Rochester Amerks beat Syracuse Crunch
SYRACUSE — So what’s wrong with this picture?
The Rochester Americans have the American Hockey League’s best record (17-3-1), yet they’ve been playing scared when they have what should be a comfortable lead.
Their collective confidence when they build a big lead is as brittle as a PeeWee team using the bus driver’s son as the fill-in goalie.
On Sunday afternoon the Amerks did their best to let another 4-0 lead disappear, only this time they regrouped in time to patch the dike and defeat the Syracuse Crunch 7-4.
“I thought we played a perfect game to a certain point,” Amerks coach Benoit Groulx said, “then we started making mistakes in bunches and never stopped.”
But after watching a 4-0 lead whittled to 4-2 and then 5-4 by the never-quit Crunch, Jamie Johnson played sniper and zipped a shot past the glove of relief goalie Dan LaCosta at 15:01 of the third period.
The goal, Johnson’s ninth of the season and second of the game, provided a 6-4 lead and the Amerks clamped down for the final 4:59.
This was a game that featured the most bizarre in happenings — a goal being allowed for Crunch winger Bates Battaglia when the puck appeared to hit both posts but never crossed the line, and a puck deflected by Battaglia to the back piping inside the net being called no goal.
The declared goal had Amerks goalie Alexander Salak taking a YouTube video out of Mika Noronen’s personal library. He pretended to clean the plexiglas in front of the goal judge, as Noronen did for the Amerks in this same building in March 2001.
“Everyone in the building,” Salak said, “knew it was not a goal.”
Everyone except the goal judge. He convinced referee Jean Hebert it was goal. So Hebert reversed his own call of no goal.
In the end, however, despite some frantic moments in the second and third periods, the outcome was just what the Amerks needed.
“We got the win and that’s what we came here to do,” defenseman Clay Wilson said.
They had lost 5-0 at Binghamton on Saturday night, and on Friday night allowed a 4-0 first-period lead turn into a 4-3, hanging-on-for-dear-life victory over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
“We’re going to Manitoba to play Tuesday and Wednesday, they’re a good team at home,” center Chris Taylor said, “and we didn’t want to be going in there after losing two in a row.”
Just as important was proving in the third period that they could actually protect a lead. While their body of work wasn’t playoff worthy, they did survive and quelled the surging Crunch.
“It was nice to get up by a couple, at least late,” Johnson said. “I just think we’re thinking too much. We should be, to be honest; we’re what, 17-3?
“I just think we’re gripping the stick too tight now. We need to have a little more fun. At the end of the day this is a game and you need to have fun playing it.”
They had lots of fun early. Evgeny Dadonov, Johnson, Graham Mink and David Brine scored between 12:43 of the first period and 2:17 of the second for the 4-0 lead.
“Obviously we have to find a way to do a much better job of protecting the lead,” Groulx said.
KEVINO@DemocratandChronicle.com
Kevin’s 3 stars
1. Jamie Johnson, C, Amerks … 2 goals, including the clincher.
2. Michal Repik, RW, Amerks … 1 big goal, and a plus-3.
3. Chris Taylor, C, Amerks … 1 goal, 2 assists, big plays when it mattered.
