Lineup
Forward lines and defense pairings:
[one_half]Friberg – Dumont – Holloway
Hudon – Ward – Scherbak
McNally – MacMillan – Gregoire
Bozon – Yogan – Ranger[/one_half]
[one_half_last]Didier – Lernout
Joyaux – Ellis
Brown – Johnston[/one_half_last]
Goaltenders:
Pasquale
Fucale
Scratches: Shane Bakker, Mac Bennett, Angelo Miceli, Markus Eisenschmid (undisclosed)
Injured Reserve: Connor Crisp (undisclosed), Michael Bournival (concussion)
Game Report
Devastating. That’s the word that best sums up how this game ended. A complete collapse in the third period took what was a thrilling, energetic game from the IceCaps and turned it into an astounding loss.
Charles Hudon bagged two goals back to back in the first and second periods, and got the IceCaps started with determination. St. John’s opened up the scoring in the second period, with goals being tallied by Jeremy Gregoire and Gabriel Dumont. Dan Catenacci got one back for Rochester, but the IceCaps began the third period enjoying a 4-1 lead.
Just four minutes into the third, the IceCaps extended their lead to 5-1 when Morgan Ellis had a goal awarded after review.
It all started to come unraveled with 11:06 left. The Amerks Matt Donovan scored a power-play goal with Gabriel Dumont in the box for tripping. Puck after puck found its way past Eddie Pasquale and, with less than five minutes remaining in the game, the IceCaps found themselves tied 5-5 with the Americans.
It was a terrible breakdown, and the icing on the cake was a goal by Chad Ruhwedel with four seconds left in regulation which proved to be the winner. The Amerks scored five unanswered goals in an eleven minute span in the third period to gut the IceCaps.
The loss pretty much determines that St. John’s won’t make the playoffs this year, but they still have plenty of hockey to play – especially on this road trip. They face the Rochester Americans once again on Friday night before heading to Toronto for two games against the league-leading Marlies.
▲ Morgan Ellis, Charles Hudon, Jeremy Gregoire
▼ Eddie Pasquale |