From hero to oh-no for Komarov as Amerks lose to Laval

By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA

For a good 12 minutes or so, Vsevolod Komarov was on his way to being the hero in Friday’s showdown with the best team in the American Hockey League’s Eastern Conference.

The third-year defenseman had scored his first goal of the season late in the second period, giving the Rochester Americans a 1-0 lead over the Laval Rocket.

Amerks goalie Matt Villalta kept his team afloat with a terrific 14-save performance in the first period, and now Komarov had finally broken the scoreless tie.

But in an instant, the hero’s cape was ripped away. Komarov’s egregious giveaway turned into the tying goal by Jared Davidson 6:08 into the third period, and when Samuel Poulin scored on a power play 5:06 later, the Rocket were on their way to a 3-1 victory in front of 4,568 fans at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial.

Poulin’s empty net goal with 1:14 remaining – after Laval goalie Kevin Mandolese narrowly missed the net on a 170-foot shot of his own from just above his goal crease – inflated the score.

It was the turnover by Komarov that haunted the Amerks, however. In possession of the puck midway up the board in the Amerks zone, Komarov attempted a pass to defense partner Caleb Jones, who was in middle of the slot.

For whatever reason, Komarov didn’t see Davidson, who swooped in from behind Jones and corralled the pass on the tape of his stick. Two quick strides later, Davidson fired a shot from the left hash mark past Villalta, who had no chance to make the save.

“My mistake leads to the goal,” Komarov said. “That’s on me.”

There was no way to sugarcoat it, either.

“We literally just passed it right to him,” Amerks coach Michael Leone said. “They had no chances (six) minutes into the third. You literally play as good as you can for (six) minutes of the third period and you hand the team a freebie.

“It’s hard to wrap your head around a play like that.”

Of course, it was also hard for anyone in the arena to comprehend just how poorly the Amerks played in the first period. Including the Amerks. Through 19 minutes and 20 seconds, they were outshot 14-1, had virtually no sustained offensive zone time and would have been behind 3-0 or 4-0 if not for Villalta’s big-save play.

“All the guys understand that’s not our game in the first period,” Komarov said.

For the final two periods, the Amerks were much better, and even the better team for stretches. But their power play failed them, going 0-for-6.

“We had some in the second that were not so good,” said winger Conor Sheary, a key component on the top power-play unit. “I think when we came out in the third, the first power play we had two minutes of O-zone time and four or five scoring chances, they just didn’t go in.

“I think we can build off what we did and forget about the bad for now and get back at it tomorrow.”

Indeed, the Amerks and Rocket play again at 5 p.m. Saturday in downtown Rochester. That’s not necessarily a good thing, though. Laval is 12-3-1 with 25 points. The Amerks are 7-6-0-1 with 15 points. So which portion of Friday’s game was the true representation? The first-period domination by Laval or the fairly evenly matched final two periods?

“They play hard, they’re on top of you all the time, it seems like there’s not a lot of time and space when you get the puck,” Sheary said. “Give credit to them, they came into our building and took it to us for the first 20 minutes and really took all the energy out of the building.”

The Amerks did rebound and outshot the Rocket 23-18 over the final two periods.

“I thought in the second half of game we were good, I thought we tilted the ice a bit,” Leone said. “We started to get pucks out, pucks behind them.”