By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
They needed a little more time than perhaps should have been necessary, but the Rochester Americans are finally officially playoff bound.
The Amerks clinched a berth on Saturday night by defeating the Springfield Thunderbirds 4-2 at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial.
Let the congratulatory handshakes, high-fives and toasts begin.
“It’s big, it’s big for people that work in this building, for people that have been a part of this organization for a long time,” coach Chris Taylor said.
“I just checked my phone and I’ve got like 10 texts from neighbors; they’re excited. The playoffs are the best. It’s about bringing the community together.”
The Calder Cup playoffs were once a rite of spring in Rochester. Between the 1981-82 season and the 2004-05 season, the Amerks appeared in the playoffs 22 of 24 times. Since then, they’ve missed in seven of 12 seasons, including the past three. The franchise hasn’t won a playoff series since 2004-05 and hasn’t reached the Calder Cup finals since 1999-2000.
Maybe this spring will mark change, although the Amerks (31-20-10-6) haven’t exactly been in playoff mode of late. Actually,they haven’t for much of the past 2 1/2 months. Coming into Saturday, they had lost four straight and had won just seven of their previous 28 games.
But now they’re in, there’s the X next to Rochester in the American Hockey League standings, and the final three weeks of the regular season can been spent on fine-tuning and then integrating the reinforcements once the NHL season ends. Linus Ullmark, Justin Bailey, Nick Baptiste, Brendan Guhle, Casey Nelson and an injured Kyle Criscuolo will all rejoin the Amerks.
“You want to be playing after April 15, that’s when the best players in the league are playing,” said forward Colin Blackwell, who scored the second and third Amerks goals.
His goal at 12:02 of the third period broke a 2-2 tie and when Danny O’Regan scored just 62 seconds later off a two-on-one with Kevin Porter, the Amerks were on their way to the post-season.
“This is what we’ve been working for all year,” Porter said. “Now the work starts.”
While Blackwell scored the critical go-ahead goal in the third period, it was a terrific kick save by goalie Adam Wilcox just 4:35 into the final period that helped create momentum for the Amerks.
Wilcox allowed a 55-foot Eddie Wittchow slap shot to overpower him and tie the score in the second period, but atoned by taking away a sure goal from Anthony Greco on a Springfield power play.
“The guys fed off that,” Taylor said.
The players know very well what must improve down the stretch: their ability to play well and hard from minute 1 to minute 60.
“We can’t let our foot off the gas,” said forward Seth Griffith, who returned from the Sabres earlier this week and scored the game’s first goal. “We have to play playoff hockey the last 10 games.”
Blackwell’s game pretty much epitomizes a playoff style. He isn’t expected to score a lot of goals (he has nine, plus 22 assists in 52 games). It’s his all-around game that makes him so important to the team.
“He creates energy, he’s a sparkplug,” Taylor said. “He’s great on faceoffs, he’s really good in the corners. I just like his tenacity. He hates to lose.”
Notes: Sahir Gill sat out due to illness, Taylor said. Leading scorer C.J. Smith is out indefinitely (“week to week,” Taylor said) after re-injuring his ankle on Friday.
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