Rochester, N.Y. (WGR 550) – The Rochester Americans overcame a 3-0 third period deficit to beat the Belleville Senators on Wednesday in overtime, 4-3. It was Rochester’s first playoff win since they beat the Chicago Wolves back on May 2, 2014.
This was a special game for many of the players that the Sabres will be counting on for years to come. Belleville is a big, strong team that seems more interested in how many ice bags the opponent is going to need than scoring goals.
The Sens tried their best to intimidate Peyton Krebs, JJ Peterka and Jack Quinn, but all they did was get the competitive juices flowing for the home team.
It's good that the season isn't over for Krebs, Casey Fitzgerald and maybe Mattias Samuelsson. Krebs was one of the big reasons that his team leads the best-of-three series, 1-0.
He was very upset that he got called for a boarding penalty, trailing 3-1 in the third period. As soon as the penalty ended, Krebs already had a plan, as he exited the penalty box. He got lost along the wall and found himself with the puck cutting to the middle. He knew Fitzgerald had gotten in deep, and slid a quick pass to him.
Fitzgerald then set up his defensive partner, Jimmy Schuldt, and Rochester was within a goal.
Krebs wasn’t done, as just 2:44 later, the youngster took a pass from Peterka, and found Fitzgerald going to the net and the comeback was complete.
Peterka and Krebs split four assists, and maybe sent Belleville home re-evaluating their intimidation tactics. They did seem to get Quinn off his game, as they were in his face after every whistle. However, Krebs and Peterka just seemed to say, "You be you, and we’ll be us. Let’s see who wins."
Rochester only gave up 12 shots in the second and third periods, but the Senators really tested Aaron Dell to start overtime. If it wasn’t for him, there never would've been Arttu Ruotsalainen’s heroics of an overtime goal.
Early in the extra session, Dell stopped Belleville four times from point-blank range, and the one he couldn’t get to, defenseman Josh Teves stopped it.
The Sabres fed off the fans when Buffalo had a few big crowds, and they did it again in Rochester on Wednesday. By the time the game was tied, they were blowing the roof off the place.
It’s funny, because as the crowd got louder, Krebs got better. We saw the same thing in Buffalo.
Rochester is in Belleville for Game 2 of the series on Friday. Hopefully the good news for the Amerks is Samuelsson might be ready to play by then.
For those of you that still have doubt about the power of culture, Dylan Cozens, Jacob Bryson, Malcolm Subban and maybe others I didn’t see were there cheering their teammates on. When Quinn made his NHL debut, Samuelsson drove up from Rochester wearing a Quinn jersey, pounding on the glass as he took his rookie lap.
How close these guys are just can’t be faked.
Seeing them work to win this game, and to see Rasmus Dahlin, Rasmus Asplund, Henri Jokiharju and John Hayden play for their countries at the World Championship, the experience of playing for something at the end of the year will be invaluable.
***Photo: Micheline Michaelina (@MiMiV4682)
Losi and Gangi
