Ostlund keeps piling up the points though Amerks lose in OT

By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA

They finished the three-in-three weekend earning five of a possible six points, yet the Rochester Americans were far from satisfied after Sunday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Syracuse Crunch.

“We’ll never be happy with a loss,” said rookie center Noah Ostlund, who continued his torrid offensive pace by scoring the first goal and assisting on the second by linemate Brett Murray.

Sunday’s loss was particularly grating because the Amerks opened a 2-0 lead but couldn’t hold off the Crunch, who tied it when Anthony Angello scored with 5:01 remaining, then won the game when Conor Sheary found the net just 14 seconds into overtime.

“Getting two points is the standard now, we set that bar for ourselves,” Murray said.

Still, the five-point weekend enabled the Amerks (39-18-4-3) to pull within three points of first place Laval, 88-85, in the American Hockey League’s North Division while building the lead on third-place Toronto to 10 points.

“You love to coach a team that hates to lose,” Amerks coach Michael Leone said. “You could tell in the room they wanted that extra point to sweep the weekend.”

Instead, they settled for one, in part because of a puzzling penalty call late in the third period and then because of a giveaway in overtime.

Angello’s tying goal came with a delayed penalty upcoming on the Amerks. Riley Fiddler-Schultz gave Maxim Groshev a shove from behind in the Rochester zone while the Crunch winger was skating up toward the blue line.

In a rivalry game where helmets are knocked off and players exchange slashes and high sticks shift after shift, Fiddler-Schultz gave Groshev nothing more than a gentle back massage.

Yet with just over five minutes remaining in a one-goal game, it was deemed a penalty.

“You understand if there’s five minutes left and you tackle someone with a Grade-A scoring chance,” Leone said.

The winning goal came off a neutral-zone turnover by Konsta Helenius. The rookie winger stole the puck from Max Crozier near the red line but then inadvertently gave it back an instant later.

Crozier quickly head-manned to Sheary, who broke in two-on-one and fired a high shot past the blocker of goalie Devon Levi.

Even so, Leone wasn’t critical of Helenius. “I thought ‘Heley’ had his best weekend,” Leone said. “I don’t know if he had any points but he played a lot winning hockey, he managed the puck, he made hard plays. He’d probably like to have that one back in overtime but he earned that ice time.”

And then there’s Ostlund, who has earned ice time in every situation. With the goal and assist on Sunday, the rookie center has 17 goals, 15 assists and 32 points over his past 28 games (and 18-17-35 in his 43 games this season). He also has scored goals in five consecutive games and has 7-3-10 in that stretch.

“I think I’m getting compensated for the start (of the season) when nothing bounced my way,” Ostlund said with a smile.

Said Leone: “With some of those skilled guys, you just get out of the way and keep putting them on the ice. He’s become a horse for us, which is crazy to say: he’s 20 years old, playing first-line center in the American Hockey League and getting really tough match-ups every night.

“He’s a big-game player.”

Like on his first goal, which broke a scoreless tie 6:35 into the second period. He stole the puck at center and moved into the Crunch zone with speed on right wing, forcing defensemen Derick Pouliot and Max Crozier to back in.

Ostlund then sliced to his left and across the top of the slot before zipping a rising shot back across the grain, between the defenseman and past the left arm of goalie Brandon Halverson.

“Every time he touches the puck, you get a little excited,” Murray said. “He can make something out of nothing.”

But it’s not just when he has the puck. He has the best plus/minus on the team among forwards (plus-20; only defenseman Nikita Novikov is better at plus-30). Three times he broke up Crunch plays during a first-period power play.

“There’s things he does away from the puck … his instincts, his ability to read plays and know where the puck is going on the power play,” Leone said.

Murray’s 25^th goal gave the Amerks a 2-0 lead at 13:05. He banked in a shot from behind the end line off the back of Halverson moments after Ostlund won a faceoff in the left circle.

But the Crunch retaliated on the next shift, with Sheary setting up Jack Finley for a tap-in at the right edge of the crease only 10 seconds later. The goal ended Levi’s shutout streak at 93 minutes and 16 seconds.

20-goal rookies becoming the norm

With 18 goals and eight games remaining, Ostlund could very well reach the 20-goal plateau, which is pretty crazy since he had just two through January.

After just one Amerks rookie produced 20 goals between 2006-07 and 2020-21 (Justin Bailey with 20 in 2015-16), he could become the fourth in the past four years (Jiri Kulich with 24 in ’22-23, JJ Peterka with 28 and Jack Quinn with 26 in ’21-22.

A point taken away from Levi

Levi lost the assist he was credited with in Friday’s game.

Josh Dunne was given the primary assist on the first-period goal by Riley Fiddler-Schultz. Levi originally had the secondary assist but Dunne actually tapped the outlet pass by Novikov to Fiddler-Schultz on the breakout.

Three in three? Try four in four

Dunne played his fourth game in four days, which Leone said is simply proof of his all-for-the-team character.

He played 6:51 for the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday, then played his usual big-time minutes in all three games on the weekend for the Amerks.

Leone said he gave Dunne the option of sitting out on Sunday but Dunne said he was playing.

“He just means so much to the team,” Leone said. “I wasn’t going to tell him no.”