BY KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
One night after coming within 8.2 seconds of defeating the two-time defending Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears, a game they really should have won, the Rochester Americans were no-shows against the Utica Comets.
Apparently that 1-10-1-2 record the Comets brought into Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial on Saturday evening told the Amerks that effort and desire wouldn’t be necessary – so they played with virtually none.
As a result, the Comets now have a two-game winning streak and the Amerks have dropped six of the past seven to fall to 8-6-3.
Brian Halonen scored a pair of power-play goals in the first 30 minutes, the Comets led 4-0 after two periods and they came within 10.8 seconds of shutting out the Amerks before Brendan Warren scored the Amerks only goal in the 5-1 loss.
“That was the worst game we’ve played all season,” Amerks coach Michael Leone said. “A lot of times these three-in-fours come down to compete and will; I didn’t think we had any of that. Our bench, there was just nothing there.”
Not that Utica’s play was all that scintillating, either. But their power play provided all the offense they needed, with both man-advantage goals coming with Aleksandr Kisakov in the penalty box.
Halonen converted a Xavier Parent centering pass 11:16 into the first period to put Utica on top, Mike Hardman jumped inside an over-committed Kale Clague to score 6:09 into the second period, then Halonen’s one-timer on a power play at 9:56 of the second period put the Amerks in a 3-0 hole.
When Nathan Legare scored on a slap shot off the wing at 15:24, Felix Sandstrom’s night was over. The veteran goalie stopped only 11 of 15 shots.
“I think he’d like to have three or four back,” Leone said. “But I wouldn’t put it all on him.”
Indeed, this was a full team non-effort.
“We didn’t want to play to our identity,” Warren said. “We found ourselves on the wrong side of puck battles and that can’t be us.”
This really was all about effort, too.
“There’s going to be some games when you don’t have it,” Leone said. “But what you can control is your compete level and your attitude.”
And when you’re also lacking those components, well, it’s not going to be pretty, even against a team with one victory in the first six weeks, a team that had already lost three times to the Amerks.
“That makes them all the more hungry,” Warren said. “We needed to bring it and we fell short.”
Kisakov’s holding penalty – taken in the offensive zone – gave the Comets an unearned power play and they took advantage.
Their second power-play goal, by Halonen at 9:56 of the second, came when Kisakov was sent off for hooking 8:14 into the second period.
From that point, it was pretty much over. The Amerks showed no fight – well, Tyson Kozak did but the late second-period scrap with Danijll Misyul energized the crowd of 6,678 but not his teammates.
“It’s about will over skill,” Leone said. “You can have all the skill you want but if you don’t work, you have no chance.”
after last night’s choke against Hershey, we expected more and got less. Once again Amerks stunk out the joint at home, something they have become very good at this season.
Utica goalie Daws probably remembered how many goals got past him a few weeks ago and he made sure there would be no repeat of that.
I don’t want to see any ‘despite the loss’ in any game summary after this mess. There was nothing to feel good about right from the beginning. The lazy penalties were a harbinger of things to come. The special teams were once again not very special. The goaltending was poor.
Amerks are in a serious trough right now. They have dropped 6 of 7. The offense has disappeared and along with it apparently the compete level needed to win.
Two back to back awful games. Who is going to wake these guys up?
Not sure what can be done this season, but the roster composition is the most unbalanced in the last five years. The Amerks fan base and marketing department deserves more solid, proven AHL veteran players. I appreciate skill, but the lack of grit was disturbing last night.
In Friday’s loss to Hershey, hugh difference in skill level between the two rosters.
Amerks showed good grit to stay in the match vs the superior skill of Hershey but an unfortunate interference call against the Amerks in the last two minutes cost them the game. the Amerks had plenty of good scoring oportunities but they lack good goal scorers to bury their chances.