Kevin Oklobzija

@kevinoDandC

They were done; toast; finished. Embarrassed on home ice in the midst of a playoff chase.

The Rochester Americans found themselves in a 5-1 hole at 4:31 of the third period, after Morgan Ellis zipped a 50-foot shot past relief goalie Andrey Makarov.

With less than 12 minutes to play they were still in that 5-1 crater.

But then a really crazy thing happened. Rather than pack it in and go home, as at least a few dozen fans had done on Wednesday night, the Amerks began to play hard and in sync — for the first time all night, really.

Which led to an even crazier happening: a comeback for the eternal memory banks.

The Amerks scored five times in the final 11:06 — the last goal by Chad Ruhwedel with just 4 seconds remaining — and defeated the bewildered, shell-shocked St. John's IceCaps 6-5.

"Geez, we battled hard just to get back to even," Ruhwedel said, "but to win in regulation was pretty miraculous."

Especially since, after 40 minutes, there wasn't one player and certainly no one within the coaching staff that believed a victory was possible.

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"For two periods it was pretty dismal," coach Randy Cunneyworth said. "Our bench was not alive. Our dressing room was not alive."

So what changed? Especially after Ellis pushed the St. John's lead to 5-1?

Two things:

The IceCaps stopped attacking. The old sit-back-and-defend-your-way-right-to-a-loss game plan.

Their goalie, Eddie Pasquale, stopped looking like he could make a save. In part, because he couldn't make one.

Holy tire fire.

The comeback began so innocently, too. Right off the faceoff, during a power play, Matt Donovan picked the top corner on the short side past Pasquale's right shoulder and the Amerks trailed 5-2 with 11:06 to play.

Not worries for the IceCaps. No real thoughts of "Hey, here we go" for the Amerks.

But then Jean Dupuy dashed down left wing, cut to the net and, when Pasquale decided to leave the near post and shift toward the far side — even though Dupuy was still at the left of the crease — he had a pretty easy tap-in goal.

The deficit was now 5-3 and there was still half a period (9:58 to be exact) remaining.

"Like we said in the dressing room, we're not going to do it all in one shift," winger Dan Catenacci said.

Panic truly set in when Jerry D'Amigo's morning-practice wrister from the right circle found the net. From game over to one-goal game, with 6:53 showing on the clock.

"We saw Jerry beat him, we saw 'Dups' beat him," winger Justin Bailey said. "They were good shots but shots that you don't always see go in.

"You see that, you start to smell blood."

Cue the shark attack. Once the Amerks entered the IceCaps zone, they couldn't wait to shoot. From anywhere. From everywhere. Defenders were giving Pasquale little help and every other save was far more adventurous than necessary.

The Amerks pulled even at 15:17 when Catenacci poked home a rebound during a goal-mouth scramble. Again, it was just get the puck to the net and don't stop working.

"We score one goal, we score two goals, we score three goals, we score four goals," Makarov said. "Everyone is so pumped. Our guys put the puck to the net every time."

Makarov has been there before, in that panic mode when the opponent has overwhelming momentum and nothing can stop it. He could sense Pasquale and the IceCaps were panicked.

When Catenacci scored, he turned and sprinted to the right corner, leaping what seemed to be four feet off the ice. It was an NBA vertical.

"That's what I heard," Catenacci said. "Someone said I jumped pretty high and I don't doubt it. I put a lot of energy into that one and I was pretty fired up."

As improbable as the comeback was, there was almost a sense within Blue Cross Arena at the Community War Memorial that the Amerks would win it before overtime.

And sure enough, Bailey carried the puck out of the Amerks zone, through center and into the St. John's zone on left wing with an I-won't-be-denied air about him.

He undressed defenseman Brett Lernout with a great outside-in move, putting the puck between the defenders legs and then jumping toward the slot. He then passed down low to Eric O'Dell. The puck, however, was on edge so O'Dell tried to return it to Bailey.

Lernout had recovered and upended Bailey at the top of the crease. No defender picked up Ruhwedel, who was following the rush and ended up with the puck and a wide open net.

"Obviously it was a pretty special comeback," Bailey said. "It almost felt like when we got the third one, there was no way they were going to stop us."

* * * * * * *

The Amerks trail Utica by five points, and Portland and Hartford by six. Two of the four teams will end up with the final two playoff spots in the North Division.

* * * * * * *

Left winger William Carrier left the game in the third period after he crashed heavily into the end boards.

He tried to cut around defenseman Josiah Didier but lost an edge and couldn't brace for the impact.

It's an upper body injury but his playing status wasn't known Wednesday night.

KEVINO@gannett.com