties taken in the third.
Jaroslav Chmelar scored his fifth of the season after Dylan Roobroeck fed him the puck that Chmelar tipped in past Sandstrom to cut the lead to 5-2.
Mason Jobst for the Americans surrendered a hooking penalty that Brennan Othmann wasted little time on as he put one through Sandstrom from the middle of the circle, marking two quick tallies for the Wolf Pack to try to rally back into the game.
Garand was pulled for the extra skater with about three minutes left in regulation time. Hartford could not get many shots to Sandstrom in the end resulting in an empty net goal with 28 seconds remaining by Noah Ostlund to put the game away for the 6-3 final.
The Wolf Pack are now 18-19-2-1 on the season and have a crucial matchup with their I-91 rivals in Springfield against the Thunderbirds on Sunday afternoon.
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