By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Matt Villalta had barely finished his curtain call as the game’s first star when someone among the 6,035 fans at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial asked aloud, “Devon Levi who?”
While saying the Rochester Americans will be just fine without their star goalie of the past three years might be a little premature, Villalta showed they’ve still got someone in net who can make big save after big save.
The eighth-year pro stopped 34 shots to backstop the Amerks to a 3-1 opening-night victory over the defending Calder Cup champion Toronto Marlies on Friday.
“He’ so poised and composed,” Amerks coach Michael Leone said. “He’s had close to 300 starts in the American League and NHL so he’s seen it all. Nothing gets to him.”
And on Friday night only one shot got by him, an extra-attacker power-play goal with 1:53 remaining that cost him his 11th pro shutout. But at that point the Amerks still had a 3-1 lead and were well on their way to victory No. 1 of the season.
“I’m really excited to see what we can do this year,” said third-year forward Riley Fiddler-Schultz, whose power-play goal gave the Amerks a 1-0 lead 10:05 into the second period. “I think we’ve got a really good group to do some damage.”
Rookie winger Jack Richard scored late in the second period and 13th-year veteran Conor Sheary scored early in the third as the Amerks built a comfortable cushion.
It wasn’t necessarily a thing of beauty, though, especially puck management in the defensive zone.
There also were far too many penalties. The Amerks took three in 12 minutes and gave the Marlies eight power plays by the time the game ended. Toronto wasn’t much better; the Amerks were 1-for-6 on the power play.
“It was one of those games where both teams were parading to the penalty box,” Fiddler-Schultz said.
Thanks to Villalta’s play in goal, the Amerks didn’t pay a price. He showed very early that he was ready to take charge. Twice in the first 11 minutes, he made saves on terrific chances by Logan Shaw, the Marlies’ perennial 20-goal scorer.
What impressed Leone was the structure of Villalta’s play. “He doesn’t chase the game,” Leone said.
A resident of Godfrey, Ontario, Villalta signed as a free agent with the parent Buffalo Sabres over the summer. While he has played seven pro seasons, he has just three NHL games on his resume, two with the Phoenix Coyotes and one with the Los Angeles Kings.
He’s very much still chasing the dream, however.
“I’m fighting for a NHL job and I have that self-belief in myself that I can play in the NHL,” Villalta said.
He’s quite content being in Rochester, though.
“You want to play in the NHL but you have to earn the opportunity,” he said. “But you have to live in the moment; I’m proud to be able to throw the Americans jersey on.”
There’s very a much a new feel to everything. Since turning pro in 2019-20, he has played virtually his entire career west of the Mississippi River. The AHL’s Pacific Division teams rarely travel east, and very few East teams don’t travel West.
He said his one game in the Eastern Time Zone was played in Grand Rapids.
“It’s kind of nice being back on this side of the pond,” he said with a smile.
The game was more than half over was Fiddler-Schultz gave the Amerks the lead. Carson Meyer swept the puck from the high slot down deep to Trevor Kuntar, who passed across the goal mouth. As Fiddler-Schultz was dropping to his knee to try to steer the pass in, the puck hit his left shin and caromed into the net.
Richard’s first pro goal pushed the lead to 2-0 at 18:51. Gavin McCarthy walked into a one-timer from the right point and the puck deflected off Richard and past goalie Samuel Hlavaj.
McCarthy was initially credited with the goal, and it would have been his first. But not replay review during the intermission confirmed the goal belonged to Richard.
The good thing: they had the puck for him, they just had to take it away from his good buddy, McCarthy.
“He gets the assist on it, though,” Richard said.
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