Power Play disappoints as Amerks drop Divisional contest to Monsters
- junipstudios1
- 20 hours ago
- 6 min read
By: Juniper Lasky
Rochester, N.Y. -- The Rochester Americans had a tough divisional game on Saturday night, as they lost 2-1 against the Cleveland Monsters. This game meant a lot more than the rest, as they are currently locked in a tight divisional dash for one of the five North Division playoff spots.
The stakes for this game were laid out as clear as possible. The Amerks are in playoff spot three of five in the North Division, with forty-six points before the game. With a win, they could find themselves sitting pretty in the second spot leapfrogging the Crunch who currently have forty-seven points. The Monsters were sitting at sixth in the North before the game, the first team out of the playoffs. However, the Monsters had a game in hand, and were two games, four points, behind Rochester. With a win, Cleveland could find themselves in the fifth of five North Division playoff spots.
Going into the game, Devon Levi was sporting one-hundred and fifty-six minutes of consecutive home shutout time, over the span of three home games, and including two home shutout games. The penalty kill was another bright spot for the Amerks going in, with ten consecutive penalties killed, over the span of three games, with two full games without a power play goal let up.
The game started off with a penalty right off the bat committed by Monsters winger Roman Ahcan, only thirty-four seconds into play. The high-sticking would give the Amerks a promising chance at the first score, as the play would remain in the offensive zone for nearly all of the two minutes, but the Amerks league third best power play would fail to notch another score, leaving the game scoreless, which would remain for another seven minutes until another penalty was committed, this time on the Amerks.
The penalty, a tripping called on Fiddler-Schultz, would put the pressure on Levi to continue standing strong, as his streak had just crossed the one hundred and sixty five minute mark. The Amerks didn't flinch however, as they would continue their penalty kill hot streak, and outlast the Monsters' attack. This would put the Amerks at eleven consecutive penalties killed over the span of four games.
The waning moments of that power play looked to potentially break the tie, however. The Monsters would finally register a shot on the power play, but the Amerks would immediately answer back with an even more promising opportunity. They mustered up a short-handed two on one breakaway opportunity that would nearly find the net from a shot by Jagger Joshua, but Red Savage would end up being tripped up on the rebound attempt in front of a wide open net. No call. The next seven minutes would feature more threatening offense, but the first buzzer would sound without a score, as the shots were even at seven a piece after period one. Both teams were oh for one on the power play.
It didn't take long in the second period for first blood to be drawn. Levi's consecutive home shutout streak would end at two games, and one hundred and seventy seven minutes. This was all thanks to an impressive top-shelfer from Monsters winger Hudson Fasching. The bad blood between the North Division rivals would finally rear its head, as Jagger Joshua, once again would find himself taking the gloves off, this time against Tate Singleton of the Monsters.
It would get worse for the Amerks, as not soon after, Ryan Johnson would get called for a slashing, and once again test the Amerks streaking penalty kill. The Amerks would notch twelve consecutive penalties killed, as Levi would make a spectacular glove save right at the end of the two minutes. The Amerks wouldn't find much else positive in the next five minutes, other than a suffocating offensive zone shift, that would find itself ending nine minutes into the frame.
The Amerks would find two near consecutive power play opportunities, as the first one would come from a holding on Roman Ahcan, for his second penalty of the game ten minutes in. The Amerks registered three shots on that power play, one of them being a near open net, but the Amerks would come up empty. The next power play once again came from Ahcan, as he was called on an interference. This power play looked unpromising for the Amerks, as they would fail to render a single shot.
When it rains, it pours, as the Amerks would find themselves with three and a half minutes of man disadvantage time coming up, with a four minute double minor for a high-sticking on Trevor Kuntar being called with around a half minute left in the Amerks own power play. Levi would find himself in another hole, as he would have to make four saves to kill off the Amerks thirteenth consecutive penalty. Levi answered the order, and would close out the period leaving the Amerks with only a one goal deficit despite the thirteen and a half penalty minutes they have had in the game.
Twenty minutes would be left in regulation for the Amerks to get themselves a point or two in the ever close playoff race. The score was 1-0 Monsters after two, despite the Amerks having 11 power play minutes, and a sixteen to fourteen shot advantage after a nine to seven count in the second period. Levi has let up but a single goal in the last one hundred and ninety six minutes on home ice, and he would likely need to keep that goal total the same for the Amerks to have a chance.
The third period would open up by another penalty committed by Rochester not even a half-minute in, with a slashing called on Tyler Kopff. The penalty wouldn't even result in a registered shot however, as the Monsters would go to oh for five on the power play in the game, bringing Rochester to their fourteenth consecutive penalty kill.
Over the next seven minutes, the Amerks would overwhelm the Monsters in shooting, four to two, until another power play opportunity would arise for Rochester, a slashing on Monsters defenseman Dysin Mayo with ten and a half minutes left in the third period.
The first minute would register two Rochester shots, until they would find a five on three opportunity with forty-two seconds left in the original power play, due to another slashing, this time on Monsters center Hunter McKown. At this point, the Amerks were outshooting Cleveland six to three in the third period, for a total of twenty-two to seventeen, but the Amerks weren't getting past Monsters goalie Zach Sawchenko, who was looking for his first shutout in the AHL season, and forth in his career.
Another power play would come short for the Amerks, as concerns are starting to grow over what has been one of the best units in the league, third in the league to be exact. They were oh-for-five on the day.
"If you don't score on five on threes... usually the outcome's not going to be there," says Leone. "But I don't want to put this on just the power play."
This trouble for the power play seems to not be putting a damper on the units overall stats, as they still lead not just the North Division but the entire Eastern Conference in power play success percentage.
The Monsters would score an empty netter off the stick of their center Owen Sillinger with one minute and forty-one seconds left, which seemed to put the game away. This is when Amerks winger Olivier Nadeau shut down Sawchenko's shutout bid with just less than a minute to go and all of a sudden it became a game once again, as the Amerks faced only a one goal deficit. The Amerks would keep the puck in offensive ice for most of the remaining time, but they would fail to register a single shot as time expired on the late comeback bid.
The Amerks outshot the Monsters thirty-one to twenty.
Amerks winger Carson Meyer expressed his confidence in his teams fight over the last two minutes of play.
"We've consistently showed our resilience," says Meyer. "We're in every game. We're not a team that rolls over." Meyer however, expresses the frustration at the result. "You don't want moral victories getting into the second half of the season, you've to take away two points."
The game was more like a four-point swing at the end of the day, as the Monsters are now two points, one game back of the Amerks, but still aren't in a playoff spot due to fifth-place Belleville's win in Springfield. For the Amerks, they could find themselves falling to the fourth depending on the result of the Toronto Marlies game tonight. The playoffs aren't fully certain in Rochester.
The Amerks will take a break from Divisional competition as they stay home to take on the Hershey Bears on Wednesday, January 28 at 7:05 pm EST.