By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
He has had plenty of opportunities to score goals in the first three weeks of the American Hockey League season.
Breakaways. Uncontested shots from the slot. Point-blank rebounds.
Yet going into Wednesday night’s matchup against the Hershey Bears, just one of the 26 shots C.J. Smith had fired on goal in the first six games actually went in.
“He’s probably had the most grade-A chances on our team,” Rochester Americans coach Gord Dineen said after a 5-1 victory over the Bears.
When you’re a scorer, you want to score. When pucks are going in, life is good. When they’re not, the internal pressure mounts. You know you need to do more. The trick is staying with what you’ve always done, with what’s always worked.
“Obviously you want to score and get assists,” Smith said. “But you can’t start cheating the game. That’s when it adds up, builds up and rolls downhill.”
The third-year winger has been around the game long enough to know scoring droughts eventually end. Like his did on Wednesday.
First, Kevin Porter redirected past goalie Pheonix Copley the waist-high wrist shot by Smith that came zipping into the slot from the left point. The power-play goal broke 0-0 deadlock at 7:58 of the second period.
Then, after goals by Sean Malone and Scott Wilson extended the lead to 3-0 later in the second period, Smith found the net himself.
Linemate Andrew Oglevie threaded a perfect cross-ice pass to Smith in the left of the slot and he fired it past Copley at 10:35 of the third period for his second goal of the season.
“You always want to help out the team,” Smith said. “As a team, you want to win and as an individual you want to help out the team any way you can.”
The third-year left winger finished second on the Amerks in scoring (58 points) and second in goals (28) in 2018-19. Only Victor Olofsson, who this year has 6-3-9 in 10 games in his rookie season with the Sabres, produced more.
While the Amerks have earned nine of a possible 14 points by going 4-2-0-1 in their first seven games, they want their big guns to start scoring. So far, only Tage Thompson (3-4-7) has been doing that.
Smith did have his first assist of the season, and it came as the point man on the power play.
“You see ice and there’s not as much pressure,” Smith said. “When you’re on the flank you feel like you have to get a shot or make a play.
“At the point you’re filtering it down to the net and you let the net-front guys take the goalie’s eyes or get a tip.”
His shiftiness and puck skills are why he’s on the blue line instead of the half-wall or down low.
“He’s really deceptive,” Dineen said. “He shows pass one way and shoots it and vise-versa. He’s not predictable.”
Murray’s first goal
Rookie Brett Murray, who made his debut on Saturday, scored with 47 seconds remaining, his first goal as a pro. He used an inside-out move on defenseman Connor Hobbs to break free down the right of the slot
“He’s really looked poised,” Dineen said. “His wall play has been excellent.”
Shutout lost late
Goalie Jonas Johansson (20 saves) lost a chance for his first AHL shutout (he has had three in the ECHL) when Axel Jonsson-Fjallby fired a wrist shot past him with just 4:54 to play for a final score of 5-1. The Bears were short-handed at the time.
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