By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
Over the course of a 72-game season, there will be nights when pucks just won’t go in no matter how great the chance, when those pucks look like beachballs to the opposing goalie.
Wednesday was one of those nights for the Rochester Americans.
Despite a 20-shot barrage in the first period, the Amerks found themselves trailing 2-1 at the intermission and unsuccessfully chased the game for the rest of the night, losing 5-3 to the Syracuse Crunch.
“We had seven or eight Grade-A chances,” Amerks coach Michael Leone said. “We probably should have scored three or four.”
Instead, they scored just once, with Jake Leschyshyn converting a drop pass from Viktor Neuchev at 6:06. But the goal was sandwiched between a pair by Crunch winger Wojciech Stachowiak, and Syracuse weathered the remainder of the Amerks first-period storm thanks to goalie Ryan Fanti’s 19 saves.
Then when Dylan Duke and Scott Sabourin scored six minutes apart in the second period, the Crunch were up 4-1 and the Amerks (7-4) were in trouble.
With their full lineup, overcoming a three-goal deficit could be possible. But their top three top forwards – Josh Dunne, Noah Ostlund and AHL Player of the Month Isak Rosen – currently are on recall to the Buffalo Sabres, so they started Wednesday’s game with 11 forwards and seven defensemen.
Then when forward Red Savage suffered an upper body injury in the first period, the Amerks needed to call on the services of their emergency forward: defenseman Zach Metsa.
Metsa has filled in at forward in the past and did so again Wednesday, scoring a goal midway through the third period to pull the Amerks within 4-3 with 13:33 remaining.
“I kind of know, especially when we have 11 and seven,” he said of the possibility of playing on the wing. “I’ll do whatever I can to help us win.”
The Amerks were unable to score the tying goal over the next nine minutes, then Dylan Duke somehow managed to zip a sharp-angle shot from deep in the left circle past goalie Devon Levi on the short side, restoring the two-goal lead for the Crunch (8-2) with just 4:36 remaining.
“That’s probably one ‘Dev’ wants back,” Leone said.
Stachowiak powered the Crunch to the early lead, scoring his first goal just 38 seconds into the game before connecting for second on a power play at 14:18.
“We were a little inconsistent from what our standard is and what we want,” Metsa said of the start.
He also had a great chance for the first-period hat trick but Levi denied his short-handed breakaway try with 25 seconds left.
The Crunch extended their lead to 4-1 on second-period goals by Dylan Duke at 5:59 and Scott Sabourin on a power play at 12:06.
Duke’s first goal of the game came on a rebound after Levi stopped a breakaway by Nick Abruzzese seconds after an Amerks power play ended. Ryan Johnson’s shot from above the left circle missed the net high to the right and caromed out to center, sending Abruzzese away on the breakaway.
“We gave up two penalty-kill goals and we gave up one with five seconds left on a power play,” Leone said.
Leone said the choice of shot, or execution of that shot by Johnson, was a problem. With the power play winding down, there needs to be an awareness of the situation.
“The same thing happened in Laval (last weekend); it can’t happen,” Leone said.
From a fan perspective, it was simply a lousy game. Amerks were under-manned and outplayed, especially in the special teams, which for the 2nd straight game were simply awful. It was commented on that even though they got 20 shots in the 1st period, all of them were dead center on the goalie, with very few if any legitimate scoring chances.
The 2nd period was a disaster and even the mild comeback in the 3rd was kind of misleading because with around 13 minutes left to play, Syracuse completely took over and Amerks weren’t able to maintain any kind of possession. Any hope to tie ended when Levi let in a real bad one with around 4 minutes to play. When you allow 5, you rarely win.
Even a power play at the end giving Amerks a 6 on4 advantage yielded nothing at all.
With 3 key players in buffalo and another injury here when Savage went down, our guys can’t compete with the big boys. When might we get help? Well, Sabres players get hurt (often I feel its in their contract) nightly and its usually ‘weeks’ not days’ that they are out. The tiny crowd left knowing that brighter days may not be ahead for awhile.
Props to Metsa for filling in at forward. Other than that, flush this one