BY KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
SYRACUSE – As far as Rochester Americans coach Seth Appert is concerned, Philippe Myers belongs in the National Hockey League.
Unfortunately for the Amerks, the Tampa Bay Lightning don’t need another big, mobile defenseman, so Myers, who has played in 153 NHL games in his career, is skating for the Syracuse Crunch.
On Friday night, the sixth-year veteran delivered another dagger to the Amerks, scoring 2:20 into overtime to give the Crunch a 3-2 victory on Friday night in Game 1 of the best-of-five Calder Cup North Division semifinals.
Myers held in a clearing try by rookie winger Josh Passolt at the right point, danced around Kohen Olischefski and then, with plenty of traffic in front of goalie Malcolm Subban, snapped a low shot into the net.
“The best player on the ice made an elite play,” said Appert, who watched Myers beat the Amerks with an overtime goal on April 5 of the regular season.
Making elite plays was something the Amerks didn’t do nearly enough of, however, in the playoff opener. They were outshot 40-23 and rarely created sustained offensive zone pressure, something that must change if they are to even the series when Game 2 is played at 7 p.m. Saturday right back at the Upstate Medical University Arena.
“We weren’t great, I thought we were just good; we have better in us,” Appert said.
The Amerks did confront adversity well. Twice in the second period they fell behind by a goal. Twice they tied it, with Linus Weissbach and Passolt finding the net.
But the Crunch dominated the third period and when the Amerks did have a chance with a power play in the final three minutes, they didn’t produce a shot.
“We couldn’t get any Grade-A chances in front,” Weissbach said.
For the night, the special teams scorecard was ugly: Syracuse went 2-for-4 with the man advantage while the Amerks were 0-for-3.
“The power play’s got to be better,” Appert said. “Their special teams outperformed ours.”
There were just seven minor penalties called in the game, which featured a fair share of big hits and plenty of snarl in the goal mouth.
“It was hard, fast, physical and you had to work for all your chances,” Appert said.
After a scoreless first period, the teams traded goals in the second period, and both times the Crunch took the lead before the Amerks tied it.
Declan Carlile boomed home a point shot on a power play 4:12 into the second but Weissback retaliated for the Amerks at 8:54, steering home a perfect Tyson Kozak centering pass.
Kozak raced for the puck on the right wing boards at the circle, knowing he would get crunched by defenseman Trevor Carrick, but in one motion, as he reached the puck, he spun and fired a pass across the slot to the left edge of the crease and Weissbach had an open net.
The Crunch again used the power play to go ahead 2-1 at 16:30, with Felix Robert firing a shot from the bottom of the right circle high to the far side.
It was the third consecutive penalty the Amerks needed to kill off, and second in a row on defenseman Jeremy Davies. He had been out of the box just 14 seconds when he inadvertently whacked Crunch forward Gabriel Dumont in the face.
“You can’t take back-to-back penalties,” Appert said. “We gave them two in a row, usually that’s a recipe for disaster.”
But again the Amerks rallied as Passolt scored at 18:41. Davies carried the down the left wing, Passolt barreled hard to the net. Goalie Max Lagace stopped Davies’ shot but Passolt chipped the rebound over Lagace and in off the cross bar.
“I saw we had numbers coming into the zone and I just wanted to get to the net,” Passolt said.
Signed as a minor-league free agent after his collegiate career at Western Michigan, Passolt has played two games in the American Hockey League and has goals in both. He was recalled from ECHL Cincinnati on Sunday and scored that afternoon in the regular-season finale.
With Jiri Kulich, Brandon Biro and Brendan Warren out of the lineup due to injury, Passolt was given plenty of ice time, usually with Olischefski and Weissbach.
“I just wanted to be ready when my number is called,” he said.
Appert said he doesn’t have many options at forward, but also said the line was solid, other than the turnover on the winning goal.
Notes: Kozak returned to the lineup after missing the final six games of the regular season because of injury, Kulich remains questionable for the weekend. He suffered a lower body injury last Saturday, didn’t play Friday and Appert said he’s not sure if he’ll be able to play in Game 2. … That overtime was necessary shouldn’t be a surprise. The Amerks and Crunch played four overtime games during the 12-game regular season series that saw each team win six times. And the Amerks went to overtime in four of their first five playoff games last season (and in five of the 10).
Amerks overmatched by Syracuse were it not for Subbans outstanding play and Syracuse hitting the post and crossbar 3 times game never would have went to overtime. Amerks gave Syracuse all kinds of time and space on the power play meanwhile Amerks could barely muster even decent shots on goal on their own power plays. In this game the 40 to 23 advantage in shots Syracuse had was indeed very indicative of how the play went. I will say I can’t fault the effort the intensity was great but Syracuse is the more seasoned bunch and it shows Buffalo really weakened the Amerks by getting rid of Bjork and Sheehan giving us nobody in return trading away Priskie for someone who isn’t even able to crack the lineup and not bothering to make Hinostroza available for the playoffs. Very disappointing considering we and Laval draw playoff crowds better then anyone in the league as proven last year and Buffalo had a great opportunity to bolster our chances to have a long playoff run yet did the very opposite they say they want the prospects to learn in pressure situations yet what good is it to have 18 or 19 year olds beaten by a veteran team like Syracuse what will the lesson be? It’s men vs boys and tragically this team is very talented and in my opinion just having Hinostroza and Bjork would have made a world of difference and even if it meant the likes of a Rosen didn’t get as much ice time I do believe we would have a much longer playoff run and therefore these kids ultimately would be exposed to more pressure situations and most importantly actually have a decent chance to succeed! Also, how many 10,000 crowds will Rochester not have by Buffalo unwillingness to value winning in Rochester. Very disappointing!
Agree with all Phil wrote. Its so darned frustrating when your parent team doesn’t care at all if you win or lose. I defy any Sabre fan to refute this. Crunch are the better team, by a lot. they play just hard enough to beat us. Only Subban kept the score close. But too many Amerks are passengers. The vets in particular are not pulling their weight. When was the last time the 3 M’s, Weissbach and Rousek played a complete game to help the kids ‘progress’? When are they going to show up?
Sabres don’t really care about them. Only the kids. Kulich? ‘hes close, he’s close’???Yeah we heard that last year with Samuelsson. Truth was, Sabres didn’t want him playing so they pretty much instructed coach to lie to us.
If Kulich is ‘close’, get him out there. Its playoff time. You play thru the injuries. Bobby Baun once scored a playoff GWG playing an entire game on a broken ankle. Extreme example yes, but this is the time when you pull out all the stops…if winning is the goal.
With the Sabres it just isn’t. Every Amerk fan knows this. They don’t even talk a good show very much. You never hear them passionately talk about the need to have a winner down here.
Last night all the mistakes this team has made all season surfaced. But the worst were the stupid penalties and the inability to kill them off. Davies is a total liability and shouldn;t be playing. The PP was as disorganized as I’ve seen it. The PK was a mess. O-Zone time was non existent. The OT was simply a foregone conclusion. Crunch went out and grabbed it. Amerks watched.
‘Being good’ and not winning isn’t good enough coach. If they want to come home 1-1 they need a ton better game tonite, in every aspect except in nets.
Make no mistake, Syracuse is good but if we are to believe all the ‘talk’, we are even with them. But we’re not. If there are guys in our locker room who want it bad enough, they will do more and do it better. thats what it will take.
Overall, last nights game was a huge disappointment. You take nothing good away from a loss in a 5 game series. Its win, and nothing else matters.
Unless you are the Sabres. We know that winning here doesn’t really matter and their actions this season prove that. Sigh….