Americans end record night with 5-4 win over Bulldogs
October 12, 2007 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Hamilton Bulldogs News Release
HAMILTON, ON - In front of 10,923 fans, a franchise record for home openers, the Hamilton Bulldogs erased a three-goal deficit but dropped a 5-4 decision in a shootout to the Rochester Americans on Friday night at Copps Coliseum. In a pre-game ceremony, the Bulldogs raised their 2007 North Division, Western Conference and Calder Cup championship banners.
Rochester opened the scoring at 1:50 of the first period when Marek Zagrapan recorded his second goal of the season. Clarke MacArthur and Mark Mancari earned assists on the goal.
Dogs rookie forward Sergei Kostitsyn evened the score 1-1 with his first-career AHL goal at the 9:56 mark of the opening frame. Kostitsyn one-timed a pass from Cory Urquhart into the top right corner of the Amerks' net.
The Americans restored their one-goal lead at 14:15 of the first stanza when Anthony Stewart wristed a shot past Bulldogs starting goaltender Jaroslav Halak on the stick side. Kamil Kreps and Mike Weber picked up helpers on the scoring play.
With two goals in the first 4:22 of the second period, Rochester took a 4-1 lead. Tanner Glass tallied just 1:08 into the period before Stefan Meyer scored a power-play goal exactly 3:14 later to give the Americans a three-goal lead.
Following the goal, Yann Danis replaced Halak between the pipes for Hamilton.
Maxim Lapierre pulled the Dogs within two goals at 18:42 of the second frame with a high wrist shot to the left side that squeezed through the arm of Amerks' goaltender Adam Dennis. The unassisted goal was Lapierre's third of the campaign.
In the third period, Matt D'Agostini posted two goals to tie the game and send it to overtime. Lapierre, who registered his third point of the night, and Jon Gleed combined to set-up D'Agostini at 2:43 of the final frame. Then at the 11:43 mark of the third stanza on the power play, Kostitsyn delivered a cross-ice pass to D'Agostini who fired home his third goal of the season to even the score 4-4.
After overtime solved nothing, the first 11 players were stymied on both sides in the shootout before MacArthur ended the game with the first and only goal of the shootout to give the Americans a 5-4 win.
In relief of Halak, Yann Danis stopped all of the 19 shots he faced for the Bulldogs while Adam Dennis made 41 saves on 45 shots for the Americans.
The defending Calder Cup Champion Hamilton Bulldogs next game will take place tomorrow night (Saturday, October 13th) at 7:30 p.m. when they travel to Cleveland to take on the Lake Erie Monsters at Quicken Loans Arena. Fans can listen to every Bulldogs game on the flagship station of the Hamilton Bulldogs Hockey Network, 820 CHAM. Fans can also listen or watch at www.hamiltonbulldogs.com by clicking on the B2 Networks' or 820 CHAM' icon on the Dogs website. All regular-season radio and online broadcasts will begin with a pre-game show 20 minutes prior to each scheduled game-time.
The Bulldogs return for their next home game on Saturday, October 20th, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. when they take on the Hartford Wolf Pack at Copps Coliseum. Tickets for all Dogs home games are available at the Copps Coliseum Box Office, any Ticketmaster outlet, online at www.ticketmaster.ca, or through charge-by-phone at 905-527-7666. For more information or to purchase season tickets call 905-529-8500, e-mail tickets@hamiltonbulldogs.com or visit www.hamiltonbulldogs.com.
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American Hockey League Stories from October 12, 2007
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