By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
One moment, they’re celebrating an improbable rally and overtime victory.
Seemingly the next moment, they’re packing up their skates and equipment for the final time this season.
One moment they’re riding a tidal wave of euphoria following last Saturday’s 4-3 overtime victory that forced a deciding fifth game. The next they’re trying to fathom how what they expected to be another deep playoff run came to such an abrupt halt.
Such is life in hockey’s playoffs, where even in the early rounds good teams get bounced by equally good teams.
The Syracuse Crunch opened a 2-0 lead in the first 10 minutes of Friday’s Game 5 North Division semifinal showdown and were never really threatened, limiting the Amerks to just 18 shots in a series-clinching 5-2 victory in front of 10,758 fans at sold out Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial.
“This right now doesn’t feel real to me, it just happened so quick,” captain Michael Mersch said. “You’re practicing all week and you’re gearing up for a game and bang, it’s over.”
Two years ago, they reached the North Division finals. Last season they played into June, taking the eventual champion Hershey Bears to six games in the Eastern Conference finals.
And this year, they’re done without winning a round, even after finishing in a first-place tie in the division (officially second place because of the tiebreaker). Of the five games in the series, only the finale was not decided by one goal; Games 2, 3 and 4 went to overtime.
“Both Syracuse and us are capable of deep runs, it just happens that the North Division is such a bear and we have to play each other early,” Amerks coach Seth Appert said. “It was a great series, I’m really proud of our guys for the season we had, we just didn’t find a way tonight.”
In some ways that was surprising. The Amerks left Syracuse late Saturday night on such a high. They had overcome a 3-0, third-period deficit to win, the first time any team in the 68-year history of the franchise had turned the trick.
But then there was the six-day wait to play Game 5. Center Mason Jobst and goalie Devon Levi said they wished they could have played Game 5 a day or two later. Appert, meanwhile, said he wasn’t sure if the break hurt them.
“I’ve said this before, I think momentum’s only as good as your next shift or your next practice,” Appert said. “You could have played a day or two later and you don’t know how that’s going to respond. You don’t know at all if the other team is even shook at all by the loss.”
The bottom line on Friday was pretty clear, however. The Amerks just didn’t play well enough. The Crunch limited them to four shots on goal in the first period, seven in the second and seven in the third.
Twice they pulled within a goal – to 2-1 when Jeremy Davies steered home a perfect 50-foot Joseph Cecconi pass to the left edge of the crease at 17:33 of the first period and to 3-2 when Jiri Kulich’s shot/pass to the deep slot caromed past goalie Brandon Halverson on a power play at 10:33 of the second.
But from that moment on, the Amerks generated little pressure and maybe one or two real scoring chances as the Crunch played their lockdown 1-3-1 defense to perfection.
“We didn’t quite execute the way we needed to in an elimination game,” Jobst said. “We had a little pushback, just not good enough to win. We can’t dig a hole and expect to come back and hope Levi continues to shut the door.”
The inability to create anything off the rush or gain possession off chip-ins was confounding. In the Game 4 rally, the Crunch did little to slow the Amerks attack. On Friday, there was no attack.
Appert said losing Davies to injury 7:17 into the second period was catastrophic. The veteran defenseman was run over in open ice and appeared to take an elbow to the head from Crunch forward Jordy Bellerive. No penalty was called.
“We had them on our heels with our pace,” Appert said. “Then Davies take that hit and it was a harder game for us after that.
“I know how much Jeremy Davies means to our team but if anybody wondered, just watch the last 30 minutes tonight, because we were not nearly as dynamic. We couldn’t end as many plays and we couldn’t transition with enough pace after he was out.”
Appert said there’s no doubt a penalty should have been called by referees Beau Halkidis and Stephen Hiff.
“Missed call; blind-side to the head,” Appert said. “Interference, elbowing, contact to the head, any of those things. But there’s calls missed all over throughout the game.”
There were plenty of moments when the Amerks – and certainly their fans – believed every call went against them.
** Like at 9:43 of the first period, when Crunch center Gabriel Fortier was falling onto Levi as a shot from the left circle by Cole Koepke was zipping into the net.
The officials ruled Cecconi had upended Fortier.
“I don’t think it was a poor call,” Appert said. “I think it was a 50/50 call. Our D kind of bumped him, but their guy definitely didn’t make an effort to not fall on Levi.”
** Like at 16:47 of the first period, when an Anton Wahlberg shot banked into the net off the left skate of Amerks center Justin Richards.
Halkidis immediately waved it off, ruling the puck was kicked in. The officials reviewed the video and upheld the call. “I think it was probably the right call,” Appert said.
While the Amerks entered the third period needing just one goal to tie it, they never came close to doing so, and when Koepke converted a Alex Barre-Boulet pass off a two-on-one fastbreak, the Crunch were heading to the North Division finals and the Amerks were heading home.
“The hardest thing is I’m going to miss the boys, miss hanging out,” Levi said.
The rookie started the season with the Buffalo Sabres and then yo-yoed back and forth for much of the final four months, clearly establishing himself as the Amerks No. 1 goalie whenever he was here. He arrived with the mindset of making sure he did his job. “Make the save, give the team a chance to win,” he said.
“But it became more than that,” Levi said. “It became, ‘Do it for the guys in front of you.’ I think everyone share that love for each other.”
big crowds always seem to leave the BCA disappointed. But honestly, Amerks played a very bad game and deserved to lose. Several important players didn’t play important. While he didn’t get much help, I’m certain Levi was not happy with his game. Midway thru the 2nd period after Kulich muffed another play, guy behind me muttered ‘does that guy even want to be here?’
Amerks had no answers for Crunch’s intensity and resolve. Yeah I’m surprised at the way Amerks couldn’t match it, even a little. We chased the game from the get-go and Crunch skillfully took the big crowd out of it.
It was odd. The huge crowd didn’t have an impact at all. They were strangely quiet, relatively. The excitement wasn’t there because Amerks were never in this one.
A sad regression from the past two seasons. We expected a long run. Instead we got no run. In terms of raw numbers I have to think this may have been one of the top 5 crowds in BCA history.
Amerks lost the series due to Juri Kulich not showing up to play. Just my opinion. First 2 goals came after Kulich lost defensive zone face offs, he showed zero enthusiasm or offensive prowess that has become his identity this whole playoff series. Last year the run to the conference finals was with Kulich as the Amerks leading goal scorer, he was completely dominating especially against Syracuse and Toronto! This year his stats of 0 goals in 5 playoff games with a minus 6 in the plus/minus category were not misleading. When a player of his caliber doesn’t show up all series it’s no surprise they couldn’t beat a team the caliber of Syracuse. Was it Syracuse effectively taking him off his game or Juri simply not showing an interest in continuing to play AHL hockey wanting to go back home to his native country? I think it’s the second scenario and was hoping to see Kulich benched in favor of Warren knowing of course that it would never happen! As for the crowd it was huge but honestly I saw more enthusiasm from the Amerks fans at game 4 in Syracuse than a sellout crowd in this decisive home game! Sadly, the Amerks did nothing to all 60 minutes to get this huge crowd “into the fight” as Appert would say. In 1996 game 7 I had ringing in my ear the next morning ! Contrast that to this playoff game and it never got louder then a big crowd in a regular season Friday night game. Very sad way to end the season.
Phil–I agree. The reaction of the large crowd was really odd. I didn’t ‘feel’ anything special and that was of course what Syracuse had in mind by coming out hard and strong. The loud obnoxious boom boom of the drum machine was beyond annoying. And I agree Kulich had checked out of this series early on. It was beyond obvious and to think otherwise is just putting head in sand. Appert should have broken up him and Rosen because clearly that combination was terrible. But Kulich in particular played with zero passion and I defy anyone who has watched what he is capable of dispute that.
Crunch outperformed us in just about every category. Our ‘kids’ didn’t make the grade this post season. Levi was flat out hung out to dry last night. Maybe not his best game…he didn’t face many shots, but I’m not pinning this one on him.
Very disappointing ending. Very.
this team lacked grit all season, they missed players like Sean Malone, i was amazed how little fight & drive they had in a deciding playoff game, how in the world can you go the 1st ten minutes of this game without a shot on goal, the amerks are just like the sabres in that they have speedy talented forwards, below average defensemen, no grit & toughness, you can get by in the season with below average grit & toughness but in the playoffs you have to step up your toughness & intensity, this team didn’t do that instead they relied on Levi stealing game 1 & almost stealing game 3, unfortunately he wasn’t as sharp last night & the rest of the team did not step up for him tonight. The Amerks are now at 28 years without winning the Calder Cup, the longest drought in team history