Apr 21, 2024
Ethan Prow and Isak Rosen scored 30 seconds apart in the third period, helping the Rochester Americans to a 3-2 win over the intrastate rival Utica Comets in the 2023-24 regular season finale Sunday evening at Adirondack Bank Center.
The win marked the end of Rochester’s 68th regular season, with the team owning a 39-23-7-3 record. With 88 points, the Amerks will have home ice advantage in the opening round of the 2024 Calder Cup Playoffs, where they will host the three seed-Syracuse Crunch in a best-of-five series in the North Division Semifinals. The 88-point finish is the most by an Amerks team since the 2018-19 season, when the club finished with 99 points.
Devon Levi picked up the win in goal, his 16th of the season, making 31 saves on 33 shots. Utica’s Nico Daws got the start, making 23 saves in the losing effort.
Rosen played a part in starting and ending the game for Rochester, as the second-year Amerk opened the scoring 2:24 into the middle period. After a scoreless first, Sabres’ prospect Noah Ostlund helped start a breakout from the Rochester zone, leading Zach Metsa into a two-on-one with Rosen. Metsa dished it across the ice for Rosen to bury the puck past Daws for the 1-0 advantage.
Utica responded later in the period with two goals 2:21 apart. The game-tying goal came off Graeme Clarke’s stick, as a shot from atop the zone was batted down in front of Levi, where Clarke found the puck at the side of the net.
Moments later, a Utica power-play saw Justin Dowling get the Comets a 2-1 lead, corralling a pass at the net front drawn from former Amerk Kyle Criscuolo, who dished the puck from the corner to give Dowling a point-blank chance that he would not miss.
Down by one in the third, Rochester responded by way of the veteran Prow driving a bullet to the back of the net for his fourth goal of the season. At the center of the blueline, Prow accepted a pass from Lukas Rousek, then hammered the puck for a shot that went through traffic and beat Daws bar down to even the score 5:35 into the third.
Just 30 seconds later, Rosen crashed the Utica crease, where he was fed across from the right side by Joseph Cecconi to tuck home the go-ahead goal and give the Amerks a…
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