Rochester drops to 4th place in the North Division.
By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA / Pickinsplinters.com
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — On an evening when winning would have meant staying in contention for home ice advantage in the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs, the Rochester Americans instead find themselves staring at a date in the play-in mini-round.
In other words, Saturday couldn’t have gone any worse for the Amerks.
They squandered a lead and lost on the ice, 4-3 to the visiting Cleveland Monsters, and in the process lost another key offensive weapon.
Jiri Kulich, the Amerks leading goal-scorer, suffered a lower body injury early in the second period and is likely out for an indefinite period of time. Kulich joins an already overcrowded injury list that includes team MVP Brandon Biro and role-filling forwards Brendan Warren and Tyson Kozak.
And a further slap in the face was delivered later Saturday night when the Utica Comets rallied from a 4-2 late third-period deficit to defeat the Syracuse Crunch 5-4 in overtime.
That means the Amerks must win at Cleveland in Sunday’s regular-season finale, otherwise they will be relegated to play the reinforced Laval Rocket in the best-of-three play-in mini-round.
“Cleveland, Belleville and Laval might have three of the best lineups in the league right now,” Amerks coach Seth Appert said. “A lot of it is when you play teams. That’s a really strong group that they (Cleveland) had tonight.
“We had a great run (7-2-2-1 in the past 12 games), we’ve played really good hockey. We just have to find a way.”
If the Amerks don’t win Sunday, they will be the fourth seed in the North Division and must play fifth-place Laval. Game 1 would be Wednesday in Quebec, with Games 2 and, if necessary 3, in Rochester on Friday and Sunday.
If the Amerks do win Sunday, they’ll leap-frog Utica into third and play the Crunch in the best-of-five North Division semifinals starting Friday and Saturday at Syracuse.
Indeed, Saturday’s loss to the Monsters was devastating. While rookie Filip Cederqvist scored his first pro hat trick – and first in probably five years, he said – goalie Michael Houser allowed two bad goals at the worst times.
His misplay behind the net led to the tying goal by Roman Ahcan with just 52 seconds remaining in the second period, then Cole Clayton somehow managed to slip a shot from the left circle past Houser at 9:32 of the third period.
“Houser and (Malcolm) Subban have been excellent for us (but) I think both would say they gave up quite a few goals the last two games that are not ones they want to give up,” Appert said. “A lot of times it’s not about the big saves, it’s about the ones you give up, not giving up free ones.
“But again, I have all the faith in the world in those two guys.”
Cederqvist scored his three goals in a span of just 4:45. He converted a Linus Weissbach pass at 16:14 of the first period to cut Cleveland’s lead to 2-1.
Then he scored just nine seconds apart in the first minute of the second period. At :50 seconds he tipped in Ethan Prow’s point shot.
On the next shift, he delivered a solid check on defenseman Samuel Knazko on the boards just inside the Monsters blue line. The hit caused a turnover and subsequent two-on-zero fastbreak, with Weissbach again setting up Cederqvist in the deep slot.
After scoring just five goals in his first 53 games, the outburst was validation of what he’s capable of doing and also perhaps a springboard heading into the playoffs.
“I’ve been struggling a little bit this year on the scoresheet so this is good for my confidence,” he said. “Confidence-wise it’s been a little hard this year too.”
The second-period goals were very much Cederqvist’s projected game in a microcosm.
“I think that’s him at his best, when he’s being physical, when he’s going to the hard areas,” Appert said. “The second goal, he scores right in the blue paint, something he’s getting better and better at. And then the third goal he just destroys their defenseman, forces a turnover and then gets rewarded in transition.”
But after the Amerks killed off a five-on-three Cleveland power play late in the second period, the Monsters took advantage of Houser’s giveaway to tie the score. He went behind the net to play the puck but turned it over and paid the price.
“We had such a great second, we fought back to get the lead, and that’s a big goal to give up for free,” Appert said. “And then it’s just a dogfight. One of their shots slipped through Houser and we had a bunch of looks at the front of the net that didn’t slip through the other way.”
Injury update
“Warren was hurt on Friday night and is “week to week, but it’s probably multiple weeks unfortunately,” Appert said.
Biro and Kozak also are week-to-week and Appert said he doesn’t expect either back anytime soon.