By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
With 10 minutes remaining in Friday’s Rochester Americans game, around half of the 7,063 fans were long gone, starting goalie Devon Levi was on the bench and the Laval Rocket were no longer attacking with their trademark ferocity.
It’s obviously never a good sign when the opponent has called off the dogs with half a period still remaining, so, yeah, it was ugly.
On a night when the Amerks paid tribute to one of the franchise greats, they themselves did a face-plant. They lost 9-3 to Laval and very little of what they did resembled the way the late Scott Metcalfe played during his eight-plus seasons wearing sweater No. 10.
Which is why many of the fans still in the arena at the end cheered the “One minute remaining” announcement, and why veteran forward Brendan Warren hopes the bitter taste lingers.
“I’d like to say we flush it right away but we’re in a spot where we need to realize what just happened,” Warren said. “We just gave up nine at home and got embarrassed in our own building.”
How embarrassing? A nine spot on the scoreboard, fans screaming for coach Michael Leone to pull Levi after the sixth goal, and a boatload of blatant giveaways that defied explanation. Backup goalie Cameron Rowe finally entered after Laval took a 7-3 lead at 4:47 of the third period. Levi finished with 23 saves.
“The reality is, we’re not a skilled enough team to outscore our mistakes and we have to make a decision that we’re going to make the right puck decisions consistently throughout the game,” Warren said.
As a result, the losing streak has reached five and a perplexing inability to win at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial becomes even more confounding. Since the start of December, the Amerks are 3-9-1-2 at home.
“I don’t remember too many streaks like this, especially a game like tonight,” Warren said. “It’s a low point for sure.”
The home-ice nose dive has left the Amerks treading water in the AHL’s North Division. They sit fifth with a 24-19-5-3 record and 56 points, six more of Belleville and two fewer than Toronto. The top five teams earn playoff spots, but slots four and five meet in the play-in mini-round for the right to play the division champion.
That would most likely be Laval (34-16-2-3, 73 points). Which may lead some to say: What’s the point?
Except Leone believes the Amerks, even with their current meh lineup, can compete with the Rocket – if they manage the puck.
“Every play against that team matters,” Leone said. “Five plays (goals by Laval), the puck is on our stick.”
He had a point. Isak Rosen’s intercepted pass became the only goal in the first period, by Tobie Bisson. Defenseman Ryan Johnson passed right to Vincent Areneault for an empty-net slam dunk for goal No. 3. A poor pass gave Samuel Blais a point-blank chance for Laval’s fifth goal, and he had been trying to go to the bench for a change.
The game-breaking sixth Laval goal just 11 seconds into the third period came when Johnson turned the puck over to Joshua Roy at center.
“You can’t explain those things,” Leone said.
Johnson was hardly the only Amerk who didn’t play well, but more is expected considering his abilities.
“We believe in him,” Leon said, “but it’s been a trend.”
Levi, meanwhile, just didn’t make big saves when necessary. Essentially this was a game where every Grade-A scoring chance went in.
“The clear-sight ones (and there were four), you want to see a save,” Leone said.
Bisson scored the only goal in the first period, jumping in from the left point to intercept an Isak Rosen outlet that was intended for Konsta Helenius.
Instead, Bisson picked it off above the left circle and almost immediately zipped a wrist shot in off the post at 16:24.
The second period became a scoring fest, which wasn’t good for the Amerks. They scored three times but Laval found the net four times and built a 5-3 lead after 40 minutes.
Perhaps most concerning was the Amerks inability to build momentum after scoring. Twice they tied the score, only to give up the go-ahead goal mere seconds later.
Mason Geertsen scored at 2:18 after he forced a giveaway by Luke Tuch, tying the score 1-1, but Joshua Roy retaliated just eight seconds later, firing home his own rebound after Levi couldn’t hold onto his shot from the slot.
Riley Fiddler-Schultz’s tip-in of a Rosen shot tied the score 2-2 at 8:24 but, again, the Rocket scored on the next shift, with Arseneau converting the Johnson giveaway at 8:38.
Gavin Bayreuther’s goal at 10:40 tied the score 3-3 after Jagger Joshua’s puck pursuit on the forecheck led to a Bisson giveaway.
But the Rocket needed just 2:43 to regain the lead on a power-play goal by Samuel Blais. Just 2:03 later, Blais scored again, this time zipping a shot from the left of the slot in off the near post on a two-on-one fast break.
Laval delivered the dagger just 11 seconds into the third period. Roy stole the puck from Johnson at center, attacked into the zone, then dropped the puck to Alex Belzile and he fired a shot 5-hole for a 6-3 lead.
Levi’s night ended at 4:47 when Filip Mesar moved through the right circle and picked the top left corner. Leone immediately summoned Rowe.
“There’s still tons of hockey left (21 games),” Warren said, “and we’re going to have to figure out and decide if we want to be a playoff team or not.”
To whatever degree the Sabres Organization cares about the Rochester Americans record and attendance (seems like significantly less than some of our division opponents), the current situation has turned into a detrimental developmental environment. A tale of two cities: The best of times in Buffalo, the worst of times in Rochester.
I hate leaving games early. Rarely in decades have I done it. So far this month over the last 5 games we have left early….real early.
Laval loves beating us. They toyed with us. Warren says the team has to decide if they want to be a playoff team. I think, along with many others, that they have already decided. They have no on ice leader. They can;t score goals. Goaltending has been all over the road. They should decline home games. Their 2nd periods have been total disasters. Fans have been supportive but are losing patience.
There were more Bronx cheers last night than people in the Bronx. When Amerks tied the game for the 3rd time, and they won the ensuing faceoff, a mighty cheer went up. Fans knew. When Levi let one in 11 seconds into the 3rd period, the march up the aisles and out of the building began in earnest. Sad.
There are good players on this roster but its not a good team. On so many levels they just don’t have it. I don’t know if Leone has totally sold them on the only reason they are here is to get to Buffalo as quickly as possible, but thats how they are playing.
At least losing 9-3 at home has stripped off the mask. They know the fans are on to them. 3 home wins in 15 games. While this was the first blowout loss of the season, so many ‘close games’ have not really been that close. If it wasn’t for the loser points, they’d be Utica.
21 games left. I think many of them have mentally already booked tee times. Last night things were so bizarre all you could do is shake your head and laugh. They disgraced the memory of Scott Metcalfe…he would have been so disappointed.
Leone has lost this team. He says the team is doing well for talent level, I disagree! The defense has been atrocious during this losing streak and underperformed all season! This defense should be a strength of the team when you consider they have 3 D men with NHL experience (Johnson, Jones and Bayreuther) 1 veteran AHLER in Rathbone and 2 very experienced prospects in Novikov and Komarov! If there is any weakness in this group it might be that you give up size and defense for scoring yet other then Jones scoring has not come from the blue line as much as it should with this group. In fact, I thought they were defending much better when Tischke, Fulp and Bellevue were playing during the time Johnson, Rathbone and Jones were gone! As for Levi in goal, he should probably one of the top five goalies in the league! Certainly he has improved overall over these last several stretch of games but overall his value has certainly diminished this year as he has been too inconsistent! Maybe above average in this league overall but certainly not in the top 5 as was expected! So I would say Levi has been a small reason why the Amerks have underperformed this year. Would be nice to have a veteran goalie like Micheal Houser in a game like yesterday, clearly Cameron Rowe does not belong in the AHL! As for the offense, this is the only area where Leone can argue we aren’t stocked like in the past few years. Josh Dunne wasn’t supposed to make the Sabres clearly that has hurt our depth scoring and faceoff ability. Leschysin and Meyer were to be replacements for jobst and Murray. That has been a major flop!! They both are very much underperforming in what was expected in offense production from them! This makes losing jobst and Murray very costly! Two veterans who both were able to get clutch goals with the game on the line, something that has been missing with the Amerks this year for the first time season since covid! Clutch goals and comeback ability are nonexistent with this years Amerks they find ways to lose instead of ways to win! We are missing veterans like Micheal Mersch, Sean Malone, Murray and and Jobst that have made the Amerks successful and entertaining in the past few years. BTW jobst isn’t playing anywhere this year and wasn’t offered a contract even after it was apparent that Josh Dunne was gone for good and with the Amerks clear struggles at center! Unfortunately, we have management team that doesn’t appear to value winning in Rochester and a softball coach who doesn’t make his players take accountability for there underperforming play. After Johnson played that dreadful last night I would sit him and play anyone in place of him Sunday, even call up Tischke. But we all know that won’t happen so between current managment and a coach who’s in denial it is no wonder an Amerks team that was expected to compete for a division title is barely sitting in a playoff spot and has had almost zero ability to win on home ice since this calendar year!
For a few months, it looked like the Amerks were destined to make a Calder Cup run. Hard to believe the bottom fell out, seemingly quickly. This former long-time season ticket holder has a better time in the comfort of his home, watching NHL and D-1 college games.
I wanted to see Laval put up a ten spot. Because in the 70 years of Amerk hockey,has it ever happened at home that the visitor scored ten ? So I’d be a witness to history.