By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
With the playoff pressure cranked up to high and any margin for error long gone for the Rochester Americans, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is showing he’s quite comfortable being the go-to guy in goal.
This is the time of year when you learn a lot about a goaltender, too. Does he look confident in the crease? Is there an air about him when he makes saves? Do teammates feed off the energy he exudes?
The answer to all three questions on Saturday night was yes.
While veterans Michael Mersch and Mark Jankowski scored power-play goals, Luukkonen confidently turned aside all but one of 37 shots by the slump-ridden Hartford Wolf Pack as the Amerks posted a 2-1 victory.
“We’re happy for him,” Mersch said. “He works and when teammates have success, it’s fun to be a part of.”
In what essentially was a must-win game, the Amerks (35-27-6-3) rose to the occasion. Still, even in winning, they remain sixth in the American Hockey League’s North Division and on the outside looking it at the playoff picture.
The standings are just tighter now. The Amerks, with five games to play, have a points-earned percentage of .556, Toronto holds the last playoff spot at .561, Belleville is in fourth place at .567 and Syracuse is third at .579. It appears those four teams will battle for the final three spots.
“This is the best time of year, we’re playing for our lives,” Jankowski said. “If we worry about ourselves and take care of business, we’ll be fine.”
That seems to be how Luukkonen is attacking the stretch drive. The 23-year-old Finn hasn’t necessarily been the model of consistency. He has been terrific on some nights and then, in his next start, been unable to rescue the at-times defensively deficient Amerks.
But he was very good in a 2-1 loss to the Belleville Senators on Friday and even better against Hartford on Saturday. He also made some key saves in Wednesday’s 4-3 overtime win over Laval.
“The last two games I feel like I was in control, not chasing it,” Luukonen said.
That’s why Amerks coach Seth Appert said it was an easy decision to play the third-year goalie again on Saturday. It was just the second time in his career that he has started on back-to-back nights, and also just the second time he played three games in four nights.
The basic numbers say he should maybe do it more often. The first time – in home games on Nov. 10, 12 and 13 – he went 2-1, stopped 112 of 117 shots and posted his first career shutout.
This week, he made 88 saves on 94 shots – one goal came on a penalty shot – as the Amerks again went 2-1.
“That young man just puts in an incredible amount of work, before practice, during practice, extra goalie work, so I wasn’t worried about his fitness at all,” Appert said.
“We have a lot of belief in Upie, not only here but in our organization. These are great pressure situations to go through.”
Just like Friday, the Amerks needed Luukkonen to be at his best early. They were outshot 15-6 in the first period yet led 1-0 after Mersch’s goal at 6:31, his 25th, tying him with Jack Quinn for the team lead.
“He had a really good week; we needed it,” Appert said. “Like last night, in the first period he was outstanding and allowed us to get our feet under us.”
Luukkonen came with 7:01 of his second career shutout when Hartford’s Nick Merkley scored a power-play goal.
And while he’ll probably need to pay a fine to the goalie union, he said he was thinking about a possible shutout. Actually, he said, all goalies think about it.
“It’s hard not to,” he said.
But what was much more important was winning, and backing up the confidence of the coaching staff by playing well in his third game in 75 hours.
“I’m a young guy, so I always appreciate playing a lot of games,” he said.
So about that waved off goal: Jankowski clearly scored what should have been the Amerks second goal at 8:39 of the second period but referee Robert Hennessey was just getting to the front of the net when Hartford goalie Adam Huska pushed the puck back out over the goal line.
The referees went to video review, but in the AHL, the only camera angle they are allowed to view is from the overhead view above the net. They were apparently blocked either by a pad of part of Huska and were forced to rule no goal, Appert said, even though television views showed the puck was clearly across the goal line by several inches.
“There’s no reason that the refs shouldn’t see the same views that the fans can see,” Appert said. “It was clearly a goal, it’s the wrong call, but they can only make the decision with the technology that they have. They want to make the right call. I think that’s why it took so long; in their gut they probably knew it was in but they couldn’t find conclusive evidence.”
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