By LIAM HOFFMANN
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Fresh off a four-win road trip, the Rochester Americans suffered a 5-2 home loss to the in-state North Division rival Syracuse Crunch. Three second-period Syracuse goals put Rochester in a 4-2 hole.
“Credit to them, they did a really good job defending,” Amerks head coach Michael Leone said. “That’s a team there that if you let in four, you’re probably not going to win a game against that team.”
Amerks goalie Devon Levi earned wins in his previous six starts before facing 25 shots and allowing four goals in the loss tonight.
With the loss, Rochester’s home record falls to 4-6-2. On the road, they’ve gone 11-3-1.
“It’s something that’s got to be better,” Amerks right wing Isak Rosén said. “We should be even better at home of course. It’s still early in the season so we’ve got time to change that.”
For the second straight game, Rochester goal-leaders Rosén and left wing Brett Murray each lit the lamp before the third period began. The pair hold 12 season goals apiece, twice as many as any other Amerk.
Murray scored late in the first period to even things 1-1. Amerks defenseman Nikita Novikov received a pass at the right face-off dot from rookie defenseman Vsevolod Komarov before taking a shot that Murray scored off the rebound.
Murray has now scored five goals in his last three games.
Later, Rosén, down 3-1, deked Crunch defenseman Declan Clarlile in the slot before finding the back of the net.
A season ago, Rosén didn’t score his 12th goal until Feb. 2nd. This year, he’s reached 12 before the new year.
“It’s my third year so that’s what I expect for myself: to be a difference-maker out there for our team,” Rosén said.
The Amerks’ forecheck limited Syracuse early, allowing only two shots on goal through 10 and a half minutes of play. Then, Crunch right wing Jesse Ylonen got behind the defense and put a shot on Levi from only feet away. Crunch left wing Conor Sheary found the saved puck and put it away for the 1-0 lead.
Two minutes into the second, back-to-back saves by Levi enabled chants of his name throughout Blue Cross Arena. He made seven in the first half of the frame. Syracuse then stacked three goals in less than seven minutes.
With 11 and a half minutes gone in the second, Syracuse center Dylan Duke sat open in the slot hoping to score the go-ahead goal. Behind the net, Komarov turned the puck over allowing Ylonen to recover and assist Duke in doing just that.
“I look at the play before that,” Leone said. “You work hard, you get the puck and then we just gave it away and then it goes in your net. We got to clean up. We haven’t played that way in a long stretch, game management was something we talked about earlier in the season, you can’t hand teams stuff.”
For some insurance before the second period expired, Crunch center Gabriel Fortier scored a high rebound goal off the shot of center Jack Finley.
The Amerks couldn’t score again. A third-period empty-netter scored by Duke enabled Syracuse’s 5-2 win.
Rochester won the first two season matchups with Syracuse before dropping their first loss tonight. With 33 points, Rochester trails first-place Cleveland (35) and Laval (34) in the North Division.
Friday night, the cross-state foes will meet again. Puck drop in Rochester is slated for 7:05 P.M.
excellent write-up. No ‘despite the loss…’
For those who watched the last 4 games of the road trip, none of those things that made the Amerks successful were present last night. None of the urgency, the drive, the emotion needed to win were there.
Did they underestimate Syracuse? They were never in this one truthfully. And it was another egg laid at home, where this team plays its absolute worst hockey.
Coach has to figure that one out. Levi had a tough night. Don’t know if it was because of all the jerking around and mind games the lame Sabres have been playing with their goalies recently. But I’ll bet it was a factor.
Crunch ‘d’ was stifling, not letting Amerks get quality shots. Team played OK for the first 20 minutes but then they took the rest of the night off.
It was a lousy, mostly boring game to watch. Hoping for better things Friday. Gotta come to the rink prepared to compete. That didn’t happen last night.