ALEXANDRIA, Minn. – The Rochester Grizzlies head into Thanksgiving on a sour note, dropping Wednesday’s game in Alexandria 3-2. This marks the third loss to the Blizzard this season for the Grizzlies.
Rochester (13-5-0-0) opened the scoring with Vladislav Sorokin scoring his team-leading 16th goal of the season just two minutes into the first period. The Grizzlies would control play for most of the period, however Alexandria would tie it at the 14:18 mark as Tucker Kruse would score his third of the year.
The Grizzlies would respond just 15 seconds later with John Rowell getting his first of the year. Seth Bacon picked up his second assist of the game on the goal. That lead would last about four minutes as Brandon Connett scored on the power play for Alexandria, as Richard Szabo was in the box for tripping.
Neither team would score in the second period, despite the Grizzlies beating the Blizzard in shots yet again. Rochester out-shot the Blizzard 18-11 in the first period and then 15-8.
The third period proved to be troublesome for Rochester. The Grizzlies took three straight penalties to start the period. Fortunately, they killed off the penalties. Colin Mehren took a tripping minor at the 12:24 mark and the Blizzard would finally capitalize. Brett Meister scored a power play goal, the second of the game for Alexandria, and that would be the eventual game winner.
The Grizzlies would also have a late power play chance but it was eventually negated by a Matt DeRosa tripping penalty just a mintue into the power play. Rochester would finish 0 for 6 on the power play and gave the Blizzard eight power plays in the game.
Liam Kelly stopped 29 shots in the loss.
Rochester is back home Saturday against division leading Granite City for a 7:05 puck drop. Saturday is the Black Saturday Blowout, with all tickets being just $5.
