The Amerks, strong favourites to win this series, showed why in the early going as they carved out a plethora of scoring opportunities in the opening frame.
Rasmus Sandin received a rude awakening to playoff hockey when he was stripped of possession in the defensive zone on his first shift and Rochester nearly opened the scoring with 60 seconds on the clock — a booming shot from Andrew MacWilliam at the point caromed off the crossbar and away to safety.
There was clearly no love lost between these divisional rivals, with Dmytro Timashov’s hit on Matt Tennyson on a delayed icing call setting the tone early as the physicality level of the game started to ramp up.