Garrett Stafford had a goal and an assist and Cleveland scored four unanswered goals to post a 4-2 victory over Rochester on Friday night.
A capacity crowd of 11,200 fans watched the Americans miss a chance to clinch the North Division title.
Nathan Paetsch and Thomas Vanek staked Rochester to a 2-0 lead before Stafford got the Barons on the board at the 9:06 mark of the second period. Riley Armstrong and Grant Stevenson scored before the intermission, and Tomas Plihal added an insurance marker with 14:53 to play.
Dimitri Patzold made 21 saves for the Barons, who now sit four points behind Hamilton for fourth place in the North Division.
Elsewhere on Friday:
Mikael Tellqvist made 38 saves as St. John’s knocked off Hamilton, 2-1, before 13,692 fans at Copps Coliseum… Justin Morrison scored 24 seconds into overtime to give Manitoba a 3-2 win at Syracuse… Billy Thompson made 39 saves and stopped all five shootout attempts as Binghamton edged Worcester, 3-2, to hang onto first place in the East Division… Philadelphia kept pace with the Senators, as Patrick Sharp and Tony Voce recorded a goal and an assist each in a 4-3 win over Hershey… Ryan Bayda scored twice and Brent Krhan made 45 saves as Lowell doubled up Portland, 6-3… Hannu Toivonen recorded 43 stops as Providence beat Manchester in a shootout, 3-2… Alexandre Giroux‘s goal 1:14 into overtime allowed Hartford to escape with a 1-0 win over Springfield… Erik Westrum‘s 11th-round goal gave Utah a 2-1 shootout win over Grand Rapids… Joffrey Lupul scored three goals and Frederic Cassivi needed just nine saves as Cincinnati beat San Antonio, 3-1… Albany managed just 15 shots on goal, but Ilkka Pikkarainen and Ahren Nittel scored 13 seconds apart in the first period and the River Rats held off Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, 2-1… Justin Papineau netted a hat trick to pace Bridgeport’s offense in a 7-3 rout at Norfolk.
