By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
With the start of the Calder Cup playoffs right around the corner, Friday’s performance by the Rochester Americans wasn’t exactly worthy of the post-season.
It may not have been worthy of December.
The Amerks gave up four second-period goals, including three in the first 4:11, and lost to the Belleville Senators 5-1 at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial.
So the question is, was it a reason for alarm or simply a case of a bad period that snowballed?
Veteran defenseman Nathan Paetsch called it a hiccup, and maybe that’s all it was. An annoyance that is bothersome for a moment, but then it goes away and all is fine.
The Amerks were coming off a very good five-game stretch, earning nine of a possible 10 points by going 4-0-1-0. They know they’re going to finish either third or fourth in the North Division, that they can’t have home-ice advantage for the best-of-five first-round series and that they’ll play either Toronto or Syracuse to start the post-season.
Plus, a third of their lineup is with the parent Buffalo Sabres in Florida.
“It wasn’t like a terrible hockey game,” Paetsch said. “It was just little, silly things. We had some critical errors and then we started chasing the game.”
The chase was on treadmill, too. Regardless of what they did, they gained no ground against a team 26 points behind them in the standings (85-59).
“It can’t happen,” said a frustrated Colin Blackwell, who scored the Amerks goal late in the first period to provide a 1-0 lead. “It’s any team, any day, any period. We have to win our shifts, whether it’s two minutes left in the period or the first two minutes of a period.”
Blackwell has been one of the most important pieces in the Amerks lineup. For the first five months, he was mostly noticeable for all the little things he did, especially the passion and energy he provided. But now he is also scoring.
The goal Friday was his 15th of the season. He has goals in four consecutive games (six total in that span) and eight goals in the past six games. Over his past 11 games, he has produced 10 goals, 9 assists and 19 points.
Amerks coach Chris Taylor praised Blackwell’s work ethic and then took a little shot at those who don’t show up night after night, shift after shift.
“A lot of guys could benefit watching him,” Taylor said.
The Amerks actually were in position to take total control as the second period began. Ahead 1-0, they started the middle period on a power play.
But in an attempt to make a deke before passing down low, Seth Griffith fumbled the puck at the right point and gave it right to David Dziurzynski. One pass later, Parker Kelly was speeding away on a breakaway and scored the short-handed goal just 46 seconds into the period.
Then Boston Leier scored at 2:04 and when Nick Paul poked home a rebound at 4:11, the Senators led 3-1 and the crowd of 5,880 gave goalie Jonas Johansson a mock cheer on his next save.
But his teammates often weren’t much better in the offensive zone.
“There were times I thought we should have shot and we passed,” Taylor said. “There were times we should have passed and we shot.”
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