Toronto, ON – For the second straight game, the Rochester Americans (1-3-0-0) jumped out to a multi-goal lead that they were unable to hold as the unbeaten Toronto Marlies (4-0-0-0) rallied back with the final three goals of the contest to claim a 3-2 win – and weekend sweep – in Saturday’s rematch at Coca-Cola Coliseum.
Including today’s contest, the Amerks have scored first in each of their first four games this season and six of their last seven dating back to the end of the 2023-24 campaign. Rochester has also outshot its opponents in eight straight periods and in three of the first four contests of the season.
Forwards Josh Dunne and Tyson Kozak, who appeared in his 100th game with Rochester, both netted their second goals of the season in the opening frame. Mason Jobst, Nikita Novikov, Ryan Johnson, and Anton Wahlberg all added an assist.
Goaltender Michael Houser (1-1-0) made 20 saves in his second appearance of the campaign but took the defeat in the crease.
Joseph Blandisi notched his first goal of the season while former Amerk Alexander Nylander and Alex Steeves both scored for the fourth time, with Steeves registering his second straight game-winning goal. Logan Shaw, Tommy Miller, and Roni Hirvonen all earned an assist in the victory.
Goaltender and two-time Stanley Cup Champion Matt Murray (2-0-0) picked up his second win of the season as he stopped 35 of the 37 shots he faced, including 25 through the first 40 minutes of play.
FIRST PERIOD
Despite being unable to capitalize on their first two power-plays of the contest, the Amerks opened the scoring at the 12:37 mark on Dunne’s second of the campaign. The play began behind the Marlies net as Dunne was crossed-checked from behind before he eventually finished off a Jobst feed from just outside the crease. Along with Dunne and Jobst outworking Toronto during the extended shift, Brett Murray and Zach Metsa also played a part in the tally.
Four minutes after Dunne’s goal, Toronto had its best chance of the opening frame as Blandisi and Hirvonen skated into the Amerks zone on an odd-man rush. Blandisi patiently waited until he reached the top of the circle to feed Hirvonen, but the latter’s shot was gloved by Houser to keep the score 1-0.
As the first period was dwindling down and a face-off to the right of Murray, Kozak won the draw. As the puck was sitting inside the lefthand side of the dot, Walhberg pushed it back to Johnson at the left point. The second-year defenseman skated backwards to the center of the blueline and rifled a shot on the goal. Kozak crashed the net for the loose puck and ultimately converted on his second attempt with 61 seconds to play.
Along with the two-goal lead, Rochester carried a 14-6 shot-advantage into the break.
SECOND PERIOD
Rochester began the second stanza with a 2-0 lead and leftover penalty time from the first period. The club killed off the remainder of the infraction as well as a cross-checking penalty, but Miller fired a shot from the right point for the Marlies. The rebound was snagged by Shaw and the Toronto captain hit Nylander in-between the dots for the former Amerk to cut into the deficit.
The teams exchanged holding penalties, which sandwiched another odd-man rush save by Houser, but Toronto evened the score with 6:46 left in the frame as Blandisi scored a shorthanded marker.
The Amerks tested Murray 14 times in the second period whereas Toronto registered 11 shots, but the game was deadlocked at 2-2 ahead of the final frame.
THIRD PERIOD
During the first half of the third period, the Amerks pushed to regain control of their lead as they had numerous shots but the Marlies’ netminder denied each opportunity.
While Toronto was held without a shot for the first eight minutes, they forced an ill-advised turnover inside the Amerks zone with nearly nine minutes to play. Rochester started to break the puck up the ice, but Hirvonen intercepted the outlet pass before quickly giving it to Steeves, who was all alone on the goal crease. The forward patiently waited before tucking a shot over Houser’s glove to give Toronto its first lead of the contest at the 10:51 mark.
The Amerks tried to answer and find the equalizer, and despite earning their seventh power-play of the day and pulling Houser for the final two minutes, the clock expired with the Amerks on the wrong side of a 3-2 decision.
UP NEXT
The Amerks return home on Wednesday, Oct. 23 as they begin another home-and-home series with the defending North Division champion Cleveland Monsters at The Blue Cross Arena. The 7:05 p.m. matchup will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV on FloHockey.
I know its way too early to be hating the team this much, but I do. And why? The losses have been beyond frustrating. In each case Amerks had the early lead and each time they simply crumbled. The two losses this weekend couldn’t have been more discouraging. Opening 2-0 leads in both, they simply stopped playing.
Oh I know it will be said, well look at the shots; look at the close score; and blah blee blah.
You just cannot follow a game where you go 0-5 on the power play with a game where you go 0-7 on the power play (and give up a shortie to boot)
There are too many guys who have played here before to use the excuse that its a ‘young team’. Too many guys just weren’t prepared to go all in to win.
Instead, they sat on the early lead until it was gone and then they disappeared.
On Friday the goaltending was terrible. The overall play, sloppy. On Saturday, the goaltending was better, but the play was still sloppy and absent any kind of unity of purpose. Who in the wide world of sports is responsible for the powerless play? 0-21 and ugly as sin watching them fail to set it up; fail to get pucks to the net; fail to keep the puck in the zone; simply make useless east west passes near the blueline.
What is it about these guys that after scoring 2, they pack it up and go home? Today, after gifting Toronto the eventual game winner, they offered no pushback despite getting power plays.
Its early, but bad habits are settling in. They stunk out the joint on opening night. They put the small Friday crowd to sleep with an incredibly boring exhibition. And this afternoon, it was simply more of the same. Groundhog Day.
Coaches had better start figuring things out because losses like these are completely unacceptable. Too many passengers . Too much confusion. Too little intensity. The points you squander in October can and often do come back to haunt you in April. I understand these guys don’t go out trying to lose. But so far it looks like they aren’t trying hard enough to win. 12, count them, 12 power play opportunities this weekend with zero success.
that just can’t happen. Do better Amerks. If you must lose, do it with some dignity and grit. When you are good enough to get early 2 goal leads, you can’t fold your tent like this in back to back games.
Pretty sad start. Hopefully by mid December we can look back on these games and say..wow, were we really THAT bad? Plenty of work to do. Please don’t accept games like these. We are still smarting from the 1st round playoff failure of the past spring. So yeah, right now I don;t really like this team. And yeah, its far too early to be feeling that way. end of rant