RCH - SYR
The Amerks fell behind early in Saturday's contest to the North Division-leading Syracuse Crunch and were never able to recover as Rochester came up on the losing end of a 5-2 decision at the War Memorial Arena.
Schneider paced the Amerks with his team-leading 13th multi-point effort of the season with two assists while Nick Baptiste and Brady Austin each scored in the defeat. Ullmark made 25 saves in his ninth straight start, but was charged with the loss. The second-year netminder shows a record of 18-18-2 on the campaign and boasts a 10-8-1 record over his last 19 appearances.
In his first game with the Crunch since Dec. 31, Adam Erne led Syracuse with a pair of goals and an assist while Matt Taormina (0+2), Yanni Gourde (1+1) and former Amerk Cory Conacher (1+1) each collected multi-point efforts. Kristers Gudlevskis picked up his eighth win of the season after stopping 25 of the 27 shots he faced.
As the Amerks were down 3-2 less than four minutes into the final period, Hudson Fasching tracked down a loose puck in the Crunch zone on a mini-breakaway from in-between the face-off dots. The rookie forward was stonewalled by the right pad of Gudlevskis and the Crunch raced forward in transition when Conacher buried his 10th goal of the season just past the glove of Ullmark.
The Crunch sealed their sixth victory over the Amerks this season with a late empty-net goal while on the power-play with Ullmark pulled in favor of the extra attacker.
Rochester fell behind by a pair of makers before the game was four minutes old but cut into the lead when Baptiste scored his 19th goal of the season at the 4:38 mark of the first period. Schneider and Erik Burgdoerfer each collected an assist on the tally, which ties Baptiste with Justin Bailey, who's currently on recall with the Buffalo Sabres, for most on the team this season.
