There’s cause for concern as Amerks squander 2-goal lead, lose in OT

By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA

At a time of year when every point is critical, in a division where barely a tenth of a percentage point separates third place from sixth, the Rochester Americans are trending in the wrong direction.

They were in position to win on Friday night on home ice against Toronto but lost 3-2 in a shootout. They weren’t competitive in a 5-1 loss at Syracuse on Saturday.

And on Sunday, when back on home ice in Buffalo Bills tribute uniforms in front of 6,308 fans, they built 2-0 and 5-3 leads yet found a way to lose 6-5 in overtime to the Bridgeport Islanders.

“It came down to six seconds at the end of the game,” said winger Brett Murray, who assisted on the final three Amerks goals, by JJ Peterka, Arttu Ruotsalainen and Linus Weissbach.

Ahead 5-4, the Amerks couldn’t clear the puck from their own end or even gain control, and the Islanders, with goalie Jakub Skarek pulled for an extra attacker, forced overtime when Michael Dal Colle fought through Amerks center Sean Malone to get to a Robin Salo rebound and fired it home with 6.2 seconds left.

As a result, the Amerks remain sixth in the North Division and on the outside looking in at a playoff spot, despite a lineup featuring top young guns and veteran scoring talent.

Maybe it’s not time to hit panic button. But there’s surely is cause for concern when a team gives up two goals in the final four minutes – including the tying goal with under seven seconds remaining – and then loses in overtime.

Amerks coach Seth Appert, whose team is 30-24-5-3 with a .548 points-earned percentage, chose to look at the proverbial glass as being half full.

“We’ve got points in six of the last seven (games),” Appert said, “so we’re doing a lot of good things. As a coach, when you get guys back, the media, the fans, the players might expect it will just go forward.

“But you’ve got guys that haven’t played in three months. You’ve got guys who are trying to redefine chemistry. There’s also a difference between being in game shape and not being in game shape, and you can feel that with some of the guys that are coming back from injury. They don’t have the same legs 25, 35 seconds into a shift.”

That perhaps cost the Amerks in the waning seconds. They couldn’t get the puck, they couldn’t clear the zone and, thus, they couldn’t change lines. Malone, who before Friday had missed all but one game in three months, was unable to deter Dal Colle from scoring.

“We couldn’t get a clear and we got stuck out there and we just had tired guys out there for a minute 50 (seconds),” Appert said.

Then in overtime, a turnover by Jack Quinn led to a 2-on-0 fastbreak and the winning goal by Bridgeport’s Chris Terry.

Quinn weaved his way to the deep slot and turned to the backhand, only to have Austin Czarnik sweep it off his stick.

Czarnik, who had scored Bridgeport’s fourth goal with 3:57 remaining, then banked a pass off the left-wing boards and hit defenseman Mitchell Vande Sompel in stride in the neutral zone for the 2-on-0 fastbreak.

He passed to Terry, who rifled a shot past goalie Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen with 1:43 left in OT.

While Luukkonen did face 46 shots, he allowed six goals.

“You need to find ways to finish it, too,” Appert said. “An important part of goaltending is finding ways to close the door.”

Luukkonen obviously was on an island on the winning goal, with Quinn, Ethan Prow and Linus Weissbach caught deep in the offensive zone.

Was it a great scoring chance by Quinn, where Prow and Weissbach should have crept toward the net? Probably not.

“He had a good position to get a shot off there, and it rolled off his stick,” Appert said. “You also have to have awareness away from him. Is this the time to jump? Does this look like an advantageous opportunity for us? That’s probably not the smartest move whoever else was jumping to the offensive side.”

Then again, it was Quinn. He can work magic with the puck.

“We have won a lot of those that way and Jack’s a special player, so I’m sure that was the rationale,” Appert said.

Notes: Cole Bardreau, who grew up in Fairport and played at Fairport High School and then Cornell University, scored Bridgeport’s second goal. The tenacious forward, an alternate captain for the Islanders, is in his seventh pro season. He has produced 13 goals, 11 assists and 24 points in 42 games.

Bardreau had his own cheering section in the lower bowl at the Broad Street end of the building, with close to 40 fans on hand to watch his first game in Rochester in exactly three years.

Murray has 3-12-15 in his past 13 games, including a pair of three-assist games. Ruotsalainen has 9-9-18 in his past 12 games, and points in 11 of those.

With his goal Sunday, Quinn has 22 goals in 31 games, giving him an outside chance to become just the second Amerks player to score 30 since 2004-05. Victor Olafsson produced 30 in 2018-19. The Amerks have 14 games remaining. Michael Mersch has 21. The Amerks haven’t had multiple 30-goal scorers since 2004-05 (Thomas Vanek 42, Jason Pominville 30).

The Amerks still can’t win at home in front of big crowds. This was the fourth loss in five weeks in front of more than 6,000 fans. The others: 5-1 to Laval in front of 6,576 on Feb. 20, 4-0 to Toronto in front of 6,302 on Feb. 26 and 3-2 to Syracuse in front of 6,611 on March 11.