Amerks lose fifth straight to Checkers
- Victor Menendez
- Mar 13
- 4 min read
By: Victor Menendez
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The Rochester Americans lost their fifth straight game to the Charlotte Checkers 4-3 on Wednesday. Newly acquired defenseman Erik Brännström scored his first two goals for the Amerks in his first game with Rochester in the loss.
"It's a long season," Amerks head coach Michael Leone said. "You're not gonna win every game. There's no teams that are going 72-0. We're going through it right now, but I thought our process was really good today."
Brännström made quite the first impression as he scored his first goal for Rochester just over a minute into his Amerks career. Brännström recovered a loose puck in the Checkers zone and fired a wrist shot past Charlotte goalie Kaapo Kähkönen to put the Amerks up one.
Video credit: @AmerksHockey on X.
It's been a hectic 365 days for Brännström. He started the season with the Abbotsford Canucks before being traded to the Rangers on Jan. 31. After six games with the Hartford Wolf Pack, he was again traded on March 7 to Buffalo for Nicolas Aube-Kubel.
"Just trying to play my game and focus on what I can contribute," Brännström said. "It's not fun to switch teams all the time but it's fun to be here now and on a winning team that's gonna go for it this year. I'm super excited to be here and it'll be a fun playoff run."
Charlotte would even the score a bit over halfway through the first frame. Amerks winger Brendan Warren was forced to go to the bench for losing his helmet putting Rochester down a skater. Checkers winger C.J. Smith took advantage of the opportunity as he took a pass from defenseman Michael Benning and beat Amerks goalie Devon Levi glove-side with a one-timer to tie the game at one.
Rochester went on the power play just over 30 seconds later as Charlotte winger John Leonard was called for roughing. The Checkers top-ranked penalty kill allowed just one shot during the two minutes, keeping the score tied.
Charlotte took another penalty with 33 seconds remaining, but didn't allow anything outside of two shots in the final few seconds of the period.
At the end of 20 minutes of play the Amerks were outshooting the Checkers 11-7
Amerks winger Jagger Joshua was called for slashing just before three minutes had elapsed in the second frame. The Rochester penalty kill, which ranked second in the AHL only behind Charlotte coming into the game did not succeed this time as Leonard tipped a shot into the back of the net to put the Checkers up one.
The Amerks had another unsuccessful power play about seven minutes into the frame before Rochester winger Brett Murray and Mikulas Hovorka dropped the gloves. Murray got a few good blows in and took Hovorka to the ground before both were sent off for five minutes.
Rochester got its fourth power play chance of the game with 7:16 left in the period, and this time the Amerks cashed in. Defenseman Kale Clague fired a wrist shot from just inside the blue line that snuck past Kähkönen to tie the game at two.
Video credit: @AmerksHockey on X.
The Checkers outshot Rochester 12-8 in the second period to bring the game total to 19 for both teams.
Brännström took a hooking penalty just over a minute into the final period, but the Amerks penalty kill let nothing come of it not even allowing a shot during man-advantage.
Rochester went right back on the penalty kill 6:29 into the frame as Warren was sent to the box for hooking. Defenseman Ben Steeves scored the Checkers second power play goal of the game to put Charlotte in front.
The Amerks had a chance to tie it less than 30 seconds later as winger Lukáš Rousek was tripped up on a breakaway, awarding him a penalty shot. Rousek made a move around Kähkönen and had an angle to score, but his shot just barely caught enough of the left post to keep it out of the net.
Rochester pulled Levi with 2:34 remaining. Charlotte wasted no time scoring on the empty net as Leonard cashed in just 23 seconds later.
Brännström brought the Amerks back within one with 1:13 remaining. His second goal of the game came mere seconds after Levi was pulled again.
Rochester couldn't get anything going offensively in the final minute, giving the Checkers the 4-3 win.
With the loss the Amerks fall to 34-17-3-3 and remain in second in the North Division. Charlotte improves to 32-17-3-3 with the win and move to third place in the Atlantic Division.
"We live in a world where everybody is concerned about results," Leone said. "We're fine. You go through tough stretches in a season. I think it's a good thing to go through that. You really have to trust if you believe in the process over the outcome."
The Amerks next game will be on Friday as they take on the Providence Bruins. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
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