By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
For the better part of a month, the Rochester Americans have concentrated on playing a style conducive to springtime hockey.
Their defensive zone play has improved dramatically and they’re able to defend without extended periods of chaos. Over the past eight games, they’ve allowed just 16 goals, a big reason they earned points in six of those games.
But on Wednesday night their team defense failed them in overtime. Cleveland’s Cole Clayton managed to find open ice during four-on-four play and boomed a slap shot past goalie Malcolm Subban to give the Monsters a 3-2 victory at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial.
The four-on-four was the result of a penalty to Jeremy Davies that carried into overtime. That meant the Monsters started overtime with a four-on-three man advantage for the first nine seconds, and when Davies’ penalty expired, the manpower was even at four-on-four.
Except the Amerks contingent of center Mason Jobst and defensemen Davies, Ethan Prow and Lawrence Pilut somehow lost coverage on Clayton.
Cleveland’s David Jiricek found Clayton alone above the right circle, and a stride or two later, the Monsters defenseman unloaded the shot to end the game 59 seconds into OT.
“It was bad coverage,” Amerks coach Seth Appert said. “You have four good defensive players out there, that’s really an inexcusable mistake by all four of them. Poor defensive execution, poor communication. Probably communication more than anything.”
The loss snapped a three-game winning streak, but the point allowed the Amerks to tie Syracuse in third place at 70 points and creep within a point of second-place Utica in the American Hockey League’s North Division. Cleveland, meanwhile, moved back ahead of Laval by a point for the fifth and final playoff spot in the North.
“You’d like two points, but at this time of year you just have to acquire points,” Appert said.
The Amerks certainly played well enough to win. They outshot the Monsters 33-26, including 16-6 in the first period. But as the third period was just winding up, they found themselves trailing.
A misplay by Subban in the trapezoid behind the net led to a turnover and then a goal by Mikael Pyyhtia 1:31 into the third.
But with 7:45 remaining, rookie Jiri Kulich tied the score on a power play. Lukas Rousek and Prow worked to set up Kulich for a one-time from the right-wing circle, and he rocketed a shot past goalie Jet Greaves. It was his team-leading 22nd goal, 15 of which have come in his past 24 games.
“I’ve tried to work on my one-timer,” said Kulich, who along with Rousek assisted on Brett Murray’s 21st goal that tied the score 1-1 in the first period.
It was a lousy game. Monsters scored in the first minute and Amerks never led the entire night. Another soft home game. Being critical because this time of year, the good teams are ramping up their game. Last night there was no ‘ramp up’. When the game was there for the taking at the end, Amerks were killing penalties for the final 3 minutes. Stupid penalties (high sticking by our Captain) and even more stupid delay of game by Davies…who takes a lot of stupid penalties.
That was bad enough but then the OT where Amerks never touched the puck basically and the ‘d’ was chasing Cleveland around until the missed assignment.
Games like last night have to be won. The intensity meter swung in Cleveland’s favor. Subban also made a very poor play on the 2nd goal, finding himself way out of position to stop a shot that normally gets stopped.
I will hand out props for the penalty killers at the end allowing Amerks to at least get the loser point. But losing that game stung, because they didn’t play hard or smart enough to win. For the 2nd time they followed up a 3 win weekend with a loss instead of building off that momentum.
Are these guys built for a playoff run? Who knows. But performances like last night are discouraging at best. Its too late in the year for those kind of games. Goalies can’t get caught out their net; team captain can’t put his team behind the 8 ball late in games with high sticking penalties; seasoned d-men can’t look so pathetic in OT. Desperate teams take advantage of those mistakes.
Last night was a classic ‘playing not to lose’ rather than playing to win. And they lost a critical point. They need to play a lot better, lot smarter, and a lot more intense against the Comets this weekend. Time is running out.t