By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
On Wednesday night, the Rochester Americans played a strong first period and then did a sleep-walking act the rest of the way in losing 5-1 to the Syracuse Crunch.
On Friday night, the Amerks were very good for 50 minutes, then gave up two goals – and the lead – in 23 seconds and ended up falling 5-2 to the Utica Comets.
So which loss on home ice stings more? It depends who you ask.
“How young we are, I’m process-focused, not result-focused,” Amerks coach Seth Appert said. “I can’t stomach Wednesday’s loss because we didn’t play hard enough in the second and third period. We played fabulous tonight, we didn’t get the result, sometimes that happens. Play like that 10 times, you’re going to get the result seven or eight times.”
Amerks center Brandon Biro, who assisted on goals by Lukas Rousek in the first period and Linus Weissbach in the third, was more bothered by Friday night, however.
“We had the lead for most of the night,” Biro said. “To kind of throw two points away is pretty frustrating.”
Friday was especially aggravating because easily preventable mistakes gave the Comets two goals, their first and third. And because it gave the Amerks their first three-game losing streak of the season and dropped their record to 11-9-1-1.
While on a power play, the Amerks lost a defensive-zone draw and Simon Nemec’s nothing floater of a wrist shot from the right point sailed past screened goalie Michael Houser and into the net.
Screens sometimes happen, but they shouldn’t be caused by your own player, which was the case this time. Mason Jobst was right in the shooting lane, about 10 feet in front of Hauser, and then to complicate matters, he elevated and tried to deflect away the shot with his right shoulder.
He missed, and the puck found the net. So after dominating most of the first 38 minutes and 34 seconds, the Amerks were suddenly in a 1-1 tie.
“Our guy made a really bad play,” Appert said. “It wasn’t even a scoring chance.”
The Amerks regained the lead off sweet passing on a three-on-one fast break at 8:17 of the third period. Chase Priskie took a Jeremy Davies outlet pass in the neutral zone and knew he was going to get hit in open ice by Comets defenseman Nikita Okhotiuk.
But Priskie braced for the hit, and passed to Weissbach. With Okhotiuk now trapped at center, the Amerks attacked three-on-one, and Weissbach converted the return pass from Biro for his ninth goal (tied for tops on the team with Brett Murray).
The Comets, however, tied the score at 11:39 on a little Nolan Stevens’ sleight-of-hand in the slot. His fake froze defenseman Ethan Prow, then he fired past Houser on the short side from the right hash marks.
On the next shift, Weissbach’s giveaway on the boards enabled Utica to take a 3-2 lead, at 12:02. He had full control of the puck but couldn’t chip it out of the zone, and two passes later Graeme Clarke was firing it past Houser.
“Can’t happen,” Appert said bluntly of the turnover.
It’s not exactly new for Weissbach. They’re not necessarily common occurrences, but Appert said they do happen “too much.”
The Comets used empty-net goals at 17:54 ad 18:38 to inflate the score.
Notes: The Amerks wore the sweaters of Section V hockey teams in warmups. Somewhat appropriately, former McQuaid standout Jack Duggan was in Utica’s starting lineup on left wing.
Amerks rookie winger Aleksandr Kisakov sat out due to illness and rookie center Jiri Kulich was forced to leave in the first period because of illness, Appert said.
So..which loss was worse one asks? They were both awful, as a fan. Two 3rd period failures (again). You can play well for 50 minutes, but if you don’t play the other 10, you lose. Sometimes you can play your behind off, and still lose when your goalie lets you down…ask the Bruins. They outshot lowly Arizona 46-16 tonite but got beat in the final 13 seconds (when they thought icing occured and stopped playing…it wasn’t called and Arizona fired one past Swayman, who wasn’t very good on this night)
Amerks are not playing good hockey these days. They are out of sync. Their special teams are killing them. Bad goals at the worst time are killing them. You just don’t give up the tying and winning goals midway thru the 3rd period on 2 consecutive shots 23 seconds apart…on home ice…to a division rival. That just doesn’t happen. You don’t give up a shortie at the end of a period while protecting a 1-0 lead.
Two home games…two terrible outcomes. I really don’t care how they happened…they just happened. Our guys have not been good enough lately. There is little light at the end of this tunnel in the coming weeks.
Coach may be ‘process focused’ not result focused….but results are what win Calder Cups..so I suggest he be a bit more result focused. Process doesn’t mean squat without the ‘W’.