By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
The Calder Cup playoffs are still a month away but Friday’s game between the Rochester Americans and Toronto Marlies very much had a playoff look to it.
Not much open ice (until overtime, away), not many great scoring chances (until overtime, anyway) and a sense of desperation by both teams (including in overtime).
Which is why defense and goaltending ruled right up through the tiebreaker shootout, when Nick Abruzzese scored the only goal to give the Marlies a 2-1 victory in front of 6,215 fans at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial.
Toronto’s Dylan Gambrell scored with 2:04 remaining in the first period and the score didn’t change until just 2:44 remained when Linus Weissbach converted a breakaway after Ryan Johnson’s perfect 70-foot stretch pass sent him in alone.
“We’ll take a point in that game, being down late and coming back,” said Weissbach, who missed the previous five games because of injury. “I told the boys it was nice to be back battling with them again. This is the time of year you want to be out there.”
Michael Houser, called up from ECHL Jacksonville earlier in the week, was in goal for the Amerks and played very well. He faced only 21 shots but did make quality saves, including on Topi Niemela’s OT breakaway with 1:21 remaining.
He left the ice angry, however, when Abruzzese scored five-hole on what became the final shot of the shootout, slamming his stick against the goal post.
But his play certainly helped the Amerks gain a valuable point in the North Division standings. They’re still third with 69 points but fourth-place Toronto is now just two points behind and has two games in hand. Belleville is fifth with 66 points and Laval is sixth at 64.
“He was excellent, he was everything you’d expect,” Amerks coach Seth Appert said. “He’s been out, he’s only played one game at Jacksonville (of late) because of injury and he looks like that.
“The beauty of Housie, he’s seen everything, everything. Everything imaginable in pro hockey at every level he’s seen, and he’s always ready. He prepares every day like he’s going to play that night in the NHL.”
Houser wasn’t tested a great deal, a credit to the Amerks defensive play.
“I thought we played great,” Houser said. “We blocked a ton of shots, we limited their chances, so it made my job pretty easy.”
Said Appert: “That’s probably the best offensive team in our division, them and Cleveland in terms of firepower and the group the throw of the boards at you. I thought our team commitment to playing honest hockey was high. I thought theirs was high as well.”
Weissbach perhaps wasn’t ultra sharp after not playing since March 9 but he got better as the game moved along.
“You could see the timing was a little off,” Appert said. “Thought he gave us really good minutes, I thought his defensive play was really strong and that was a huge goal. We deserved a point. Did we deserve two? Maybe, you could argue it. But that’s a huge point. All points right now are massive.”
He scored his 11th goal of the season on the late-game breakaway, speeding away from defensemen William Villeneuve and Marshall Rifai after Johnson made the long stretch pass. Then again, Johnson probably needed a little redemption.
“I thought he was a little sloppy in the first, he made a real critical mistake on their goal and I called him out on it because t was a mental mistake,” Appert said. “I thought his second and third (periods) he really dug in and had a bite to him. He was physically committed, he won puck battles and then he made a huge, huge pass to send Weissbach in.”
The Amerks had more than enough chances to win the game in overtime. Goalie Dennis Hildeby robbed Mason Jobst with a glove save at 48 seconds, stopped a Brett Murray breakaway at 3:05 and then denied three point-blank tries by Jiri Kulich in the final two minutes.
“Would I like our execution to be better? Sure, but we put five on Hildeby last week (in a 5-2 victory),” Appert said. “He’s a really, really talented goalie and he probably wasn’t happy with his performance last week. I expected him to be good today and he was.”
Rosen held out
Winger Isak Rosen didn’t play because of a lower body injury suffered in Wednesday’s 6-5 victory over Hartford. The injury is not serious.
“He was 50/50 whether he could go so (we decided to) probably err on the side of caution in terms of getting him ready for Sunday (a 3:05 p.m. home game against Utica),” Appert said.
As games go, this one was playoff-entertaining. It was a shame they didn’t win it in OT. Kulich missed so many sure thing chances including one where he was set up perfectly for a tap-in into a gaping open net…and he somehow missed. You heard the total frustration in Donnie’s voice as we was preparing to yell ‘he scooooores’. Our coach who sometimes (IMO) over-praises everyone for everything all the time, will continue to tell us how some of these guys are playing their best hockey ever…yet the scoreboard tells a different tale and right now results trump everything else. Ergo: Kulich had to score on those chances. that’s why he’s here.
And no, Duffer and Marty…he and Rosen most definitely should not be called up to Buffalo right now. What logical planet are those two on, given the standings of the two teams. But thats the Sabres. There are very few around here anymore willing to call them out. So those of us buying the tickets will do it.
Houser played well. He gave us a chance to win, while Buffalo dinks around with 3 goalies out west with one game to play and the playoffs in the rearview mirror. Would I be surprised if they don’t send Levi back right away when they return? No. As illogical as that would be.
Amerks are a team that will have to scrap for every inch of real estate they can get. their key guys can’t take nights off. One thing our coach has done well is having them prepared to play once post season begins. I’m hoping that continues…but we’ve got to get there first and that is not a slam dunk. A win Sunday is a must to keep those teams behind us, behind us, as games in hand will begin to factor in. All hands on deck. Houser probably gets the net again.
Ted I will call Marty and Duffer out for those illogical comments! What in gods name have Kulich and Rosen done to deserve a call up the second half of the season?! Also, I question coaches decision in using Biro and Kulich in the shootout, Biro hasn’t scored all season in the shootout and Kulich was snakebit all game a shootout when he had too much time to overthink was a recipe for failure in yesterday’s game, as for Weissbach that was the only shooter that made sense! Buffalo carrying 3 goalies right now while we have an ECHL goalie as our backup to Houser reminds me of a scene from Dumb and Dumber when Loyd had 2 pairs of gloves while Harry’s hands we’re getting frostbite in the Rockies! Is it surprising? Not at all, no wonder Buffalo hasn’t made the playoffs in over a decade with that kind of illogical management!