Motor City Rockers Earn Franchise's 50th Win In Shootout With Watertown

Watertown, NY — Shootouts haven’t been kind to the Rockers this season. Motor City entered Saturday’s game against the Watertown Wolves winless in games that were decided by the skills competition. 

However, that changed after a back and forth affair when Rockers Forward Pavel Svintsov buried the puck in the fourth round of a shootout for a 7-6 win at Watertown Arena. 

The win is also the franchise’s 50th win in Rockers' history. 

Motor City entered the third period down a goal, 4-3, but a three goal period allowed Motor City to take the lead before Watertown tied the score with 2:17 left in the final frame.

Jonathan Juliano recorded two goals for his 12th and 13th of the season to help propel the Rockers and Tristen Wells deflected a Jameson Milam shot for his third goal of the year that earned the Rockers a 6-5 lead. Wells and Juliano both had power play goals. 

Motor City went 2-for-3 with the man advantage.  

A power play goal from Watertown’s Noah Doyle tied the score, 6-6 on his fifth of the season when he offered a rocket from the point that went over the left shoulder of Ricky Gonzalez. 

Gonzalez stopped 50-of-56 shots on the night, while the Wolves’ Eloi Bouchard stopped 29-of-35.

The first period was also a tightly contested affair as both teams skated to a 2-2 tie. Lincoln Gingerich and Carter Thornton notched two goals for Watertown, while Josh Colten and Nick Gullo scored for Motor City. 

It was Gullo’s first goal as a Rocker when he was acquired earlier this week. 

The second period belonged to Watertown as the Wolves earned two more goals off the sticks of Marc Bottero who went end-to-end for his eighth of the season and Chiwetin Blacksmith that helped the Wolves regain the lead after a TJ Delaney goal that started the middle frame. 

The Rockers and Wolves will square off again on Sunday night at 7:00pm at Watertown Arena before Motor City returns to Michigan to host the Binghampton Black Bears on Feb 9th and 10th.