By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
Jack Quinn left the rink on Friday night frustrated by a 4-3 shootout loss to Belleville and aggravated by his own not-so-stellar play.
He didn’t produce a point, was responsible for Belleville’s first goal, fanned on a golden scoring opportunity in the third period and failed to convert on his shootout try.
So when he arrived at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial for the rematch late Saturday afternoon, there was little doubt he would be out for redemption. He has always been driven to become better.
“I didn’t think I was good enough last night, so obviously I wanted to help the team a lot more today,” Quinn said.
Mission accomplished. The rookie left winger produced his first pro hat trick and also set up the tying goal by Michael Mersch with just 3.3 seconds remaining in regulation, though the Amerks lost 6-5 when Egor Sokolov scored 34 seconds into overtime.
“It says a lot about who he is,” Amerks coach Seth Appert said. “He didn’t like the loss, he didn’t like his performance. He’s just got such a high level of competitiveness. His standard wasn’t met last night and he was going to go do something about it tonight.”
Quinn’s first goal – and empty net rebound off a misplay by goalie Filip Gustavsson – gave the Amerks a 2-1 lead six minutes into the second period. His second – a wicked, short-side wrister from the left wing circle – put the Amerks back on top 3-2 at 13:41 of the second.
His hat trick goal tied the score 4-4 at 10:15 of the third period when he converted a perfect across-the-slot pass from an attacking Mattias Samuelsson.
“I thought last night was a good opportunity for him to learn,” Appert said. “Sometimes when you don’t have it, the simpler you play, the better. It doesn’t mean not make plays, it’s just don’t complicate the game, and I thought last night he did a lot of things to complicate the game for himself and for our team.”
There was nothing complicated about his game on Saturday, and after running his goal total up to 16 in only 23 games, he showed his play-making skills by lasering a diagonal pass from the left circle to the right edge of the crease where Mersch was on a knee and allowed it to bank in off his chest.
He received a pass from Samuelsson with about six seconds left but showed no panic, patiently waiting for a lane to open – and for Gustavsson to anticipate shot – so he could make the play.
“I just knew we had one play left and I wasn’t going to rush it,” said Quinn, who vaulted into a tie for second with Mersch in American Hockey League scoring at 34 points (not including Saturday night’s later games).
For the week, the Amerks posted one win, an overtime loss and a shootout loss, giving them four of a possible six points in the standings.
They were good in opening a 7-2 lead against front-running Utica before holding on for a 7-6 win, didn’t deserve to win Friday’s game with the Senators and then were plenty good enough on Saturday but new goalie Charles Williams didn’t make nearly enough big saves. He stopped 29 of 35 shots.
Williams, 29, is a fifth-year pro who was playing just his seventh AHL game, and first since 2018-19. He was promoted from ECHL Jacksonville on Thursday because both Amerks goalies – Aaron Dell and Michael Houser – are on emergency recall to the parent Buffalo Sabres.
The Amerks actually had a great chance to win it 27 seconds into overtime but Senators defenseman Colby Williams played goalie and kicked out his right leg to block a point-blank shot by Linus Weissbach. The Sens quickly transitioned and Sokolov scored off the rush.
“I didn’t like us in the first (period) tonight but I thought we were outstanding in the second and third periods. To find a way to get a point, to find a way to make this a four-point week with a real short lineup, certainly not what we’ve been used to at times. I thought the guys really dug in and fought to get four points this week.”
Leave a Reply