By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
The Rochester Americans held a welcome-back party Friday night at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial.
They welcomed back Isak Rosen, their All-Star right winger who had been back up with the parent Buffalo Sabres since Sunday.
They welcomed back Konsta Helenius, their All-Star left winger who had been with the Sabres since Jan. 15.
And they welcomed back goal-scoring, something they found nearly impossible to do when their top guns were on recall.
But just like that, with Rosen and Helenius back in the lineup, the Amerks were again dangerous on the attack and rolled to a 4-0 victory over the Springfield Thunderbirds in front of 5,4267 fans.
“I’ve sat up here over the last two weeks where we’ve been playing really good hockey, we just haven’t been able to score,” coach Michael Leone said. “They were a huge lift tonight.”
Rosen scored a natural hat trick – with Helenius setting up the last two – while rookie goalie Scott Ratzlaff, making his home debut, stopped the 25 shots he faced for his first professional shutout.
Few Amerk victories – and they have 22 and an overall record of 22-16-4-2 – have been more complete.
“We had success because of the details in our game,” said Rosen, who has eight goals in his past eight games, two hat tricks in the past eight and 23 for the season in just 29 games.
While the fourth-year winger is not getting prime-time minutes when he is in the NHL, he has established himself as one of the most potent goal-scorers in the American Hockey League. His current pace would give him 57 goals if he played all 72 regular-season games.
“It’s him vs. him with where he wants to get to,” Amerks coach Michael Leone said. “A lot of it is how hard he wants to compete when he doesn’t have the puck.”
On Friday, and in most games this season, his attention to details, his willingness to win wall battles, has been very high.
“They were forechecking, they were on top of the puck, they had a hunting mindset from the start of the game,” Leone said of the Rosen-Helenius-Anton Wahlberg line.
And that’s why that line produced the game’s first goal just 8:04 into the first period and delivered the first three before the second period was six minutes old.
At the other end, Ratzlaff was making the necessary key saves but wasn’t tested that often. For the sixth consecutive game, and for the ninth time in the past 11 games, the Amerks limited their opponent to fewer than 26 shots.
Still, rookies don’t often post shutouts in an Amerks sweater anymore. Andrey Makarov was the last to do so, in March of 2015.
Ratzlaff learned on Friday morning that he’d be starting. Since a Dec. 12 recall from ECHL Jacksonville, he had played in just four games (three starts). He said he tried not to overthink the job at hand, even though he was eager to finally play on home ice.
“Obviously these fans are unbelievable and to get a win is huge,” said Ratzlaff, Buffalo’s fifth-round draft pick in 2023 who doesn’t turn 21 until March 9.
Like all goalies, he said the last thing he wanted to do was count down the minutes in the third period with that zero still on the scoreboard.
“You think about it, you jinx yourself,” he said.
So you’re saying you really weren’t thinking about a shutout in the final 10 minutes? He couldn’t lie.
“I mean, who wasn’t?” he said.
Having an early lead surely helped, with Rosen finding the net 8:04 into the game. As Zac Jones was curling away from a defender at the right point, Rosen was circling right to left behind the net.
Jones then snapped a wrist shot toward the net that was deflected in the deep slot by Anton Wahlberg. Goalie Georgi Ronamov made the save but the rebound slithered off to his right – and directly to Rosen, who fired into an open net.
“It’s nice to get a rebound right on your stick with an empty net,” Rosen said. “It doesn’t happen often.”
The lead became 2-0 at 17:02 as Rosen converted a perfect Helenius pass off a two-on-one fast break. The goal came as the teams skated four-on-four, with Rosen sprinting free down the right of the slot before one-timing a shot from the right hash marks.
“He’s a great goal-scorer; I just try to feed him,” Helenius said.
Rosen completed his natural hat trick 5:34 into the second period, and Helenius again set him up off another quick-strike fast break.
This time, Rosen inherited a loose puck in the Amerks zone and quickly head-manned to Helenius on left wing. The puck arrived about hip thigh high but Helenius managed to gain control by twice dribbling it on his stick blade as he entered the Springfield zone.
“He made a great play to pick it up because it was a bad pass by me,” Rosen said.
Three strides later, Helenius passed across the slot to Rosen, who again unleashed a one-timer that rocketed past Ronamov on the short side.
“We’re having real good chemistry,” Rosen said. “He’s really good at transporting the puck.”
The goal completed the first Amerk hat trick on home ice since Jiri Kulich scored three against Belleville on April 13, 2024. It was also the first natural hat trick since Helenius scored three straight at Belleville on April 5 of last year.
The lead became 4-0 at 14:49 of the second period when Trevor Kuntar redirected a crest-high point shot by Nikita Novikov.
“We played a lot of winning hockey,” Leone said. “We went into the third with the mentality it was a 0-0 game. Wally (Wahlberg) blocking a shot with three minutes left and (Carson) Meyer with two minutes left tracking the puck all the way back.”
Metsa on hold
While defenseman Zach Metsa also was returned to the Amerks by the Sabres, he’s not eligible to play until Feb. 18.
That’s because he appeared in at least 16 of the 20 Sabres games before the NHL’s Olympic break, which mean by rule he’s entitled to – and must be given – the same time off as the rest of the NHL.
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