(Picture by Steven Christy from http://okcbarons.com/)

Paul Szczechura, Shaone Morrisonn and Evan Rankin were all out of the lineup with injuries but watching the game it was hard to tell.  Sure, the team failed to score on five power play chances which is where a Szczechura or Rankin could have helped but when you can score at even strength it’s not as bad.

We’ve shared concerns about this team time and time again but the players and coaching staff seem to keep coming back and saying, “don’t worry, we have this!”  That’s fine with me.  We’ll take it.  The coaching staff deserves a lot of credit for not letting this team get down on themselves and also for making the most of players that for the most part probably shouldn’t have started the season here.  Those players deserve credit for putting everything they have out on the ice every night and not backing down.

There’s a lot of great reasons to come and see this team play on home ice where they’ve won 10 out of 15 games.

On to the game recap… About a month ago I made a comment to someone that the defense seems to be missing a defenseman like Jason Garrison who can blast a shot from the blue line to score (and also break a lot of sticks).  Since I made that comment we’ve seen TJ Brennan, Drew Schiestel and Alex Biega start to score goals from the back of the pack.  Brennan scored the first goal of the game at 7:01 of the first with assists to Phil Varone and Alex Biega.  Get these guys the puck and they can put the puck on the net.

The Barons tied the game at one on the power play thanks to a perfect bounce off of the shin guards of Dennis Persson.  Magnus Paajarvi took a shot that was blocked by Persson but the puck shot into the air and right to Ryan Keller who gloved it to the ice and quickly beat David Leggio.  An awesome blocked shot but not so luck bounce right to a great player in Ryan Keller.

Dan Ringwald gave the Barons a 2-1 lead at 12:57 of the second period on the power play after a fast four on three break down the ice.  Travis Turnbull had went to the Barons net with a scoring chance but was taken down, fell into Danis and then the Barons net was knocked off.  The play didn’t stop though.  The Barons had control of the puck and were going in the opposite direction so the play continued and the Barons didn’t waste any time scoring.

A couple of minutes later the Amerks had a power play chance of their own with a five on three for a minute and 43 seconds but didn’t score.  Jacob Lagace had the best opportunity with a shot on a wide open net on the left side but somehow Yann Danis got a piece of the  puck and stopped it.

Lagace answered back though with under two minutes to play in the second period tapping in a pass at the opposite side of the net from where Danis had previously stopped him.  Marcus Foligno brought the puck into the zone and passed it to Phil Varone who fed it over to Lagace.

It only took 21 seconds into the third period for Ryan Keller to score again and put the Barons up 3-2.  Keller is a skilled veteran who knew exactly where to go to the front of the net to get a rebound and beat David Leggio to regain the lead.

Travis Turnbull was ejected from the game and accumulated 27 minutes in penalty time for going after Ryan O’Marra who had bumped Leggio in the crease and knocked his helmet off.  Turnbull followed O’Marra to the boards and stood up for his goalie.

He was hit with aggressor and instigating penalties.  Here’s more from the rule book on those.

Aggressor, (46.2) : The aggressor in an altercation shall be the player (or goalkeeper) who continues to throw punches in an attempt to inflict punishment on his opponent who is in a defenseless position or who is an unwilling combatant.

Instigating, (46.10) : An instigator of an altercation shall be a player who by his actions or demonstrates any following criteria: clearly pursues an opponent who is a non-willing combatant; attacks or jumps his opponent and proceeds to throw punches.

Here’s video of the incident, doesn’t seem to me like he deserved 27 minutes:

Rewind back to the first period, Turnbull had left a trail of blood on the ice and went to the locker room after getting hit in the face.  Here’s the tweet he shared after the game:

Big win for the boys tonight! Got a couple more stitches and lost a couple more teeth, but it was worth it. #amerks

December 28, 2011 11:47 pm via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite

@TravisTurnbull9

Travis Turnbull

Back to the penalty, no problem, the Amerks killed off the five minute penalty and got back to even strength.

Jacob Lagace scored his second goal of the night and ninth of the season at 10:11 of the third period to tie the game.  Marcus Foligno put a shot/pass on net that Lagace tipped past Danis.  Drew Schiestel was also given an assist on the goal.

The two teams continue to play back and forth hockey through the rest of regulation and the entire overtime session.  David Leggio and Yann Danis both played outstanding games.  The two teams also played to win, it wasn’t one of those games where you watched one team playing to not lose or just simply make it to overtime to get a point.

Scoring in the shootout it was Jacob Lagace, Jonathan Parker and TJ Brennan in the sixth round to give the Amerks another win and four points on the road trip against the top team in the American Hockey League right on.

This win has to give the team some great confidence heading into a game on Friday against Hamilton, a team they’ve played against six times but have only won one game.  They play on Friday at 7:35 at the War Memorial in downtown Rochester and it’s shaping up to be a very well attended game.

Box score:

Rochester Americans 4 (SO) at Oklahoma City Barons 3 – Status: Final SO
Wednesday, December 28, 2011 – Cox Convention Center

Rochester 1 1 1 0 – 4
Oklahoma City 1 1 1 0 – 3

1st Period-1, Rochester, Brennan 6 (Biega, Varone), 7:01. 2, Oklahoma City, Keller 10 (Paajarvi, Helmer), 12:54 (PP). Penalties-Hartikainen Okc (holding), 1:40; Boychuk Rch (interference), 12:31; Grant Okc (hooking), 18:02.

2nd Period-3, Oklahoma City, Ringwald 1 (Green, Helmer), 12:57 (PP). 4, Rochester, Lagace 8 (Varone, Foligno), 18:01. Penalties-Varone Rch (delay of game), 8:46; Boychuk Rch (slashing), 12:12; Tyrvainen Okc (slashing), 13:23; O’Marra Okc (tripping), 13:40.

3rd Period-5, Oklahoma City, Keller 11 (Helmer, Paajarvi), 0:21. 6, Rochester, Lagace 9 (Foligno, Schiestel), 10:11. Penalties-Turnbull Rch (instigating, fighting, misconduct – instigating, game misconduct – aggressor), 2:06; O’Marra Okc (charging), 2:06; Tulupov Okc (charging), 14:46.

OT Period- No Scoring.Penalties-No Penalties

Shootout – Rochester 3 (Whitmore NG, Lagace G, Voakes NG, Parker G, Foligno NG, Brennan G), Oklahoma City 2 (Pitlick NG, Keller G, Hartikainen NG, Paajarvi G, Green NG, Cornet NG).
Shots on Goal-Rochester 8-8-5-3-1-25. Oklahoma City 8-5-11-1-0-25.
Power Play Opportunities-Rochester 0 / 5; Oklahoma City 2 / 4.
Goalies-Rochester, Leggio 9-7-0 (25 shots-22 saves). Oklahoma City, Danis 13-5-1 (24 shots-21 saves).
A-3,090
Referees-Jamie Koharski (84).
Linesmen-John Grandt (95), Johnathan Morrison (27).

Amerks Shootout Win Extends Streak to Four Games; Adversity is No Problem is a post from: Let's Go Amerks!. For discussion visit the forums at LetsGoAmerks.com/Forums.

We should be expecting a great group of Sabres prospects in Rochester next season but the roster still has some openings in it, openings that could be filled by some of the AHL’s best veterans.  The salary of an AHL veteran can range anywhere from $105,000 to $500,000 (a one way deal but the player knows they’ll be sent down).  The fact that Pegula was willing to put $40 million on the line for a top notch NHL defenseman we (Amerks fans) can only hope that the dollar amounts for an AHL veteran equals couch cushion change for the Pegula family.

In the American Hockey League teams are allowed to have five veterans.  A veteran is (according to the PHPA), “a Player, other than a goaltender, who has played in 301 or more regular season games of professional hockey (including NHL, AHL, CHL, ECHL, IHL, UHL, or European professional games in equivalent Leagues).”  Unless the rules have changed, which I haven’t seen anything saying they have, a team can also have one exempt veteran and an exempt veteran is someone who has played in more than 260 games but less than the 301.

The 2009/2010 season was a season where Amerks fans saw players like Graham Mink, Jeff Taffe, Jamie Johnson, Mike York, Chris Taylor and Rory Fitzpatrick all fill out the roster. That same season is one where the Amerks made the playoffs but were not able to defeat the Abbotsford Heat in the first round. Some parts of that season saw some exciting hockey, other parts of the season not so much. It was clear though that those players made the world of a difference.

Looking at what the Rochester will likely be in October shows that there’s a need for at least two centers.  Right now the only centers on the roster are Luke Adam and Travis Turnbull.  Adam was the AHL Rookie of the Year last season, safe to say he should be great his sophomore season.  Turnbull had five goals and four assists in 20 games for the Portland Pirates.  Paul Byron would have been a third center but was part of the trade to the Calgary Flames that brought Robyn Regehr to the Sabres.

A huge splash in the free agent market for an AHL team would be to land Alexandre Giroux. In 70 games last season for the Oklahoma City Barons he scored 32 goals along with 46 assists.  Giroux had signed a one way deal worth $500k with the Edmonton Oilers with hopes of making it to the NHL full time, he played in eight games for the Oilers.

Another top notch center would be Jason Krog.  Would he leave the Chicago Wolves?  Not sure, I seem to recall at one point he preferred to stay in the mid west which is why he’s only played for the Wolves and Manitoba Moose in recent seasons.  Krog played in all 80 games last season for the Wolves scoring 19 goals and 56 assists. At a $550k salary last season though he’d be another dream.

Put either of those two players on a top line with Zack Kassian and Marcus Foligno and who knows what the possibilities would be.  You could even swap out one of those two players with Luke Adam, assuming he’d play wing as well.

Looking at the right wing side of the ice only Zack Kassian, Corey Tropp, and Shawn Szydlowski are expected at that position.  Shawn Szydlowski has put up some good numbers in juniors (41 goals 37 assists in 66 games during 2010/11) with the Erie Otters but how well that’ll convert in the AHL is a different story.

Ryan Keller who just won the Calder Cup with the Binghamton Senators would be a top pick to fill out that side of the ice.  He had 32 goals and 19 assists in 71 regular season games. During the playoffs he scored 10 goals with 15 assists in 23 games.  A proven winger with a Cup under his wing.  Not only would he be a great asset in the AHL but he’d also be someone that could be called up if needed.

With the acquisition of Ales Kotalik by the Buffalo Sabres there’s also a chance he could be sent down if he doesn’t crack the Sabres lineup.  The Sabres have already said they do not plan on buying him out and that he will be competing for a job.  Assuming he reports and doesn’t plan to go oversea’s he’d be a decent addition.

On the left side of the ice the only left wingers listed are Marcus Foligno and Jacob Legace. The number one pick for a left winger would be Rochester native Derek Whitmore.  There’s the obvious reason of him being from Rochester but he’s also a great player.  He had a career season with the Pirates last year scoring 27 goals and 20 assists while playing in all 80 regular season games. During the 2010/11 season he only made $50k in the American Hockey League, a steal for that position.

Moving over to the defense currently penciled in are Brayden McNabb, TJ Brennan, Drew Schiestel, Alex Biega, and Dennis Persson. Not exactly the in your face defense that can win a Calder Cup in the AHL.  Could this group surprise us?  Of course.  At this time though signing a veteran defenseman (like the Sabres have done) would be a game changer.

A few players that come to mind are Andrew Hutchinson, Rob Davison, Andre Benoit, Dean Arsene, or Bryan Rodney.  Andre Benoit was another member of the Binghamton Senators Calder Cup team, get him and Keller together on the same team and maybe they could help bring the magic that the Senators saw this past season.  Any of these defenseman would likely be looking for a standard two way contract and each one of them would be worth it.

The next position to look at is who will be starting in goal.  It’s all going to be based on who the Sabres decide will backup Ryan Miller.  Jhonas Enroth stepped up in Buffalo when needed and was able to prove he can play in the NHL.  It’s unlikely the Sabres will want to push Miller to play close to 70 games but is Miller ready to play less and give Enroth more time?  We’ll see if the Sabres sign a goalie early on in free agency.

The Sabres did renew the contract of Williamsville native David Leggio.  He won 22 games and lost 12 for the Portland Pirates last season with a 2.80 GAA and 0.911 save percentage.  Pretty good numbers.

How he works into the Sabres long term plans could determine what they do at the AHL level.  Five top goalies available on the free agent market are Brent Krahn, Curtis Sanford, Mark Dekanich, Anton Khudobin, and Drew MacIntyre.  Any one of those goalies is known around the AHL and could help lead a team to wins.  They’d also be players that could be called upon in the NHL and no one would think anything bad of it.

Are there bits and pieces missing?  Likely but that gives fans a good idea of what we should expect.  Thanks to the guys on Rochester Sports Fan for gathering most of this information.

Free Agency AHL Vets Could Complete the Amerks Lineup is a post from: Let's Go Amerks!. For discussion visit the forums at LetsGoAmerks.com/Forums.

Assuming this style of play continues the questions about “last year” will fade away, but until then they’re still relevant.  It’s a different atmosphere around the team, the front offices, and even in the stands.

Tyler Plante explained further saying,  “It’s definitely a new situation for me and the Rochester dressing room.  It’s great.  We’re playing for the pride of the team. It’s a different feeling that I’ve never felt here before.  Before we were happy to win but now we’re happy to win for the heritage of the team, proud to wear the Amerks jerseys. Every night we go out there and try to wear our hearts on our sleeves.”

It was very strange back by the locker rooms after the game.  Usually the visitors side hallway is filled with guys stretching, cooling down, and getting their gear packed up.  On Wednesday night it was very.. quiet.  I’m assuming the Binghamton coaches were letting the team have it.  Anyways, it was great to see that happening on the visitors side and hearing loud music coming from the Amerks locker room.

Victor Oreskovich scored his first professional goal right off of the face off at 5:10 of the first period.  Prior to taking the face off Shawn Matthias made the call on the play, which surprised Oreskovich.  Oreskovich said,  “You don’t see that play work too often in the higher ranks, he made a great play on the draw, won it real clean to me and I had all the time in the world to shoot it.”

About five minutes later Evgeny Dadonov also scored his first professional goal off  a great backhand past Andy Chiodo to give the Amerks a 2-0 lead.  Graham Mink started the play by trying to put a back hand through the pads of Chiodo.. Chiodo made the save, Taylor got the rebound and took a shot, Chiodo made another save and Dadonov came from the back of the net and easily put it in.

Benoit Groulx talked about Dadonov saying, “Dads he’s part of that line with Tails and Graham Mink, he played better tonight.  He got more involved.  More confident with the puck and obviously scoring the first goal takes a little pressure off.”

Chris Taylor also talked about Dadonov saying, “It was nice to see Dads’ get a little bit of confidence in him.  He was a little frustrated, your confidence always lacks when you don’t score.”  Now that Dadonov has his first goal on the scoresheet hopefully we’ll see some more.  Taylor went on to say, “He’s such a good goal scorer, such a good player.  You knew it was coming, just a matter of how and when.”

Anyone out there speak Russian and would be interested in interpreting an interview sometime after a game?

It only took another 29 seconds for those same three players to give the Amerks a 3-0 lead halfway through the first period.  Dadonov was on a fast break down the right hand side.  He took a shot and Chiodo made the save and sent the rebound to the opposide side of the ice.  Chris Taylor was there waiting, took another shot and Graham Mink was standing right in front waiting for the rebound.

Following the third goal by the Amerks the Binghamton Senators took Andy Chiodo out of the net and put a familiar face into the game, Mike Brodeur.  He said he had a feeling he wasn’t going to get the start, had hoped but knew it wouldn’t happen.  Chiodo had played well in the Senators previous game.

Brodeur enjoyed being back, “I felt good, I felt like I was at home.  I have a good feeling when I’m in this rink.”

Mike York finished off the scoring for the Amerks at 1:54 of the second period on the power play to give the Amerks a commanding 4-0 lead.  He took a nice hard shot from the right hand side that went through Chiodos five hole.

Just over three minutes into the second period we got a glimpse of the physical game that Oreskovich is capable of.  Jim O’Brien was starting to skate up the ice out of his zone when he Oreskovich sent him flying backwards to the ice with a big hit.  Tomas Kudelka quickly went after Oreskovich and Bonneau was also quick to the scene to mix things up.

Oreskovich said he’s still trying to find out what kind of hockey player he needs to be saying, “I like to try and use my size and my speed.  I’m just going to try and keep my game simple and try and grab the puck wide and play as physical as possible.”

With the Senators being down 4-0 they started playing a more physical game, trying to do something to gain some momentum, trying to get Tyler Plante off of his game.  I counted at least five times that a Binghamton player crashed into Plante pretty hard.  It didn’t work.

“I don’t remember having seen a goalie hit so many times during a game.  They got called twice but it was obviously one of their strategies to get our goalie out of focus,” Groulx said.  “Plante did a great job keeping his focus.”

“They were down early and they were playing hard.  bringing everything to net, I think they wanted to get into my kitchen,” Plante said.  “I like that kind of game, keeps me in it too i think.  Getting hit, bumped around, keeps me awake anyways.”

Referee Francis Charron called two goaltender interference penalties against the Senators, a couple of more could have been called that weren’t.

Plante did talk to Charron about what was going on.  “We discussed it.  He said they were just crashing the net hard, i don’t think they were doing anything out of the ordinary.  I think they were just doing it a little more than usual in a regular game.”

A few times when there was a mixup in front of the net you could see a blocker and a glove aimed at an opposing player.  The two teams play each other nine more times, it’ll certainly be an interesting season.

Binghamton got on the scoreboard at 10:46 of the second period off of two great passes on an odd man rush into the Amerks end.  Josh Hennessy slipped a pass past Jason Garrison to Martin St. Pierre who then fed an even cleaner pass over to Ryan Keller on the opposite side of Plante and tipped it in.

Geoff Kinrade of the Senators scored at 5:33 of the third period to make it a 4-2 game.

The Amerks are on the road Friday night in Albany, Saturday in Syracuse, and back at home Sunday evening at 5pm to play the Syracuse Crunch.

Final Scorecard:

Binghamton Senators 2 At Rochester Americans 4 – Status: Final
Oct 21, 2009 – Blue Cross Arena

Binghamton 0 1 1 – 2
Rochester 3 1 0 – 4

1st Period-1, Rochester, Oreskovich 1 (Matthias), 5:10. 2, Rochester, Dadonov 1 (Taylor, Mink), 10:28. 3, Rochester, Mink 2 (Taylor, Dadonov), 10:57. Penalties-Bonneau Rch (interference), 5:26; Spencer Bng (fighting), 10:59; Bonneau Rch (fighting), 10:59; Taylor Rch (interference), 16:50.

2nd Period-4, Rochester, York 3 (Ellerby, Oreskovich), 1:54 (pp). 5, Binghamton, Keller 5 (St. Pierre, Hennessy), 10:46. Penalties-Hamel Bng (tripping), 0:42; Kudelka Bng (roughing, roughing), 3:09; Bonneau Rch (roughing), 3:09; Daugavins Bng (goaltender interference), 11:21; Smith Bng (boarding), 16:53.

3rd Period-6, Binghamton, Kinrade 1 (St. Pierre, Hamel), 5:33. Penalties-Henry Rch (interference), 1:48; Plante Rch (delay of game), 5:51; O’Brien Bng (goaltender interference), 7:50; Oreskovich Rch (slashing), 9:56; Keller Bng (roughing), 16:44; Kudelka Bng (roughing), 16:44; McArdle Rch (roughing), 16:44; Repik Rch (roughing), 16:44.

Shots on Goal-Binghamton 10-9-11-30. Rochester 12-14-9-35.
Power Play Opportunities-Binghamton 0 of 5; Rochester 1 of 5.
Goalies-Binghamton, Chiodo 0-4-0 (9 shots-6 saves); Brodeur 2-1-0 (26 shots-25 saves). Rochester, Plante 3-2-0 (30 shots-28 saves).
A-2,047
Referees-Francis Charron (46).
Linesmen-Peter Feola (33), Tim Kotyra (53).

4th Straight Win for the Amerks is a post from: Let's Go Amerks!. For discussion visit the forums at LetsGoAmerks.com/Forums.