GAME RECAP: Rockers at Elmira River Sharks 11/25/23

Fresh off a 3-2 win Friday night, the Motor City Rockers were right back at it Saturday for another match-up with the Elmira River Sharks. This time, they made quick work of their Empire Division foes as the Rockers slayed the River Sharks 7-2.

For the second time this season, the Rockers started a game four-on-four, after a pre-game warm-up violation minor was called against each team, in this case Jonathan Juliano for Motor City and Rasmus Asp for Elmira. Motor City would score early and often in the first, starting with leading scorer Scott Coash. He picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone, skated in and beat Spencer Kozlowki over his right shoulder for his eighth goal of the season just 2:50 in. Jamie Milam drew the only assist on the goal. Barely two minutes later, Coash's linemate Declan Conway stole the puck from Rasmus Asp, carried it in to the Elmira zone and fired it over Kozlowski's blocker side with a blast from the face-off circle to the left of the Elmira goaltender, almost the same spot Coash had scored from. The unassisted goal at the 5:00 mark, his fourth of the season, made it 2-0 Rockers. Less than two minutes later it was 3-0 when Motor City broke in on a two-on-one. Team captain Danny Vanderwiel fed the pass over to Brad Reitter who crashed the net and picked up his second goal at 6:42 to make it 3-0. It only took 47 seconds to add another goal, this time on the powerplay as Jonathan Juliano poked in a rebound off a shot by Milam to make it 4-0, his third goal of the season. Erik Oganezov was credited with the second assist but upon watching the replay, it very clearly should have went to Vanderwiel. He is the one who fed the puck to Milam to start the play, he wears nineteen, Oganezov wears nine and the official scorer clearly missed it. So Danny, you're owed an assist.  That spelled the end of the night for Kozlowki who was pulled from the net in favor of Brandon Collett, but the Motor City onslaught continued. Pavel Svintsov worked the puck behind the Elmira goal, fed it out front to Reitter who sent it over to Josh Colten who cleanly beat Collett for his second goal of the season at 9:56 to make it 5-0. The shots on net were close in the period with the Rockers holding a 14-11 edge, but it was anything but close on the scoreboard after one, between the offensive ambush by Motor City and rookie goalie Ricardo Gonzalez stopping every shot he faced in his second start of the season.

Things settled down for the first half of the second period but the Rockers were able to strike again at 12:30. Elmira had trouble clearing their zone, Vanderwiel took advantage sending a perfect pass to a streaking Declan Conway who buried it in the open net for his fifth goal of the season and second of the night. Derek Makimaa drew the other assist on the goal that made it 6-0 Motor City. The River Sharks finally found a way to beat Gonzalez at 17:48 on a face-off to the left of the Motor City netminder. Steven Klinck won the draw back to Frank Trazzera who skated into the slot and beat Gonzalez with a perfectly placed shot, not much the rook could do on that one, and it was 6-1 Rockers. Motor City gave Elmira all of 21 seconds to enjoy their first of the night when three Rockers broke out into the Elmira zone and Reitter found Svintsov all alone for an easy goal, the rookie's fourth of the season at 18:09 to make it 7-1. Mike Winn picked up the second assist and that's how the period ended. Elmira had out-shot Motor City 18-10 in the second stanza, but found their deficit increased by a goal.

Elmira started the third period on the powerplay thanks to a late second period call on Declan Conway who knocked over Nick Gullo at the 18:56 mark of the second and was given a checking from behind match penalty and tossed from the game. I can't emphasize enough what an awful call this was, watching the replay over and over, Gullo skates backwards into Conway who barely touches him, yet Gullo goes down in a heap like he was shot from the stands. The River Sharks were only able to capitalize once on the major penalty however, when head coach Tyler Gjurich, activated for this game on a celebrity contract, scored his first of the season, but more importantly for him, his 300th career FPHL goal. Gullo and Klinck drew the assists on the historic goal, but that is all Elmira would get back on this night as the Rockers cruised the rest of the period and took the 7-2 victory.

Despite the lopsided score, Elmira actually out-shot Motor City 40-28 in the game, a testament to how well Gonzalez played in net. Both of his starts have come against the River Sharks this season, he stopped 31 of 32 shots in a 4-1 win back on November 4th, so the Rockers goaltending situation is really looking solid with the talented rookie backing up Trevor Babin. Motor City now improves to 7-0-3 on the season for 26 points, still six behind first place Binghamton. Up next for the Rockers will be the defending Commissioner's Cup champion Danbury Hat Tricks. Motor City travels to Connecticut this coming weekend for games Friday and Saturday. It will be their only two games against Danbury this season, a shame since they are now in the same division. The Hat Tricks are currently in third place in the Empire Division, eight points behind the Rockers, so this is a good opportunity for Motor City to put even more distance between themselves and the champs in the standings.