Courtesy of Amerks.com
Syracuse, NY – The Rochester Americans (32-22-6-3) jumped out to a two-goal lead in the first period and then relied on goaltender Dustin Tokarski to shut down his former team in what became a 2-0 win over the Syracuse Crunch (36-21-4-2) in the season series finale between the two teams Wednesday at Upstate Medical University Arena.
With the victory, the Amerks have earned at least one point in 21 of their last 29 games dating back to Jan. 17, which includes two road wins against their cross-town rival over that span. Rochester earned its first shutout in the regular season against the Crunch since Mar. 28, 2015, also a 2-0 road win and a span of 99 games between the North Division foes.
Forwards Linus Weissbach and Jiri Kulich provided the scoringfor Rochester, which finished the season-series with a 5-5-2-0 record, with Kulich reaching the 20-goal mark for the second straight year. Justin Richards, Ryan Johnson, Ethan Prow, and Isak Rosén all logged an assist in the win, the club’s second in the last two meetings with the Crunch.
Goaltender Michael Houser (3-1-1) made his seventh appearance of the season for the Amerks and third straight. The veteran netminder drew the starting nod only to be replaced by Tokarski just 34 seconds into the contest. Tokarski (9-9-3), who stopped all 29 shots he faced, and Houser combined for the Amerks second shutout of the campaign.
Gage Goncalves, who leads all Crunch players this season with 50 points, and Sean Day registered five shots each, which topped all Syracuse skaters. Goaltender Matt Tomkins (14-11-2) made 25 saves in his 27th game of the campaign but suffered the defeat.
Near the midway point of the first period, Graham Slaggert gathered the puck to the left circle of Tokarski and fired a diagonal-pass through the neutral zone to Weissbach. The Swedish forward carried the puck across the blueline before leaving it for Johnson, creating an odd-man rush.
Johnson took a few strides down the right wall and gave a return feed to Weissbach below the dots. The latter attempted to tuck a pass to Richards but eventually got the puck back and quickly snapped a shot over the left arm of Tomkins at the 8:12 mark, putting the Amerks up 1-0.
Less than three minutes later, Rochester doubled its lead with 10:36 left in the opening frame.
After Johnson dumped the puck into the offensive zone from the left point, it caromed around the wall before Rosen and Kulich tapped it to Prow near the blueline. As Prow patiently waited for Kulich, who began the play with a faceoff win, to put his stick on the ice, the veteran defenseman fired a shot for the second-year forward to redirect behind the Crunch netminder.
The Amerks carried the two-goal lead along with a 10-8 shot-advantage into the intermission break.
Syracuse had its best two chances of the game coming in the second period, but Tokarski turned aside Cole Koepke’s breakaway opportunity and Alex Barré-Boulet’s one-timer from the right circle.
In the final 20 minutes of play, the Amerks, who clamped down defensively by not allowing the Crunch to generate much offensively, preserved Houser’s and Tokarski’s shutout and the 2-0 win.
The Amerks wrap up the month of March as they make their final trip of the season to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Saturday, Mar. 30 for a 3:15 p.m. face-off with the Cleveland Monsters. The first half of the home-and-home series will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV.
Stars and Stripes:
Jiri Kulich became the first Amerks player to score 20 or more goals in back-to-back seasons since Cole Schneider and Justin Bailey each did so in 2015-16 and 2016-17 … Goaltender Dustin Tokarski finished with a 3-1-0 record, a .933 save percentage and a 2.20 goals-against average on the road in the season series against Syracuse… Tonight marked Rochester’s first road shutout since Michael Houser (23 saves) blanked Utica 1-0 in a shootout on Mar. 25, 2023.
Coach has been preaching defense for several weeks, and how much it has improved. Well, yes indeed and lately it has spilled over into the better play of the two veteran goaltenders.
The last one I expected to come up large last night was Tokarski. After a couple of miserable starts, he came in cold in the first minute and truly earned a shutout. (its too bad he doesn;t get the credit for it since Houser barely played at all.)
Right now Amerks are clicking on all cylinders and look like a team that is ready for post season. This assumes that the hapless Sabres don’t tinker which they are always ready to do. Their season is over but if they have any pride in their organization, they will do what those like Washington-Hershey do and try and earn a championship for their prospects and seasoned veterans.
From the perch of this long-time fan, it has never looked like the Sabres have really REALLY gone all in for their affiliate, other than talking a good show, unless by accident. There is a good core of guys down here and Appert has them ready for the rigors of post season. (assuming of course that disaster doesn’t strike in the final 2 weeks) So don’t screw it up Buffalo, please don’t.
The 2-0 win last night was a character building win for the whole team. Lets see that repeated Saturday. Who knows? We might be challenging for the top two spots instead of scrambling just to get to the dance.