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| Rochester Americans Hockey |
I went back home and I picked up the King and our friend Frank Anichiarico. We went on our way to Western New York. We prefer to avoid the New York State Thruway which not only costs more it's actually longer miles wise too. With that being said, we took the George Washington Bridge to I-80 West which passes through the Delaware Water Gap. We then continue to I-380 West which goes to I-81 North through Binghamton, NY. We then picked up Route 17 which is supposed to be I-86 eventually so the signs say. We drove through Elmira, Horseheads and Corning to name some towns we went through along the way. We eventually connected with I-390 which goes into I-490 that took us into downtown Rochester where the Blue Cross Arena at War Memorial is located. That's the home of the Rochester Americans, AHL affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres. We passed by the arena and we found a parking spot on the street nearby. We parked the car and we walked back to the arena.
When I started walking to the arena, I got a text message from fellow roadtripper and good friend of ours, Peter Farrell of USRT from Buffalo who said he was on his way to the game to join us. That made my night. It was great to see him again. His partner, Andrew Kulyk was hoping to join him but he wasn't feeling good so he decided to pass.
In addition, we got to meet up with another roadtripper, Dave Cottenie who lives in Kitchener, Ontario. He was on a road trip with his children, Emma & Jackson. It was nice to meet and greet them at the game. Dave was a good guy and we enjoyed his company. I want to personally thank him for joining us. Hope we can meet up again down the road.
As for the game we saw, the Americans were hosting the Toronto Marlies, the Maple Leafs' farm team.
The Marlies scored first when Mike Kostka lit the lamp to give the Marlies a 1-0 lead 3:17 into the first period. The Americans got the equalizer three minutes into the second period when Luke Adam scored to even the score at one. The Marlies regained the lead, 2-1 when Will Acton found the net at 9:06 into the second period. In the third period, Mark Pysyk of the Americans tied the game again at two with 4:27 left in regulation time. With 2:13 to go, the Americans went ahead, 3-2 when Marcus Foligno scored much to the delight of the home crowd. That excitement was short lived because with 10 seconds to go, the Marlies tied the game at three as Matt Frattin buried the biscuit. The two teams played a scoreless overtime session. So in order to declare a winner, the game was decided by a shootout. The Marlies by virtual of their two goals to the Americans none wound up winning the game, 4-3.
After the game, we drove to the Buffalo area and we stayed over at Super 8.
Stay tuned for the special post I'm going to write about our journey North of the Border on Sunday.
Thank you for reading and following along.
Yours truly,
Gary Herman
