Amerks fall

 

Tom Palko (HV)

 

In his league leading third shutout of the year, Jaroslav Halak is quickly solidifying his case to be the Hamilton Bulldogs’ number one goaltender. He coolly turned away all 28 of the league leading Rochester Americans’ shots, as the Bulldogs stunned the visitors 6-0 and became only the second team in the AHL this year to beat the Amerks in regulation.

 

The Bulldogs opened the scoring in the first period on a power play marker by Matt D’Agostini from Corey Locke and Eric Manlow. D’Agostini’s fifth goal of the year would turn out to be the eventual game winner.

 

Hamilton doubled its lead with another power play goal. Corey Locke, taking a pass from Manlow, fired a laser over the glove hand of Amerk’s starting goalie, Adam Dennis.

 

Less than 3 minutes later, Mikhail Grabovski stole the puck from Rochester defenseman Martin Lojek, went in alone on Dennis and made two nifty moves before beating the disheveled goalkeeper high, stick side.

 

The second period saw only one goal scored. Jonathan Ferland took a perfect pass from Locke and wasted no time, cleanly beating Dennis, to increase the Bulldogs’ lead to 4-0. Ferland’s fifth goal of the season was also Malow’s third assist of the game.

Hamilton took 6 of their 9 penalties in the second, due in large part to Rochester’s speed and passing abilities. As is often the case, the goalie is the best penalty killer, and Halak was perfect on all of Rochester’s 7 shots.

Jumping on a rebound from Ryan O’Byrne’s point shot, Andrei Kostisyn registered his second goal of the year into the gaping net.

 

The sixth and final goal of the evening for the Bulldogs and the game was tallied by Zack Stortini, from Dan Jancevski and Mathieu Roy. For Stortini, the Edmonton Oilers’ prospect, this was his seventh goal of the year.

 

Halak improved his record to 5-3-0. He is tied with Yann Danis for second on the all-time shut-out list for Hamilton with 6 in his 21 career AHL games, behind only Steve Passmore, who has 7. He also moved into first in the AHL for goals against average (1.50) and save percentage (.949)

 

With the win, the Bulldogs’ record goes to 9-8-0-1, while Rochester drops to 15-2-1-0.

 

Game notes: Rochester went 0-7 on the power-play, while Hamilton was 3-7; Duncan Milroy was carried off the ice with a head injury sustained when the Amerk’s Patrick Kaleta collided with Milroy at center ice. As Milroy tried to avoid the collision, he fell and took a knee to his head. The collision also resulted in Kaleta being removed with an apparent knee injury; Andrei Kostitsyn was helped off the ice after blocking a shot late in the third period; The three stars for the game were 1) Mikhail Grabovski (Ham) 2) Corey Locke (Ham) and 3) Jaroslav Halak (Ham); Game attendance: 4124.

Photo: Janis Sprukts. © Justin Dahan (HV)