SHARKSPAGE

WorSharks Let One Slip Away Against Rochester, 4-3

The Worcester Sharks looked to have Friday night’s game well in hand with two early third period goals, but the Rochester Americans had other ideas and scored the last three goals of the contest to hand a 4-3 loss to the WorSharks Friday night at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts in front of 2,612 clearly disappointed fans.

Both teams played the first period fairly evenly, with each squad getting 11 shots on goal. Unfortunately for Worcester, it was the Amerks that grabbed the only goal of the period. At 16:33 Rochester broke into the Worcester zone two on one. Defenseman Nick Petrecki played the odd man rush decently, but Kenndal McArdle’s pass had just enough on it to get to Chris Taylor streaking down the right wing toward the net. The pass was in Taylor’s skates, and he kicked the puck toward the net and just barely got his stick on it to light the lamp as WorSharks netminder Alex Stalock slid across the crease.

The WorSharks would grab the equalizer on the power play for the only goal of the second period. Benn Ferriero, playing on the point, fed the puck into T.J. Trevelyan in the slot. Trevelyan would find James Marcou to the left of Amerks goaltender Tyler Plante, and Marcou’s pass would find Jonathan Cheechoo all alone at the far post. Plante made the initial save on Cheechoo, but the rebound went right back to Cheechoo and he didn’t miss a second time.

Both teams would have a breakaway chance in that second period, and each team would come up empty. Rochester’s McArdle went one on one against Stalock and rang his wrist shot off the near post, while the WorSharks Brandon Mashinter was stoned by a great glove save by Plante.

The crowd was barely in their seats at the start of the third period when the WorSharks would seize the lead. Steven Zalewski intercepted an Amerks clearing pass and broke into the offensive zone. With his path to the net blocked he pulled up and sent the puck towards the net, where Andrew Desjardins crashed the net. The puck bounced away, but Desjardins was unable to give chase as he was pushed into the crease. Matt Irwin eventually pounced on a loose puck and lifted a backhander toward the net that found the twine just 18 seconds into the period. Kevin Henderson had the second assist on the goal.

Worcester would get a two goal lead after a mental error by Plante. With the WorSharks swarming the Amerks zone the Rochester defense was able to gain control and flip the puck toward the neutral zone. Petrecki was there at the point to intercept the puck, and fired a lazy writer on net. After stopping just about everything thrown at him Plante just out and out misplayed the shot and deflected the puck into his own net off his right pad at 2:10 for the 3-1 WorSharks lead.

But the two goal third period lead wasn’t enough as all the rest of the bounces went the Amerks way. Evgeny Dadonov fired a one timer through Stalock’s five hole when the puck bounced to him at the bottom of the left face-off circle at 5:27. Taylor would knot the game 3-3 when he blindly fired the puck through a scrum of players in the slot on net at 7:34 that Stalock couldn’t see to even react to. Michal Repik got the game winner when he fired his own rebound over Stalock’s shoulder and just under the crossbar at 11:08.

The WorSharks would have a handful of chances to get back to even, but Plante made several great glove saves to keep the tying goal out of the net. Worcester would pull Stalock with just over a minute to go but was unable to mount a serious challenge in the Amerks zone.

GAME NOTES
The WorSharks scratches were defenseman Nick Schaus and forwards Tony Lucia (concussion) and Cam MacIntyre (groin). Dan DaSilva, who suffered a charlie horse in last Sunday’s game, was able to play Friday night. Carter Hutton was the back-up goaltender.

There were three fights in the contest, with Garet Hunt (5’8″ 190#) taking on Eric Selleck (6’2″ 195#) early in the second period with some not so great results for the new fan favorite. A few moments later Sean Sullivan (6′ 190#) battled with Chris Clackson (6′ 205#) in what was called a draw by home town scoring. The main event was Jay Leach (6’4″ 215) showing that “C” on his chest isn’t there just for show after he went after Ryan Del Monte (6′ 190#) after Del Monte threw an illegal hit behind the Worcester net. Del Monte’s reward for getting beat up by Leach was an extra two minutes for boarding.

Bryan Marchment joined head coach Roy Sommer and assistant coach Dave Cunniff behind the bench for the first time this season.

The Amerks were without NHL veteran center Michael Nylander, who broke a bone in his neck last Saturday night in a game against the Grand Rapids Griffins after being checked into the boards by Brendan Smith. Nylander was able to skate to the bench under his own power while the game progressed around him. He had surgery Monday to fuse together the C-5 and C-6 vertebrae, and will be out until at least early May. That will in all likelihood end his season unless the Amerks make it into the conference finals.

Rochester also made news this week by announcing they would end their affiliation with the Florida Panthers at the end of the season. The Amerks were the long time AHL affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres, but discontent between the NHL club and the former Amerks owners severed their relationship in 2007. Floria has been affiliated with Rochester since 2005, first as a duel affiliate with Buffalo and then on their own after the Sabres withdrew.

The three stars of the game were
1. RCH – 12 Chris Taylor (2g)
2. RCH – 26 Michal Repik (g,a)
3. WOR – 29 Nick Petrecki (g)

The Sharkspage player of the game was Matt Irwin

Even Strength Lines
Trevelyan/Ferriero/Cheechoo
Mashinter/Wingles/Marcou
Henderson/Desjardins/Zalewski
Hunt/Quirk/DaSilva

Braun/Leach
Irwin/Sullivan
Petrecki/Loprieno

Penalty Kill Lines
Desjardins/Henderson
Quirk/DaSilva
Ferriero/Wingles

Loprieno(Petrecki)/Leach
Braun/Sullivan

Power Play Lines
Trevelyan/Ferriero/Marcou
Mashinter/Zalewski/DaSilva

Braun/Cheechoo
Irwin/Sullivan

BOXSCORE
Rochester 1 0 3 – 4
Worcester 0 1 2 – 3

1st Period-1, Rochester, Taylor 1 (Repik, McArdle), 16:33. Penalties-Bendickson Rch (holding), 1:32; Bendickson Rch (hooking), 8:32; Hunt Wor (slashing), 10:59; Selleck Rch (boarding), 12:56; Hunt Wor (tripping), 16:37.

2nd Period-2, Worcester, Cheechoo 3 (Trevelyan, Marcou), 4:42 (PP). Penalties-Selleck Rch (fighting), 1:50; Hunt Wor (fighting), 1:50; Clackson Rch (fighting), 2:38; Sullivan Wor (fighting), 2:38; Taylor Rch (interference), 3:53; Del Monte Rch (boarding, fighting), 15:02; Leach Wor (fighting), 15:02.

3rd Period-3, Worcester, Irwin 1 (Henderson, Zalewski), 0:18. 4, Worcester, Petrecki 1   2:10. 5, Rochester, Dadonov 4 (Robak, Thomas), 5:27. 6, Rochester, Taylor 2 (Thomas), 7:34. 7, Rochester, Repik 3 (Timmins, McArdle), 11:08. Penalties-Del Monte Rch (roughing), 3:39; Petrecki Wor (roughing), 3:39.

Shots on Goal-Rochester 11-5-10-26. Worcester 11-11-14-36.
Power Play Opportunities-Rochester 0/2; Worcester 1/5.
Goalies-Rochester, Plante 2-0-0 (36 shots-33 saves). Worcester, Stalock 2-4-1 (26 shots-22 saves).
A-2,612
Referee-Chris Brown (86). Linesmen-Chris Millea (33), Bob Paquette (18).