By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
A year ago, the Rochester Americans began a magical playoff run to the Calder Cup Eastern Conference finals by pulling off the “reverse sweep” in the first-round series against the Syracuse Crunch.
They fell behind 2-0 in the best-of-five series before rattling off three straight victories, including in overtime in the fifth and deciding game.
Don’t expect an encore this spring, however. Not the way the Amerks have played against the Crunch lately.
For the third time this month, the Amerks opened a 2-0 lead in the first period against Syracuse and then collapsed, this time losing 5-2 in front of a sparse Wednesday night crowd at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial.
Perhaps even more amazing: The Crunch have won all five games played in downtown Rochester (the Amerks meanwhile are 2-0-1-0 in Syracuse).
“Syracuse is heavier, stronger and just better than us right now, and we’ve got to change that,” said Amerks coach Seth Appert, whose club has won just four of their past 13 games (4-5-3-1). “Our younger guys have got to decide to change that. Last year at this time they were better than us at this time as well and we decided we wanted to change it.”
Such a change won’t be easy. The veteran-laden Crunch are big, smart, rarely make foolish mistakes, and never pass up a chance to play the body. Add it all up and it explains why the Amerks mustered just 19 shots on goalie Matt Tomkins, including only five in the third period.
“They’re well structured and play a consistent game whether they’re up two or down two,” Amerks captain Michael Mersch said.
Which is why the Crunch showed no signs of panic after goals by Isak Rosen 9:05 into the first period and Michael Mersch 2:16 into the second period staked the Amerks to a 2-0 lead.
“That’s been the issue the last three games against them,” Appert said. “We’ve started well, we’ve given ourselves enough looks. We had looks to get to three and we didn’t capitalize.”
And when the Crunch began to get better looks, they did capitalize, tying the score before the second period ended on goals by Alex Barre-Boulet at 7:59 and Jack Finley at 15:07.
When Gabriel Dumont one-timed a Chris Harpus centering pass past goalie Devon Levi 8:33 into the third period, the Amerks found themselves trailing.
“They’re a structured team and maybe we fell into that a bit,” Rosen said. “It comes down to we have to win more puck battles and get the puck more.”
Winning the special teams battles is also critical. The Amerks went 0-for-5 on the power play, though they did have good looks on the first two. Syracuse scored on its only power play.
Far more distressing for the Amerks, however, was allowing yet another short-handed goal, the game-breaker by Shawn Element with 8:45 remaining.
Rosen couldn’t handle a pass in his skates from Jiri Kulich just as he crossed the blue line. Element poked it away, fell to his knees, quickly got back to his skates and then carried down the right wing before firing a shot from high in the right circle that eluded Levi.
It was the 11th short-handed goal allowed by the Amerks, worst in the American Hockey League.
“At the end of the day that’s a wrist shot from the top of the circle; you don’t want to give it up,” Appert said. “Normally with how good Devin is, I would expect that save, unless it skipped and it might have.”
Lineup juggling
While Kulich returned to the lineup after missing five games with an upper body injury, center Mason Jobst and defenseman Kale Clague sat out due to illness and forwards Tyson Kozak and Alesandr Kisakov were out with injuries.
With Tyson Jost on recall to the Buffalo Sabres, the Amerks’ lack of depth at center was evident on draws.
“I think we were 30 percent in the faceoff circle tonight so that’s not a recipe for success against a team as possession-heavy as they are,” Appert said, “because then they can just lean on you and grind on you.”
Costly missed call
Amerks defenseman Ethan Prow was blatantly upended by Crunch forward Gage Goncalves in the corner to Levi’s left and the can-opener-like trip, which wasn’t called a penalty, led to the first Syracuse goal.
“It wasn’t kind of a can opener, it was a can opener,” Appert said.
With Prow hobbled and unable to get back into the play, Goncalves set up Barre-Boulet’s one-timer from the right hash marks that Levi had no chance to stop.
“That puck doesn’t go in the net if he’s (Prow) back defending and back into the picture, and obviously that was the turning point in the game,” Appert said.
How is a team that was a powerhouse in last years playoffs almost making it to the Calder cup finals with such a high amount of returnees so bad? If anything I’d say we have more depth defensively and in goal for example Michael Houser was here all year (He’s now forced to Jacksonville) and Kale Clague was in Buffalo! We lost Malone but gained Jost! All the other forwards who were so good in last year’s playoffs and first couple months here are still here! Why have the forwards regressed so much? To me one obvious answer is the awful powerlessness power play! Michael Peca did a great job with it last year Vinny Prospal experiment this year has been awful. To be in the bottom half of the league on the pp with this talented group is mind boggling! If our power play was like last years we’d be up in the standings with Cleveland and Syracuse instead of barely in a final playoff spot and continuing to sink as the season goes on! I do hope Prospal is fired, with the crowds that we draw in the playoffs winning should be valued here (after all this is a business) and if it is Prospal needs to be replaced! On a positive note, I was smart enough to not go to the game. Yet another uninspiring home game losing most face offs, puck battles and very predictably the horrendous power play would insure that the Amerks would yet again lose on home ice squandering another lead! To sum it up, never did I think this talented offensive group would ever become this lifeless and boring to watch! We are virtually guaranteed a loss on home ice, we have zero comeback in this team like we did the last 2 years when we were never out of a game this year even 1 goal deficits in the third we are dead! This team doesn’t fight, loses most physical battles, plays it’s worst hockey on home ice, has a coach who always comes up with excuses, and most curiously right now has seemingly lost all offensive abilities!!! Who wants to watch that?!
Maybe they should stop going with 5 forwards on the power play -it’s not working and they’ve giving plenty of short handed goals
Longest losing streak of the year (4). 4-8 during February and in every game, they either scored 1st or were at least tied going into the 3rd period.
So their play is unacceptable at every level.
The power play…these guys look like they have never seen each other out there. Tentative, slow to break out, unable to sustain pressure, and allowing too many shorties. Special teams win or lose games. For the Amerks, they have been losing lot of games.
Last night, like so many home games this season, was terrible. Amerks completely gave up over the last 20 minutes. Even with goalie pulled, they hardly tried.
So much talent, so little result. Team looks like it can’t wait to tee off. there isn’t a single forward that could help the Sabres right now.
Its painful going to the BCA. The level of play is abysmal. Even Levi didn’t have his ‘A’ game last night.
the coach keeps on saying the other team played “heavier” lets be honest, this team is soft & have no physical palyers whatsoever (they are the mirror image of the sabres) its frustrating watching this team get bounced all over the ice, the defense stinks, the forward have talent but get pushed all over the place, i knew losing Malone was going to hurt but oh well the sabres don’t think we need that type of player, Levi is talented but needs to be here at leat 1-2 years & he is not in the Ryan Miller talent class, this team is going to be lucky to make the playoffs & if they do make it, they will be out quickly
So the 2 weekend games in Belleville proved once again that this team is definitely seriously flawed. They came out Friday and played well enough to break the 4 game losing streak. A small blip though because one night later it was same-old same-old. Another uninspired 4-1 loss where the offense was missing in action and the special teams were terrible.
Coach went back to the well and started Levi back-to-back. He was OK but his teammates were not. None of them.
Tbe game started sluggishly with tons of whistles and Amerks chasing the B-Sens all over the ice. Then an early power play resulted in a 1-0 Sens lead and they never looked back. You knew it was going to be a loss early on.
Really not sure these guys have what it takes. Sure, they might flip the switch if they make the playoffs. But there really isn’t much to recommend that at the moment.
Every opponent looks and plays ‘bigger’, faster, and stronger. Levi has been good but it hasn’t resulted in wins because the supporting cast just isn’t there. This is a very frustrating team to watch, and their home ice appearances have been frightful.
If anyone has any answers, they better surface pretty soon. Sabres finally seem to be rallying around UPL. They are winning hockey games again. Amerks, not so much. They are stuck in the mud.
Ted agreed 100%! The team right now is completely lost, they needed both games in Belleville the competitiveness in the second game was downright awful right from the opening face off.