In front of the largest Blue Cross Arena crowd in more than 16 years, the hometown Rochester Americans grabbed the series lead from Utica on Sunday evening with their second consecutive 4-3 overtime victory.
Up two games to one, the Amerks can close out the series with another win in Game 4 on Tuesday.
Arttu Ruotsalainen scored his league-leading sixth goal of the postseason and his second overtime winner with 1:39 elapsed in the extra period. Ruotsalainen took a cross-ice pass from Peyton Krebs and one-timed a shot home from the right-wing faceoff dot in the waning seconds of an Amerks power play.
Sean Malone, Lukas Rousek and Brandon Biro also scored for the Amerks, whose four wins this postseason have all come via overtime. Aaron Dell (4-1) made 30 saves in net.
A.J. Greer, Fabian Zetterlund and Aarne Talvitie scored for the Comets.
Attendance was 10,741, the largest crowd for a game at Blue Cross Arena since Dec. 30, 2005.
North Division Semifinals – Series “J†(best-of-5)
N1-Utica Comets vs. N5-Rochester Americans
Game 1 – Tue., May 10 – UTICA 6, Rochester 3
Game 2 – Sat., May 14 – Rochester 4, UTICA 3 (OT)
Game 3 – Sun., May 15 – ROCHESTER 4, Utica 3 (OT)
Game 4 – Tue., May 17 – Utica at Rochester, 7:05
*Game 5 – Thu., May 19 – Rochester at Utica, 7:00
*if necessary… All times Eastern
