The Rochester Americans have gotten off to a slow start in the 2001-2002
American Hockey League season, losing two games and tying once. In their home
and season opener, the Amerks were held scoreless by New York Islanders prospect
Rick DiPietro as the Bridgeport Sound Tigers skated away with a 3-0 victory.
David Morriset and Trent Hunter scored the goals for Bridgeport, with one of
Hunter's being an empty-net score late in the 3rd period. Rochester outshot
Bridgeport 29-19 but were unsuccessful on all seven of their power play
opportunites. Mika Noronen stopped 16 of 18 shots on goal, putting his record
at 0-1-0.
Following Friday's opening game, the Amerks traveled to Pennsylvania to take on
the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and came home with a tie. Martin Sonnenberg
drew first blood for the Pens at 9:58 of the 1st period, assisted by Brendan
Buckley and David Koci. Rochester's first goal of the '01-'02 campaign was
scored by Jeremy Adduono, a perennial scoring threat, at 6:21. He was assisted
by Chris Taylor on the shorthanded goal. However, WB/S came back to score two
more, with Michal Sivek connecting on a power-play goal at 6:39 and Peter
Ratchuk doing the same at 16:53. Rob Scuderi and Brooks Orpik assisted Sivek's
score while Alexander Zevakhin and Eric Meloche assisted Ratchuk. Rochester
scored three goals in the 3rd period in response to the Penguins one to create
the tie. Rochester native Rory Fitzpatrick scored at 6:21, assisted by Milan
Bartovic and Ales Kotalik. Billy Tibbets then made it 4-2 Pens at 10:29 with
help from Peter Ratchuk on the shorthanded goal. Darren VanOene brought the
Amerks w
ithin one at 11:32 with help from Doug Houda and Francois Methot tied the game
at 17:41 with help from Brian Campbell and Taylor Pyatt. Neither team scored in
overtime. Rochester was 0 for 10 on the power play while Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
converted 2 of 8. Mika Noronen stopped 14 of 18 for a 0-1-1 record while Robbie
Tallas stopped 30 of 34 for the same record.
Rochester returned to home ice today, Columbus Day, to take on rival
Philadelphia. The Phantoms scored first, with Mark Freer scoring at 1:47 with
help from Kirby Law and Brad Tiley. Jeremy Adduono tied the game at 5:10 with
his second of the season, assisted by Karel Mosovsky and Chris Taylor. Ales
Kotalik scored his first of the season at 13:57 of the 2nd period to give
Rochester a 2-1 lead, but the score was soon tied again at 2 when Vaclav Pletka
scored later in the period. Doug Janik and Brian Campbell assisted Adduono's
score while Freer assisted on the Phantoms goal. In the 3rd period, Vaclav
Pletka took the game away from Rochester with his goal at 4:15, assisted by
Tomas Divisek and Mark Grieg. Neither team scored on the power-play; Mika
Noronen stopped 22 of 25 shots on goal for a 0-2-1 record while Maxime Oullet
stopped 20 of 22 shots on goal to improve to 2-0-0. Rochester takes home ice
again on October 12th to face off against the Hershey Bears at 7:35pm. Stay
tuned to amerks@egroups.com
for more information on your Rochester Americans!

Jon LeRoy,
List Owner/Moderator