By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
On Friday night, the Rochester Americans survived without defenseman Zac Jones in their lineup.
One of their other All-Stars, winger Isak Rosen, helped pick up the slack in a 3-0 victory over the Utica Comets.
On Saturday evening, however, the Amerks sorely missed Jones’ prowess at the point as their power play quarterback.
With Jones again on recall to the Buffalo Sabres, the Amerks went 0-for-5 with the man advantage in a 2-1 loss to the Cleveland Monsters in front of 9,412 fans at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial.
“I’m not going to say he’s the best in the league,” Amerks coach Michael Leone said, “but I’d be hard-pressed to find two or three guys with his poise and composure.”
Or his points. Jones leads the American Hockey League in power play assists with 22 and leads AHL defensemen in scoring with 6 goals, 31 assists and 37 points. He makes the Amerks power play go.
Through 40 games (20-14-4-2 46 points), the Amerks ranked third in the league in power play percentage at 24 percent. Only the Milwaukee Admirals (29.3) and San Jose Barracuda (25.5) are better.
But in the eight games without Jones during an assortment of recalls, the Amerks are just 3-for-28 (10.7), including Saturday’s O-for. In the past seven games without him, the power play has gone 1-for-19. With Jone in the lineup, they’re clicking at 27 percent.
They certainly could have used him against Cleveland, especially midway through the third period when, trailing 1-0, they had 42 seconds of five-on-three advantage but couldn’t score.
Trailing 1-0 for nearly half the game after former Amerks forward Hudson Fasching converted off a two-on-one fastbreak 66 seconds into the second period, the Amerks were finally in position to tie the score with the lengthy two-man advantage.
But they couldn’t capitalize, with Monsters goalie Zach Sawchenko smothering the Amerks best chance, a Carson Meyer one-timer.
“I had a couple good looks (in the game) that I’ll probably be replaying in my head,” Meyer said.
When you lose by one goal, those power play failures haunt.
“It’s not the number of chances you don’t score on,” Leone said, “it’s the ones that you need the most that you don’t make count.”
Not that the Amerks didn’t have chances throughout the game. Red Savage had an empty net while killing a penalty at 12:10 of first period but ended up falling down and never getting off a shot. Riley Fiddler-Schultz was in tight on a second-period power play but couldn’t finish. And Rosen danced into the slot with five minutes remaining, only to be denied by Sawchenko.
Cleveland’s Owen Sillinger hit an empty net with 1:41 remaining to give the Monsters a 2-0 lead but the Amerks did continue to press, with Olivier Nadeau scoring an extra-attacker goal with 54.5 seconds left.
“We made one mistake (on the Fasching goal) and other than that I thought we did a good job defending,” Leone said. “I can’t look at any guy in the face and say we didn’t do everything we could.”
Neuchev traded for defenseman
The Sabres traded Amerks winger Viktor Neuchev to the Carolina Hurricanes organization for defenseman Gavin Bayreuther, a ninth-year pro who played college hockey at St. Lawrence.
Bayreuther, 31, is a native of Canaan, N.H. He has played 122 NHL games, the vast majority (103) with the Columbus Blue Jackets when current Sabres general manager Jarmo Kekalainen was the GM.
In 33 games with the Chicago Wolves this season, Bayreuther produced 4 goals, 9 assists and 13 points along with 22 penalty minutes (plus-3 in plus/minus).
“We did a lot of homework on the player, the person, and I believe he’s really going to help our team,” Leone said.
Neuchev, a third-round pick by Buffalo in 2022, is in his third pro season. He scored 6-10-16 in 34 games with the Amerks but his role had diminished considerably compared to last year.
In 130 games over his three seasons in Rochester, the native of Chelyabinsk, Russia, produced 24-42-66. He will report to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves.
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