The rookie goalie makes his AHL debut in a 4-3 shootout loss to Cleveland.
By CRAIG POTTER / C&C Worldwide Sports Director
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Buffalo Sabres fulfilled their development plan for goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen Friday night at the Blue Cross Arena before 5,610 fans. He ended up making 23 saves but lost 4-3 in a shootout.
“It stinks to lose, especially at home,” said Luukkone. “I thought we played a solid game tonight and there are some bounces that I would have liked to go the other way. There are some things I still need to sharpen up and some that things that I am happy about. Overall, it was not a bad game.”
“I think he handled it really well,” said Amerks head coach Chris Taylor of Luukkonen. “Especially during the 4-on-3 and the two 5-on-3’s we had tonight, I thought he did a really good job. He stayed with it tonight, and after only seeing a few shots early on, I thought he was good.”
The 20-year-old Finish rookie made his AHL debut after being called up from the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL earlier in the week. UPL earned All-Star status with the Cyclones, but the Sabres wanted to expose him to AHL calibre play this season as well.
“We planned to have him here a couple times this year,” Amerks General Manager Randy Sexton told the media during the second period intermission . “Whether JJ (Jonas Johansson) and Andrew (Hammond) had been lights out or OK or playing poorly, he was coming here this week.
“We did the same thing with Jonas last year. It’s all part of the overall development process.”
UPL saw only 2 shots through the first half of the opening period, but ended up going the distance with an overtime and shootout in his debut.
“It probably helps me to see how the 3-on-3 is and how the shootout is,” Luukkonen said.
The Amerks gave him a 1-0 lead on John Gilmour’s length of the ice rush as he beat Cleveland netminder, and fellow Finn, Veini Vehvilainen.
“On the power-play there is obviously more room on the ice,” said Gilmour, who has recorded a goal in each of his last two contests. “Going out on the ice, just being confident and making plays while trying to help the team win. One thing about tonight’s game is we can go to bed proud of the game as it is really anyone’s game in the shootout.”
The Monsters tied the game with a power play goal early in the second stanza, but the Amerks regained the advantage when Vehilainen came out to play the puck. Jean-Sebastien Dea gained control and fired a shot. The rebound came to Casey Mittelstadt, who put it into the vacated side of the net.
“I feel J.S., Remi (Elie) and myself have been playing well together as of late,” said Mittelstadt. “It took us a while to build the chemistry, but it was good to see a goal go into the net tonight. The chances and the goals will come, but one wasn’t enough for our line tonight.”
However, the advantage lasted just 73 seconds as the Monsters evened the count once again.
Cleveland forged ahead on a bad bounce off the backboards on a puck that normally would have gone around the net, but came back out from and had Luukkonen helpless as the Monsters scored to take a 3-2 lead.
“It’s a crazy bounce behind the net; I probably should have read it a little better,” said Luukkonen.
Taylor added, “There’s nothing worse than a bad bounce like that. It was going nowhere. But you make your won breaks and I talked to the team about that.”
The Amerks defense was taxed as Rochester successfully killed off two 5-on-3 Cleveland power plays.
Rochester cashed in a power play late in the third period when CJ Smith tallied the equalizer to send the game in to overtime.
Defenseman Casey Nelson cleared a loose puck following a UPL save, then UPL made a spectacular save while killing off Rochester’s 8th penalty of the contest.
Cleveland’s Markus Hannikainen scored the lone goal in the shootout as Mittelstadt, Andrew Oglevie, and Smith failed to convert for the Amerks.
“It was not a perfect game but we can take some positives out of tonight’s game and into the rest of the weekend,” Taylor said. “Getting one point was big for our team as we are trying to get back on track. Any time we can get points, we are happy but we have to be ready for the rest of the weekend.”
*NOTES — The Amerks continue their last 3-in-3 this season on Saturday, when they square off against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at the PPL Center at 7:05 pm, before closing the weekend Sunday night in Hershey against the Bears at 5 pm…Jean-Sebastien Dea continues to lead the team in both goals (12) and points (27) in 36 games this season. Coming into tonight, Dea, who is also second among all Amerks forwards with 72 shots on goal, has 9 points (2+7) in his last 11 games dating back to Dec. 20…Rochester holds a record of 28-7-3-4 over Cleveland since the start of the 2011-12 campaign…Amerks forward Andrew Oglevie scored his first career hat trick in the previous meeting between the two teams back on Nov. 30, single-handedly outscoring Cleveland in Rochester’s 3-2 victory…Amerks assistant coach Toby Petersen spent the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons behind the bench with the Monsters. Petersen helped the team earn its first Calder Cup in 2016…Rookie defenseman Jacob Bryson is tied for fourth in the AHL for all first-year players with a plus-9 on-ice rating while being the only Amerk to appear in all 38 games so far this season.