By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
Maybe, just maybe, this current iteration of the Rochester Americans is ready to put more than a decade and a half of playoff dread behind and bring the glory days of springtime hockey back to life.
They sure made that statement on Wednesday night, rallying from a 3-0 third-period deficit for an improbable 4-3 overtime victory over the Belleville Senators in Game 1 of the best-of-three play-in round of the Calder Cup playoffs.
Hockey in late May and even into June had been a staple in Rochester from the 1980s and into the 2000s. But this franchise hasn’t won a playoff series since 2005 and hadn’t even won a playoff game since 2014.
Which is why 6,044 boisterous fans at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial on Wednesday night made it clear they’re tired of watching playoff losses. And why this Amerks team showed they’re apparently ready to do everything in their power to exorcise the demons of recent playoff flops by their Amerk ancestors.
“We haven’t won a playoff game since 2014,” said center Peyton Krebs, who assisted on the second goal by Jimmy Schuldt and the third goal by Casey Fitzgerald. “They were ready for it, and we were ready for it.”
They just maybe weren’t quite ready early. The Senators vaulted to the 3-0 lead in the first 33 minutes, then stormed back in the third period with three goals in a span of 12:50 before Arttu Ruotsalainen’s tip-in goal at 16:54 of overtime provided victory.
“Down 3-0, such a comeback in the third is just unbelievable,” said winger JJ Peterka, who assisted on the first and third goals. “It just shows the character of this team.”
The winning goal came after two harrowing moments in overtime. On the first shift, during a frantic scramble in front of goalie Aaron Dell, Belleville’s Cole Reinhardt emerged with the puck and fired toward an open net.
Defenseman Josh Teves, however, played goalie and blocked it, with Dell then smothering the loose puck.
In the 16th minute, Reinhardt again was ready to win it for the Senators but this time his point-blank shot hit the post.
A minute later, the Amerks were celebrating the franchise’s first playoff overtime victory since May 1, 2004, the Norm Milley goal in Game 7 of the opening round series at Syracuse.
Wednesday’s game-winner came after Teves displayed amazing poise at the right point. He waited for traffic to form in the deep slot, which denied goalie Filip Gustavsson a clear sight line.
Teves then wristed a shot through the maze of legs and Ruotsalainen, positioned at the right edge of the crease, redirected it.
Or did he?
“I’m not even sure it even hit me,” he said. “But it went it, that’s all I care about.”
So now the Amerks head to Belleville, Ontario, for the completion of series. Game 2 is at 7 p.m. Friday and Game 3, if necessary, is at 3 p.m. Sunday.
The Amerks made one big statement in Game 1. They showed they could tolerate and overcome the endless barrage of bodychecks thrown by the bigger Senators.
“They tried from the start to get us off our game, to get us into a hitting and fighting game,” Peterka said.
Of course, no one ever said playoff hockey was for softies.
“That’s why it’s a hard trophy to win and we’ve accepted that,” Fitzgerald said. “They want to frustrate us and rattle us. We have to stick what we do best. I like our odds. I like our skill against them.”
The Amerks will be without winger Linus Weissbach. He was knocked out of the game – and appeared to be knocked out – after hit in open ice by Mark Kastelic just 2:53 into the game.
Weissbach had just moved the puck on left wing in the neutral zone when Kastelic’s check sent him to the ice and sliding head-first into the boards. Weissbach lay motionless and the medical staff raced to his aid. After a minute or two, he was helped off the ice, unable to even stand.
Amerks coach Seth Appert said Weissbach was “not great. He was struggling pretty good.”
No penalty was called by referees Justin Kea (the former Amerk) and Tyson Stewart, and Appert said he thought their assessment may have been correct.
“I actually think it was the right call,” Appert said. “At most it’s a hair high, but it’s probably not a penalty. He had unloaded the puck but it was bang-bang.
“It’s probably a hit we’re trying to get out of hockey because maybe it was a bit predatory, but it wasn’t egregiously dirty.”
For the American Hockey League to consider possible supplemental discipline, the Amerks must ask them to review the hit and Appert said that unless he is provided with another angle, he’ll stick with the on-ice ruling.
The Senators took the lead about five minutes after the Kastelic check. Egor Sokolov made a circle-to-circle pass, right wing to left, to Reinhardt, who fired a wrist shot under the blocker of Dell.
Dillon Heatherington then pushed the lead to 2-0 with a minute left in the first period.
With four Amerks all along the right-wing boards, Heatherington was free to move in from the point by himself, take a pass from Logan Shaw and then fire a perfect shot into the top right corner of the net.
“I thought we played well, I thought they played well, there wasn’t much going on; both teams had like four scoring chances and they just happened to capitalize on two,” Appert said.
“I thought the second we were fantastic. We outshot them 15-7, we probably had another 15 blocked.”
So instead of cutting into the lead, the Amerks saw the deficit grow larger when Rourke Chartier scored off a fastbreak at 12:58.
But Brandon Biro, Peterak and Lukas Rousek combined to provide the first surge of momentum as Rousek scored 3:13 into the third.
“That was the start of everything,” Ruotsalainen said.
The Amerks needed to kill a Krebs boarding penalty and did, and then scored moments after he exited the penalty box. He found Fitzgerald deep on left wing, and Fitzgerald dropped a pass into the slot for Schuldt and the Senators lead was down to a goal with 6:41 to play.
Fitzgerald then tied it at 16:03, dancing around defenseman Jonathan Aspirot in the right of the slot before firing a shot past Gustuvsson. Krebs had set him up in the right circle, passing from above the left wing circle at what probably was a 90-second shift for both teams.
“When you’re playing offense you don’t seem to get tired,” Krebs said with a smile. “We were cycling it around and it was a nice finish by Fitzy.”
And a nice pass by Krebs.
“When he has the puck I’m just trying to get open,” Fitzgerald said. “I actually went behind the net (on his way to the right side) and that’s a no-no for a D-man but I knew he had the puck.”
Krebs was returned to the Amerks following the end of the Buffalo Sabres season and he was engaged from the drop of the first puck.
“We don’t need him to put a cape on and try to be Superman, we just need him to be Peyton,” Appert said.
Superb. On this night, we can put away the past for awhile and savor the improbable comeback win. But man alive, the way Belleville roared out in the first minute of OT, was just plain scary.
What needs to be done now is not to let them off the hook. Go right after them with confidence overflowing and put them down on Friday. 3 game win streaks have been rare second half (non-existent actually) so its time for one.
Go Amerks!