By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
When last we saw Scott Ratzlaff on the ice for the Rochester Americans, he was taking the second-star curtain call following his first professional shutout, a 5-0 victory over the Springfield Thunderbirds on Feb. 6.
Sunday there was no curtain call, just calls by some boisterous fans for a replacement after the rookie goaltender allowed seven goals in a 7-4 loss to the Utica Comets.
Amerks coach Michael Leone obviously wasn’t pleased to see Ratzlaff surrender three goals on six shots midway through the second period, a burst that allowed the Utica Comets to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 lead in a span of just 5 minutes and 29 seconds.
And after each goal, Ratzlaff’s body language showed deepening frustration.
Leone, however, was far more upset with how some in the crowd of 8,662 at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial reacted.
Believing Leone should have pulled Ratzlaff and inserted Devon Levi, some fans revived the “Levi! Levi!” chant, something that had until Sunday had been reserved for moments following tremendous saves by the Amerks star goaltender.
“I think it’s nonsense, ridiculous,” Leone said after what ended up as a 7-4 loss. “He’s a 20-year-old kid. The kid’s got to go through that. You hear stuff – you just don’t have a clue. I have no time for that.”
There’s no doubt that some coaches may have pulled Ratzlaff. But Leone said that all along this day was a planned recovery day for Levi, who made 29 saves in a 4-1 victory at Utica on Saturday.
“You look at the schedule we have … Dev’s probably playing the next five,” Leone said. “Sure, I could have taken him out. But I also look at going through it; you give a goalie a chance to respond.”
The loss took the luster off the first professional hat trick by Amerks forward Riley Fiddler-Schultz. He scored goals off mid-slot redirections in the first and second period and then found a way to score from an impossible angle in the waning seconds.
“It’s never sweet when you have a hat trick in a loss,” said Fiddler-Schultz, who is now second on the team in goals with 15, nine of which have come in the past 17 games.
He made it clear, though, that Ratzlaff was hardly to blame for the loss, which dropped the Amerks record to 24-17-4-2 (54 points).
“There’s 20 guys out there for a reason,” he said. “It’s never on one guy.”
Indeed, the Amerks were outshot 41-36, the first time in 21 games over the past two months that they have allowed 40. It was also just the fifth time in the past 18 games that they allowed more than 30.
And yet, they were the better team early, erasing an early Utica power-play goal to take a 2-1 lead on first-period goals by Trevor Kuntar at 10:42 and Fiddler-Schultz at 13:31.
Another Fiddler-Schultz goal 8:07 into the second period on a power play gave the Amerks a 3-2 lead, but then Ratzlaff didn’t make saves he needed to make.
Brian Halonen tied the score at 10:27, zipping a perfect snap shot from the high slot over the glove, past Ratzlaff’s left ear and in off the cross bar. A perfect, but it was from long range.
The Comets took the lead at 13:11 when Angus Crookshank followed Halonen’s lead and, from high in the left circle snapped a shot over Ratzlaff’s glove and into the top right corner of the net. Again, a nice shot but one that needs to be stopped considering where Crookshank was positioned.
Then at 15:56, defenseman Ethan Edwards retrieved the puck in the left corner and, from an impossible angle, flicked a shot at the net. The puck hit Ratzlaff and somehow slithered through on the short side.
“Some of the goals, obviously, I think Ratz would want to have back,” Leone said.
Utica widened the lead to 6-3 – and to game-over status – just 48 seconds into the third period when Crookshank raced in on a breakaway and angled away from defenseman Zac Jones in the deep slot before sliding a shot home.
Notes: Leone didn’t have a good prognosis for defenseman Aidan Fulp, who was injured in Saturday’s game at Utica. Leone said he likely will be out “some time.” … The Amerks hadn’t given up seven goals since a loss at Toronto on March 16, 2024, and hadn’t allowed seven at home since Feb. 18, 2024, to Utica.
Tale of two games. First 30 minutes was a spirited back and forth with soft goals for both teams. Last 30 minutes was an Amerks nightmare. From the time Amerks took a 3-2 lead in the 2nd period, they got zero shots on goal the rest of the period. Zero. Meanwhile Utica was scoring it seems on every shot they took.
they totally stole the game away from the Amerks.
Its an old tale, when you give up 7 (which thankfully hasn’t happened this season until today). Was it the goalie, or was it the ‘team’? From our section, it was mostly the goalie and I would have yanked him after goal #4. I’m not the coach, I’m just a fan. Ratz was pretty rattled at that point. The 5th goal should never have happened. The two previous goals were very stoppable long blasts. AFter building 2-1 and 3-2 leads, it deflates the team when the goalie gives up those leads. The last half of the 2nd period was a complete disaster.
In the first 48 seconds of the 3rd, instead of coming out gangbusters, Utica undressed Ratz again with a little deke on a partial breakaway. 6-3 and the game was pretty much history.
Some fans started chanting ‘Levi Levi’ but it was fairly quickly stifled. Our fans are not stupid, coach. They have put up with a lot of bad hockey on home ice this season. And by the 3rd period they were frustrated that on a day with almost 9,000 in house, the team let one get out of hand against the last place team.
So often when a coach feels a team needs a jolt, it changes goalies and often it works. Ratz just kept losing confidence and composure as the game wore on. While our D, who has been having a lot of good games lately was ‘off’, our goalie was plain and simple having a bad day .
The cliche about ‘one team wanted it more’ was true today. Utica clearly wanted it more and the lack of intensity by the home team in the 3rd period simply validated that.
Overall, the game was an embarrassment (with apologies to the Fiddler, who earned a hat trick ) Amerks are barely .500 at home and seem to be saving their worst performances in front of decent crowds.
Leone’s comment is so management…you have families dishing out a wad of money to see the home team win…couldn’t he at least played to the huge crowd and put in Levi… the goaltending was hemorrhaging and he chose not to stop the bleeding
It’s a very bad marketing look to sell 8,600 tickets; and then have the Coach say that trying to win this game was secondary to Levi’s rest schedule and his view on the psychological development of a young Goaltender. 10-13 on home ice. 12-9 on the road. We deserved Levi in the 2nd period.
Lately there has become a perception that the coach is now simply a Sabres employee, for many reasons. He didn’t need to chastise the fans in the manner that he did. He needed to ‘read the room’ and take care of his players’ ego privately.
Two things coaches do when a game has suddenly gone south (especially at home): they call a timeout to re-set, or they change goalies. They are tactics that often pay dividends. A soft goal tied the game at 3-3 and quickly another put us behind. The 5th goal was a mess. At 4-3 a change was needed. Didn’t happen and the game simply deteriorated, along with our goalies confidence.
I feel Leone lost a lot of points with our fans yesterday for many reasons.
No brainer, you have almost a full house and you start the backup who the Sabres are high on but he hardly plays. Put Levi in after the second period and roll the dice. It was a game that we needed a win and our chances of winning were better with Levi in goal. Unfortunately a bad team can beat you on any given day. We will lose players to Buffalo next week. Fans in Rochester have been around a long time and we know our stuff.