By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
It’s been a long time since fans at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial verbally chased referees off the ice after what they perceived as horrendous officiating.
And it’s been even longer since misconducts were dished out like candy on Halloween; a good three decades actually, back to the late 1980s and early 1990s and the late Mick McGeough’s hair-trigger misconduct merry-go-round.
But on Friday night, 6,014 fans and two teams endured a night of questionable calls by Jack Young and Jordan Deckard, with the Belleville Senators using a pair of five-on-three power play goals early in the third period to prevail 7-4.
“It was just a tough night for the stripes,” said winger Linus Weissbach, who scored his 20th goal and assisted on another for the Amerks.
Said Amerks coach Seth Appert: “It was tackle football out there for most of the game.”
Tempers eventually boiled over. Amerks defenseman Matt Bartkowski was given a 10-minute misconduct for some sort of choice words at 2:54 of the third period — after he was called for a one-handed hooking penalty.
The hooking minor came just as Belleville’s Egor Sokolov scored a five-on-three power-play goal to tie the score, and gave the Senators another five-on-three. They needed just 36 seconds to score again and to take a 5-4 lead as Roby Jarvenite one-timed a shot past goalie Malcolm Subban.
“It’s hard to evaluate for either team when the game’s called like that, that’s the reality of it,” Appert said.
Belleville then extended the lead to 6-4 with 2:02 remaining on a goal by Angus Crookshank before Rouke Chartier scored the clinching empty-netter at 18:14.
That’s when Weissbach lost his cool and earned an unsportsmanlike conduct minor followed immediately by a 10-minute misconduct.
And when the final horn sounded, Amerks assistant coach Michael Peca was assessed a game misconduct for expressing his thoughts to Young and Deckard.
The loss in the standings hurt more than the loss of tempers, however. They remain in third place in the North Division at 79 points with two games to play. Second-place Syracuse (80 points) and fourth-place Utica (78) play each other Saturday in the finale for both, while the Amerks are home with Cleveland Saturday and then at Cleveland on Sunday.
Second place means home-ice advantage in the best-of-five division semifinals. Fourth-place means relegation to the best-of-three play-in mini-round against Laval.
So while Friday’s loss kept the standings muddled, Appert wasn’t overly bothered.
“We’ve given ourselves a chance to win almost every night for the last 25-30 games,” Appert said. “We’ll just get some rest and try to win a hockey game tomorrow. If that gets us home ice, great. If it doesn’t, we’ll get ready to win a game on Sunday.”
Indeed, the Amerks have been on quite a roll. They had picked up points in 10 straight (7-0-2-1), earning 17 of a possible 20 before Friday’s loss.
They had a great chance to tie Friday’s game late with 3:36 remaining Brett Murray made slick pass to find Weissbach alone in the deep slot but goalie Leevi Merilainen somehow gloved the point-blank one-timer.
“I don’t think he even saw the puck,” Weissbach said. “I just shot it right into his glove … and then they scored on the next shift.”
Book those tee times
Amerks winger Matej Pekar provided some on-ice hilarity with 7:25, after drawing a penalty for the second time in the third period.
As a scrum was broken up and Pekar headed to the Amerks bench, Sokolov kept yapping. Pekar turned and, using his stick like a golf club, imitated a teeing off motion.
That’s perhaps why the third-year winger draws the ire of opponents.
“He’s an agitant,” Appert said. “He did a good job drawing penalties. He did a good job keeping his cool and goading them into punching him in the face. The power play was good early but it wasn’t good enough late when we got those opportunities.”
Another injury
The Amerks are already short forwards with Brandon Biro and Tyson Kozak already out week-to-week with injuries, and Brendan Warren was forced out of Friday’s game early. Appert said he didn’t know the extent.
“The fact he didn’t come back, and knowing how tough he is, it’s probably not a good sign,” Appert said.
How important is home ice?
It’s not the end-all, be-all, Appert said.
“We didn’t have home ice last year and we won two series,” he said. “If we get home ice, great, our fans have been awesome. If we don’t, the task is the same: You’ve gotta win the series.”
Team awards
MVP (voted by players): Brandon Biro.
Rookie of the Year (voted by booster club): Jiri Kulich.
Most Improved Player (voted by players): Mason Jobst.
Rob Zabelny Unsung Hero (voted by media): Michael Houser.
Fairand/O’Neil Sportsmanship Award (voted by off-ice officials): Ethan Prow.
McCulloch Trophy for community service (voted by the Amerks organization): Malcolm Subban.
Most Popular Player (booster club): Biro.
Man of the Year (league award): Subban.
A rink fixture is retiring
Mike Ventrella, who has worked on the rink crew for 33 years, many of which were spent driving the Zamboni, will retire this summer.
He was recognized after the first period with video board tributes. One of the two Zambonis now has an MV 33 painted on the back of the driver’s seat.
Yeah it was a clown show by the refs no doubt. But to be fair, it was also a clown show by the Amerks, who after the first 10 minutes, totally stopped playing. All the discussions between periods (when you could hear them over the ear-splitting, annoying, aggravating music that MUST be played at levels that should be outlawed with young kids in attendance) were unanimous…the team suddenly just quit. Amerks should have gone into period 2 ahead 2-0.
The 3 straight penalties early in the 2nd were awful. Tripping on the goalie, with everyone piled around the crease? Then a very undisciplined delay of game (you have to be more careful (by April) to not put your team down 2 men. Followed by the ‘hook’ (really?) After letting so much other stuff go unnoticed. Still Amerks penalty kill during those 5 on 3 was abysmal. Belleville controlled the game from the 10minute mark of period 1 to the final whistle.
Even when Amerks got 2 consecutive power plays after falling behind 5-4, they did nothing. So, they must be willing to shoulder some of the blame for the awful performance. In a game they really needed to win, to start establishing some ‘playoff presence’, they failed. I hope the coach doesn’t persist in a rather cavalier attitude about these last games and our position in the standings.
He is right about one thing. Home ice isn’t an advantage for this years Amerks. It would be great for the fans for sure, but the team has played mostly lousy at home. During that recent 10 game streak of no regulation losses, the team alternated between lucky and good.
Once again, Cleveland has nothing to play for in these final 2 games. I hope our coach tells our guys that THEY indeed have something to play for, so they don’t lay another egg like the end of last season against the Monsters. We need to win these games. No help coming from Buffalo, thank you so its sink or swim with what we have.
4 ‘abuse of ref’ misconducts? I don’t think I’ve seen 4 of those in the past 5 decades of watching Amerk hockey. It was a joke, but no one is laughing.
Terrible game. Its true…just have to move on…but with a purpose, not with a ‘well lets see what happens tomorrow’ attitude.t
A comment was made that there were 3 teams on the ice in that game – Amerks, Belleville and the refs! Also, as usual no help from the Sabres. It seems other teams are sending guys down to help their AHL playoffs! Not having UPL on our roster before the deadline was wrong! Think about it – 4 goalies in Buffalo and 2 in Rochester! Absurd! Amerks are in the playoffs and the Sabres are on the golf course! What’s wrong with this picture???