Rochester Americans goalie Plante won’t make Canada trip
When you play hockey in Rochester and your home is Western Canada, you make sure you don’t forget anything when you head east.
There’s never a chance during the season to make the 3,200-mile round-trip commute.
Which is why Rochester Americans goalie Tyler Plante was so anxious for this trip to Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Abbotsford, British Columbia.
The Tuesday and Wednesday games in Winnipeg against the Manitoba Moose would provide the Plante family a chance for an early Christmas get-together.
Except now there’s no reason for his parents, extended family and friends to make the two-hour trip down from Brandon, Manitoba.
Plante learned by playing in Saturday’s 5-0 loss at Binghamton that his left knee hasn’t healed.
So while the Amerks headed to Winnipeg on Monday morning, Plante began a week of rest. Chris Beckford-Tseu has been recalled from the ECHL’s Florida Everblades to be the backup to Alexander Salak.
Plante originally suffered the injury on Oct. 21 during a goal-mouth pileup against the Binghamton Senators. He returned as Salak’s backup on Nov. 20 and made his first start Saturday.
The injury causes pain and limits mobility when he must go to his knees, something goalies do all game.
“I’ve had the Manitoba trip marked on the calendar and maybe subconsciously I pushed it too hard, not thinking about the consequences,” said Plante, who is 3-3 with a 3.25 goals-against average.
“It’s an injury that, if I was a player (forward or defenseman), I’d be back playing and wouldn’t have missed a beat. I can skate, I can run, I can get into a fight (which he did Saturday against Binghamton tough-guy Tim Spencer). But it’s just a little tough to make a save in the butterfly (position).”
Plante said the fight had nothing to do with aggravating the injury. However, he did start the fight because the Senators’ barge-into-the-crease tactics caused the original injury in October.
“If it was another team I wouldn’t have done it,” Plante said.
The Amerks (17-3-1) play the Moose (13-9-4) at 8:30 tonight and Wednesday.
They play the Heat (12-10-2-2) at 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.