Improved Rochester United skates past Birmingham, 5-2
BY DAVID BOIKE
CORRESPONDENT
BIRMINGHAM — Rising steadily.
That could best describe Rochester United’s ascending up the OAA Red Division hockey ladder.
Rochester United, which has suffered back-to-back large graduating classes, has picked up the pace in recent weeks and added to its recent win total Thursday by icing Birmingham Unified, 5-2, at the Birmingham Ice Arena.
Rochester United has now won two of its last three games, as prep hockey teams across the state go through the meat of their schedule.
“We forechecked well, cleared the zone, and had great goaltending (from Brody Blair) tonight,” summarized Rochester United coach Craig Staskowski. “We emphasized during our pre-game meeting that we are starting fresh, expect to compete well tonight, and we must keep our composure, and we did just that.”
The second period belonged to Rochester United where it outshot Birmingham, 17-9.
Starting at the 10 minute mark trailing 2-1, United scored two goals in 90 seconds to take the lead. Brent Broudreau was the first to score, set up by Marshall Bowery. That tally was soon followed up by Cam Renny’s goal from Marshall Bowery and Boudreau.
The rest of the period saw Rochester take the play to Birmingham (4-6-3, 1-3-2). United scored again at the six-minute mark with a goal by Jacob Kimmel from Adam Boike to go into the third period up, 4-2.
In the third frame, United capped off the scoring on Boudreau’s second goal of the night from Renny and Marshall Bowery — it was a big night for the line, as they were quite active pushing the puck and getting involved in most of Rochester’s scoring rushes.
The game did not start off so well for Rochester, Birmingham came out strong in the first period, playing fast and physical and scored at the 13-minute mark on a goal by Cody Fayolle from Drake Braun.
Rochester was able to escape the first period even on a late, unassisted goal by Matt Bowery with just five seconds left on the clock.
Any momentum that Rochester was able to gain from the late tally was soon extinguished by Birmingham, as it opened the second period with a flurry and regained the lead in the first 90 seconds with an unassisted goal by Conor Flynn to go up 2-1. Birmingham would not score again over the final 32:30 of the contest
Rochester United moves on to Saturday night’s crosstown match up against Rochester Stoney Creek at 8:30 p.m. at The Onyx.
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