By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
What began with great promise and great promises ended with crushed hope and greater heartbreak.
The Rochester Americans intended to play deep into the spring. Instead, their plan was sabotaged by a much quicker and perhaps more talented Syracuse Crunch team, which swept the Amerks out of the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs with a 6-3 victory on Wednesday night.
“The playoffs, it’s a different level, and we didn’t bring it to that extra level,” Amerks coach Chris Taylor said after his club loss three straight in the series.
After going 37-22-11-6 in the regular season and earning 91 points — not since 2006-07 has the franchise piled up more points — the Amerks just couldn’t match the speed, the tenacity or the big plays of the Crunch.
They lost by scores of 6-2, 6-5 and 6-3, with goalie Linus Ullmark allowing 16 goals (the other two were empty-netters). How is that possible?
Ullmark had been the Amerks best player during the regular season, their MVP and the anointed next No. 1 goalie for the Buffalo Sabres. Yet he certainly wasn’t their best player against the Crunch.
On Wednesday at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial, the Amerks led 2-1 after Justin Bailey‘s second goal of the series beat goalie Connor Ingram at 7:48 of the second period.
Within 3 minutes and 1 second, the Crunch led 4-2 — and the Crunch and Amerks both knew it was over. Cal Foote scored on a one-timed wrister from 35 feet out at 8:17, Olivier Archambault tapped in a Mitchell Stephens pass at 8:36 and Stephens overpowered Ullmark with a shot from the slot at 10:49.
From up a goal and an electric atmosphere in the building thanks to an enthusiastic crowd of 6,145, to down by two goals with their fans silenced.
“I was looking forward to this for the three years I was here,” Ullmark said. “To go out there and not perform just hurts; it just hurts.”
So what went wrong? “Simple enough,” Ullmark said. “I didn’t make any saves.”
His teammates, however, had his back, just as he had theirs all season.
“You can’t put that on him,” captain Kevin Porter said. “He’s been our best player all season. There were a couple tough goals but we didn’t play well in front of him.”
The Amerks didn’t quit, not even after Mathieu Joseph extended the lead to 5-2 at 6:05 of the third period.
But Danny O’Regan’s goal at 13:50 turned out to be too little, too late.
Within seconds after Crunch winger Alexander Volkov slam-dunked home the clinching empty-net goal with 52.9 seconds to play, an Amerks fan who had been waving an American flag in support of his team sat down and furled it back up. A moment later, the boisterous section of Crunch fans began to chant “Sweep, sweep, sweep.”
And 52.9 seconds later, the Crunch were celebrating and the Amerks were wondering what went so wrong, so quickly.
The answer was actually quite obvious: The Crunch.
“We can skate, we can pass the puck, we can make plays,” said Benoit Groulx, the former Amerks coach now in his second season in Syracuse. “When our execution is good, we’re a tough team to contain.”
Needless to say, the Crunch execution was tremendous in the series. And so, the stretch of playoff failure goes on for the Amerks franchise. They haven’t won a series since 2004-05.
There was a time when an Amerks playoff drought was measured by years between Calder Cups. Like the eight seasons between the inaugural season of 1956-57 to Cup No. 1 in 1964-65. Like the 15 years between Cup No. 3 in 1967-68 to the return of “Frank” in 1982-83. And the mere four seasons until Cup No. 5 in 1986-87. And then the nine until the John Tortorella-coached club of 1995-96 won it all.
Now it has been 22 years, and counting, since the Amerks won the AHL championship in 22 years. But much worse, they can’t even win a playoff series. Granted, in a 30-team league that will soon be 31, it’s infinitely more difficult to win it all than it was when the AHL had six teams, or 13 or 18.
But a playoff series? Just one? It’s suddenly more difficult that constructing the relativistic heavy ion collider. At least for the Amerks.
The Crunch? They’ve made it look easy of late. They went to the Calder Cup finals in 2013 and again last spring. They dispatched of the Amerks in the minimum amount of time possible.
That’s the cold, hard facts.
So, too, is this: the Amerks did restore some pride in the crest. And just as importantly, they became relevant in a city that has in many ways forgotten what Amerks hockey is.
There were 6,145 fans in the building on Wednesday. Noisy, screaming, poster-making, rally-towel waving fans who came downtown to support their team.
“The support we got tonight, you don’t see that type of support on a Wednesday night in the first round,” veteran defenseman Nathan Paetsch said. “I’m so proud of this group for the excitement we brought back to the city.”
That’s what made the sweep so painful, too.
“It’s a huge compliment what the players have done in this community,” Taylor said. “I think the players are really disappointed because they feel they let the fans down, they let the community down.”
Playoff depression
The Amerks last playoff series win came in 2005, when they swept the Hamilton Bulldogs 4-0 in the opening round before losing in five games to the Manitoba Moose.
Since then:
2007: Lost to Hamilton in six games.
2010: Lost to the Abbotsford Heat in seven games.
2012: Swept 3-0 by the Toronto Marlies.
2013: Swept 3-0 by the Marlies.
2014: Lost to the Chicago Wolves in five games.
2018: Swept by the Syracuse Crunch.
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