By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
Even as the Rochester Americans have seen their roster stripped of talent by injuries along with the trade of their MVP, their status as a playoff team really has never been in serious jeopardy.
A boatload of games in hand and the inability of the pursuing teams to do anything but tread water has allowed the Amerks to maintain a comfort zone.
Until now, that is.
With their former All-Star goalie unable to make a save, albeit on Grade-A scoring chances, the Belleville Senators zoomed to a 3-0 lead in the first eight minutes and were able to outlast the Amerks 5-2 on Friday night.
Devon Levi stopped just one shot while the other three hit twine – at 1:44, 3:31 and 8:00 – before coach Michael Leone replaced him with Scott Ratzlaff. When Levi did make his only save, on Olle Lycksell at 6:10, mock cheer cascaded down from the crowd at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial.
“Just too much to overcome,” Leone said afterward. “Possession time was probably double; probably triple. We were in their zone the whole second period. I don’t think the better team won tonight.”
But the better goalie on this night, Belleville’s Jackson Parsons, allowed his team to win. He spent most of the season with the ECHL’s Allen Americans but was terrific in making 31 saves against the Amerks.
“The kid was outstanding,” Leone said.
Said Amerks forward Brendan Warren: “You tip your cap to the goalie over there.”
So now the Amerks lead over the sixth-place Senators has been sliced to four points and the seventh-place Utica Comets are five back.
Rochester has eight games remaining, including at home Saturday against the AHL’s best team, the Providence Bruins. Belleville has six games left and the Comets seven, and those teams play in Utica on Saturday.
“I think everyone’s aware of how it’s shaking out,” Warren said of the standings. “If we take care of our business, everything will take care of itself.”
The Amerks had a chance to deliver a knockout punch to Belleville had they won on Friday. Instead, the B-Sens have hope and the Amerks continue to sputter as they enter a brutal final two-plus weeks of the season. They will play Providence and Cleveland twice along with Syracuse, Springfield, Hershey and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
A case could be made that Friday’s game turned on the game’s third shift. Matteo Costantini hit the post to Parsons’ left and the Senators quickly sprinted the other way, with Garrett Pilon wristing a shot from the left circle past Levi at 1:44.
“That’s tough; we exit the zone, make four or five passes, create entry and then it goes down the other way and they score,” Leone said.
Porous defense allowed Lycksell to dangle down the slot before setting up Xavier Bourgault for a goal at 3:31, and when Tomas Hamara scored on a wrister from the right circle at 8 minutes, the Amerks trailed 3-0 and Levi’s night was over.
“All phases of our game have to be there and we were missing one tonight,” Leone said.
For the first eight minutes, anyway. Ratzlaff actually played quite well, stopping 13 of the14 shots he faced.
That goal, by Arthur Kaliyev 2:53 into the third period, was critical. It gave Belleville a 4-2 lead after goals by Anton Wahlberg at 14:03 of the first period and Olivier Nadeau at 3:12 of the second revived the Amerks.
Nadeau thought he provided even more hope at 6:02 when he directed a rebound into the net. The problem: He clearly kicked it into the net with his left skate so waving it off was an easy decision once referees Jack Young and Nick Isaacson went to video review.
“We dug ourselves a little too big of a hole,” Warren said.
Pretty hypocritical of the fans to chant Levi, Levi when he’s making big saves but give him the Bronx Cheer tonight.
Saying the better team didn’t win specially after the Amerks have now blown two home games by never being in either of them is why some of us have a bunch of problems with our coach. It’s a team game and one major aspect of your game is sadly missing you aren’t the better team. Levi has let in the 1st shot in both our games this week. He’s not the game saving goalie of last year. Even when the D is not going well you need a goalie to make the critical stops…like he did most of last year until the Laval series.
Our fans have wanted to like Levi. He’s a personable young kid who has (seemingly) enjoyed his time here. But we are down to crunch time where you have to amp up your game to make the playoffs and he is going in the other direction. Fans are hardly hypocritical. They are nervous and disappointed that perhaps our best weapon needed to pull out wins is looking pretty weak.
Coach..it isn’t endearing yourself when the team is losing these key home games to insist we are ‘the better team’or that our play 5 on 5 is great. If you are losing these games it’s pretty clear the other team is better. They scored more and let in less. Pretty simple.
It will be very sad on a night honoring our hall of fame announcer if we lay another egg against Providence. Bruins are #1 yes but Utica showed us that sometimes the more motivated team can play with them.