Rochester squanders a 2-goal twice in the 6-5 OT loss to the Islanders.
By Kevin Oklobzija / Pickinsplinters.com
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — At a time of year when every point is critical, in a division where barely a tenth of a percentage point separates third place from sixth, the Rochester Americans are trending in the wrong direction.
They were in position to win on Friday night on home ice against Toronto but lost 3-2 in a shootout. They weren’t competitive in a 5-1 loss at Syracuse on Saturday.
And on Sunday, when back on home ice in Buffalo Bills tribute uniforms in front of 6,308 fans, they built 2-0 and 5-3 leads yet found a way to lose 6-5 in overtime to the Bridgeport Islanders.
“It came down to six seconds at the end of the game,” said winger Brett Murray, who assisted on the final three Amerks goals, by JJ Peterka, Arttu Ruotsalainen and Linus Weissbach.
Ahead 5-4, the Amerks couldn’t clear the puck from their own end or even gain control, and the Islanders, with goalie Jakub Skarek pulled for an extra attacker, forced overtime when Michael Dal Colle fought through Amerks center Sean Malone to get to a Robin Salo rebound and fired it home with 6.2 seconds left.
As a result, the Amerks remain sixth in the North Division and on the outside looking in at a playoff spot, despite a lineup featuring top young guns and veteran scoring talent.
Maybe it’s not time to hit panic button. But there’s surely is cause for concern when a team gives up two goals in the final four minutes – including the tying goal with under seven seconds remaining – and then loses in overtime.
Amerks coach Seth Appert, whose team is 30-24-5-3 with a .548 points-earned percentage, chose to look at the proverbial glass as being half full.
“We’ve got points in six of the last seven (games),” Appert said, “so we’re doing a lot of good things. As a coach, when you get guys back, the media, the fans, the players might expect it will just go forward.
“But you’ve got guys that haven’t played in three months. You’ve got guys who are trying to redefine chemistry. There’s also a difference between being in game shape and not being in game shape, and you can feel that with some of the guys that are coming back from injury. They don’t have the same legs 25, 35 seconds into a shift.”
That perhaps cost the Amerks in the waning seconds. They couldn’t get the puck, they couldn’t clear the zone and, thus, they couldn’t change lines. Malone, who before Friday had missed all but one game in three months, was unable to deter Dal Colle from scoring.
“We couldn’t get a clear and we got stuck out there and we just had tired guys out there for a minute 50 (seconds),” Appert said.
Then in overtime, a turnover by Jack Quinn led to a 2-on-0 fastbreak and the winning goal by Bridgeport’s Chris Terry.
Quinn weaved his way to the deep slot and turned to the backhand, only to have Austin Czarnik sweep it off his stick.
Czarnik, who had scored Bridgeport’s fourth goal with 3:57 remaining, then banked a pass off the left-wing boards and hit defenseman Mitchell Vande Sompel in stride in the neutral zone for the 2-on-0 fastbreak.
He passed to Terry, who rifled a shot past goalie Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen with 1:43 left in OT.
While Luukkonen did face 46 shots, he allowed six goals.
“You need to find ways to finish it, too,” Appert said. “An important part of goaltending is finding ways to close the door.”
Luukkonen obviously was on an island on the winning goal, with Quinn, Ethan Prow and Linus Weissbach caught deep in the offensive zone.
Was it a great scoring chance by Quinn, where Prow and Weissbach should have crept toward the net? Probably not.
“He had a good position to get a shot off there, and it rolled off his stick,” Appert said. “You also have to have awareness away from him. Is this the time to jump? Does this look like an advantageous opportunity for us? That’s probably not the smartest move whoever else was jumping to the offensive side.”
Then again, it was Quinn. He can work magic with the puck.
“We have won a lot of those that way and Jack’s a special player, so I’m sure that was the rationale,” Appert said.
Notes: Cole Bardreau, who grew up in Fairport and played at Fairport High School and then Cornell University, scored Bridgeport’s second goal. The tenacious forward, an alternate captain for the Islanders, is in his seventh pro season. He has produced 13 goals, 11 assists and 24 points in 42 games.
Bardreau had his own cheering section in the lower bowl at the Broad Street end of the building, with close to 40 fans on hand to watch his first game in Rochester in exactly three years.
Murray has 3-12-15 in his past 13 games, including a pair of three-assist games. Ruotsalainen has 9-9-18 in his past 12 games, and points in 11 of those.
With his goal Sunday, Quinn has 22 goals in 31 games, giving him an outside chance to become just the second Amerks player to score 30 since 2004-05. Victor Olafsson produced 30 in 2018-19. The Amerks have 14 games remaining. Michael Mersch has 21. The Amerks haven’t had multiple 30-goal scorers since 2004-05 (Thomas Vanek 42, Jason Pominville 30).
The Amerks still can’t win at home in front of big crowds. This was the fourth loss in five weeks in front of more than 6,000 fans. The others: 5-1 to Laval in front of 6,576 on Feb. 20, 4-0 to Toronto in front of 6,302 on Feb. 26 and 3-2 to Syracuse in front of 6,611 on March 11.
Rochester squanders 2-goal leads twice in 6-5 OT loss to the Islanders.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Forwards Arttu Ruotsalainen (1+2) and Brett Murray (0+3) each recorded three points Sunday afternoon against the Bridgeport Islanders (27-25-6-4), but the Rochester Americans (30-24-5-3) suffered a heart-breaking 6-5 overtime loss at the Blue Cross Arena.
Despite the overtime loss, Rochester’s second of the weekend that went beyond regulation, the club extended its home point streak to four games, going 2-0-1-1 over that span. It was also the second straight game this season against Bridgeport, who rallied back from a pair of two-goal deficits, that ended in overtime as the Amerks fell to 7-1-2-0 in their last 10 meetings versus the Islanders dating back to the 2017-18 season.
Ruotsalainen turned in his 11th multi-point effort in the last 37 games as he’s tallied 40 points (16+24) since the turn of the New Year. Murray registered his second three-assist outing of the season while Mark Jankowski (1+1) scored a goal and added an assist in the first period. Jack Quinn, JJ Peterka, and Linus Weissbach all lit the lamp in the contest, the Amerks’ third of the weekend.
Ethan Prow, Michael Mersch and Josh Teves each were credited with an assist while goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (10-11-4) made 40 saves in the game, which included 19 in the final period. In 11 of his 25 appearances this season, Luukkonen has stopped 40 or more shots, including four of his last five games.
Austin Czarnik (1+2), Robin Salo (1+2), Arnaud Durandeau (1+1) all recorded a multi-point game before Chris Terry (1+1) sealed the overtime win as he scored his 22nd goal of the season to go with an assist. Rochester native Cole Bardreau tied the game in the first period while Michael Dal Colle sent the game to the overtime. Netminder Jakub Skarek stopped 25 of the 30 shots he faced to improve to 16-11-4 on the campaign.
Facing a 5-3 deficit 3:20 into the final period of play, the Islanders, who entered the contest 5-0-1-0 in their previous six games, scored a pair of goals to send the game to the overtime period.
On the second Bridgeport goal of the frame, it came with just six seconds left in the game and Skarek on the bench for the extra skater.
In the overtime period, neither team generated much offensively in the first half, but the Islanders gathered a loose puck after a turnover inside the blueline and sprinted up the ice for a two-on-zero. On the breakaway, Mitch Vande Sompel received a bank-pass before Terry capped the game as he beat Luukkonen on a one-time feed from the right face-off dot.
In 13 of the last 14 meetings between the two clubs, the winning team has scored three or more goals. Additionally, seven games during that same stretch have been decided beyond regulation, which includes three of the last four dating back to the 2018-19 season.
Rochester jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the opening 3:38 of the first period only to have Bridgeport counter back with three unanswered goals to take the lead into the intermission break.
During the middle stanza, Peterka knotted the score at three with his 17th of the season at the 12:19 mark before Ruotsalainen reclaimed the Amerks advantage as he blasted a shot in the final minute of the period.
The Amerks used the energy from the goal as Weissbach picked up his 13th of the slate from Ruotsalainen and Murray to push the score to 5-3 with 16:40 left in regulation.
With his three-point performance, Ruotsalainen became fourth different Amerk to reach the 40-point mark this season, joining Peterka, Quinn and Mersch.
After seeing their lead turn into a deficit, the Islanders scored a pair of goals to force overtime before Terry capped off the 6-5 victory 3:17 into the extra-period.
The Amerks conclude the month of March on Wednesday, March 30 as they play host to the league-leading Utica Comets in a North Division showdown. The intrastate matchup gets underway at 7:05 p.m.