Early scoring success hasn’t changed how Amerks’ Kozak plays hockey

By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA

To understand what Tyson Kozak is all about as a hockey player, you just need to know about his play late in the second period of Wednesday night’s game against the Cleveland Monsters.

The Rochester Americans were ahead 5-0 after just 29 minutes, and they were very much in cruise control thereafter in what became a 6-1 victory.

But here was Kozak, with 7:50 left in the second period, speeding through center ice and into the Amerks zone to deny James Malatesta a shot on a breakaway. And this was despite Malatesta having what seemed to be a full zone head start on Kozak when the puck was turned over.

“Kozak does so many things well and he’s a winning player so it’s no surprise he did that,” said forward Graham Slaggert, who scored the Amerks first goal. “It just sends a message that, no matter if we’re up by a ton, down by a ton, we’re going to play the same way.”

Clearly Kozak’s early season offensive success has not changed the way he plays. His team-leading third goal (in five games) gave the Amerks a 3-0 lead 5:14 into the second period, and when Isak Rosen scored just seven seconds later the rout was on.

But he’s not proclaiming himself to be a goal-scorer. Yet.

“Of course I want to score goals,” the third-year forward said, “but like I’ve said, I’m more focused on playing a 200-foot game, playing selfless hockey, doing everything just so we can win as a team, and that stuff will come, eventually, and so far it has.”

Amerks coach Michael Leone thinks there is more to Kozak’s game than just the hustle, grit and energy he displayed in his first two seasons.

“I know he’s a checker, he kills penalties, but I think there’s more there offensively, I really do,” Leone after the Amerks improved to 2-3. “He’s a big part of our team.”

Maybe that’s why Kozak was bumped up the depth chart to play the wing with Konsta Helenius and Anton Wahlberg. A bit of foreign territory for Kozak, who produced 5 goals, 5 assists and 10 points in 51 games as a rookie and collected 5-7-12 in 41 games of an injury-plagued 2023-24 season.

“You look at the Toronto game (a 3-2 loss on Saturday), he was probably one of our best five-on-five players, and I thought it was a chance to get him more ice time,” Leone said. “I think he’s earned it. I’m a big believer that you earn what you get and he’s earned ice time.”

Pretty much every Amerks player earned ice time on Wednesday, when Rochester outshot the Monsters 49-26.

Slaggert and Mason Jobst scored in the first period, Kozak, Rosen and Zach Metsa found the net in the second and Noah Ostland put the finishing touches on the blowout victory in the third.

“I thought top to bottom we played to our identity,” Leone said. “We’ve been playing a lot of really good hockey. Obviously the outcomes haven’t been there but our process has been really good, our tracks, our reloads, we’re making it really hard on people and it was really good to see guys rewarded for playing the right way.”

A combination of a poor pass by Monsters defenseman Stanislav Svozil and a smart read by Slaggert led to the game’s first goal 3:26 into the first period during a Cleveland power play.

Slaggert intercepted a Svozil near the Amerks blue line and sped away on a breakaway, scoring his first goal of the season by firing a wrist shot over the glove of goalie Jet Greaves and into the top right corner of the net.

Jobst extended the lead to 2-0 at 15:47 by scoring on his own rebound. His backhanded wrap-around try was stopped by Greaves but he flipped home the rebound for his first goal.

Kozak made it 3-0 at 5:14 of the second period. Greaves stopped Wahlberg’s shot from the right circle off the fast break but Kozak barged down the slot and swatted home the rebound.

Considering the Amerks have had 2-0 leads in the previous two homes games and lost both, they were determined to build on this one.

“We put a huge emphasis on the second period and really dug in,” Slaggert said. “A big thing in this league is it’s a race to three goals, pretty much, and more times than not that team that scores the third goal first ends up winning the game, so getting that third one is massive.”

Apparently the fourth one would then be humongous, and it came just seven seconds later. Rosen raced in alone off right wing, angled into the slot and wristed a shot past Greaves’ blocker for his second goal.

Greaves departed at the next whistle. He stopped 27 of 31 shots before Zach Sawchenko took over.

Metsa’s first goal extended the lead to 5-0 at 8:51 and the teams traded goals in the third period, with Michael Houser losing his bid for a shutout when Chris Wilkie scored just 1:20 into the final period.

But it was about the only blemish for the Amerks all night.

“The way we’re playing, it’s smothering hockey,” Kozak said, “and when we play a full 60 minutes we’re a very tough team to beat.”