By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
It was Bills Day at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial on Sunday afternoon, the Rochester Americans’ annual salute to Western New York’s favorite NFL team.
As they always have done on Bills Day, the Amerks again wore special football-style jerseys, this time with a newly designed moose logo – their mascot since the early 1980s – replacing the Buffalo that adorns Bills helmets.
And while rookie Noah Ostlund admitted he is no fan of American football – “I’m a soccer guy,” the Swedish-born forward said – he was more than happy to deliver some Josh Allen-like heroics.
Ostlund fired home a drop pass into the middle of the slot from Riley Fiddler- Schultz 1:11 into the third period, breaking a 2-2 tie and propelling the Amerks to a 4-3 victory over the Utica Comets.
While the Amerks failed to mount anything resembling an offensive push for the first 35 minutes, they nonetheless found the net when necessary in the final game of a three-game weekend.
Trailing 2-0 into the 19th minute of the second period, the Amerks scored three times in a span of 2 minutes and 12 seconds of clock time – Nikita Novikov at 18:59, Erik Brannstrom at 19: 18 and Ostlund 1:11 into the third – and suddenly led 3-2.
“When we got those two goals, we just kept building on that,” Brannstrom said.
Once they had the lead, the Amerks gave the North Division cellar-dwelling Comets very little and improved to 37-18-3-3. Rochester firmly sits second in the North, six points behind front-running Laval and seven ahead of third-place Toronto.
“You have to find ways in pro hockey to win games when you’re not at your best,” Amerks coach Michael Leone said. “When we needed to be good, when the game got hard, we were really good.”
Part of the search for a spark involved switching up the lines midway through the second period. Leone moved winger Anton Wahlberg onto the line with Brendan Warren and Graham Slaggert and put Konsta Helenius on the right side with Mason Jobst and Lukas Rousek. Wahlberg set up the first goal. Helenius set up the second.
The scoring chance for Novikov came after a fairly innocent play behind the net, when Warren lifted the stick of defenseman Tory Dello behind the Comets net, allowing Slaggert’s pass to continue out to Zach Metsa at the right point.
Moments later, Novikov was firing a shot from deep in the left circle past goalie Nico Daws, energizing the crowd of 8,231.
Fans were still cheering the first goal when Brannstrom tied the score with his fourth goal in just five games as an Amerk. Helenius created the goal, swooping deep into the slot in the defensive zone to pick up a loose puck, and then sprinting away on right wing to lead the fast break.
As Utica’s Filip Engaras upended Amerks defenseman Kyle Clague on the Amerks logo at center ice, Helenius passed across the high slot to Brannstrom, who moved into the circle before firing a shot top shelf to the far side.
“Claguer got tripped or hooked and everyone was kind of focused on that,” Brannstrom said. “I knew Helenius saw me and I started yelling for the puck and he made a nice saucer pass to me.”
The second intermission didn’t extinguish the Amerks momentum, with Ostlund scoring his 15th goal (in 40 games) 71 seconds into the third period.
Fiddler-Schultz attacked off right wing, driving down the slot before making a drop pass. Isak Rosen was at the lower hash mark but was tied up and the puck continued to Ostlund in the high slot, and he fired it in over Daws’ right shoulder.
After scoring three goals in a 4-1 victory at Syracuse on Saturday, Ostlund was again the offensive hero.
“I want to be an offensive player,” said Ostlund, Buffalo’s first-round pick in 2022. “I’m pretty confident right now.”
He should be. He has scored 10 goals and assisted on 9 in his past 15 games. Leone said Ostlund’s commitment to his craft is at the root of the success.
“I can’t say enough good things about him and his inner drive,” Leone said. “He’s a relentless worker. He works as hard as anyone I’ve been around.”
The score didn’t change until the final 30 seconds. Josh Dunne unselfishly set up Wahlberg for the clinching empty-net goal with 29.6 seconds remaining. The goal was Wahlberg’s 10th, but he has scored just two in the past 17 games.
Austin Strand scored an extra-attacker goal with just nine-tenths of a second left, essentially the equivalent of a garbage-time touchdown in the NFL.
For nearly 40 minutes Sunday, Amerks looked like the Amerks of Friday night. It wasn’t pretty. More fruitless power plays, more missed passes and the big crowd mostly silent (except for the exceptionally loud obnoxious music). Then 2 quick goals in the final minute totally flipped the switch. Quite a surprise.
It was nice to see Amerks holding the one goal lead for an entire 3rd period especially knowing this was their 3rd game in 2 1/2 days. From our seats on the ENG, Dunne actually didn’t have the sure shot, so his pass to a more open Wahlberg was the right decision. That final goal by Utica caught Levi napping and only served to mess with his GAA. That goal shouldn’t have happened but in the greater scheme, it didn’t matter.
Important win for a team that has really been scuffling lately. Picture this…if the standings hold, Amerks will face Toronto in their first round, either here or there…AND they also play them the final 2 games of the regular season. Thats a lot of Toronto!
Wish the AHL would consider scheduling us more Sunday afternoon games after the NFL season ends, rather than those empty BCA Wednesday games. Yeah, I know how they are loathe to have too many of those 3 in 3’s…but the atmosphere in the barn when there are over 8,000 versus 2,000 can’t be ignored.