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AMERKS FIND SUCCESS FOCUSING ON THE DETAILS

AMERKS FIND SUCCESS BY FOCUSING ON THE DETAILS

May 3, 2023

By Emily Wade

The Rochester Americans returned home from Syracuse down 2-0 in the Round 2 series against the Crunch. The Amerks lost Game 1 in overtime and were shut out in Game 2. They had five days to reset before facing elimination in front of the home crowd.

 

The reset worked.

 

The offense exploded for eight goals on Friday night, including a hat trick from Amerks captain Michael Mersch. Rookie forward Jiri Kulich, who missed the first two games of the series, tallied two big goals in his return over the weekend.

 

And Malcolm Subban slammed the door shut with his first career shutout in the Calder Cup Playoffs on Sunday afternoon. With a 4-0 victory, the Amerks tied the series.

 

“You know what? At the end of the day, stuff happens in hockey,” Subban said after Game 4. “But it’s 2-2, and we rallied together.”

 

“It’s a sign that the boys are clicking in the room, and of the character in our room, to come back and tie this series up. It’s amazing.”

 

The culture of the locker room has been praised all season long, but especially during this playoff push. Amerks head coach Seth Appert attributes a lot of that to their leadership group and to their veterans, but he also attributes two big wins like that to Subban.

 

 

“He loves his teammates, so he doesn’t want to let them down,” Appert explained. “He’s an unbelievable teammate. He’s got elite competitiveness.  He doesn’t want to let himself down, and he doesn’t want to let his teammates down.”

 

Appert noted that he thought Subban played great in Syracuse, despite the two losses. Appert also noted that “he was a little sloppy on Friday, but we won.” It’s just how playoff hockey works, and you just have to find a way to win.

 

He was confident that Subban would rebound on Sunday: “He usually responds resoundingly.” Subban made 31 saves against a Syracuse Crunch team that did everything they could to get pucks on net.

 

“I’m not going to sit here and say that I knew that was going to happen for me,” Subban said after his shutout. “Games can change quickly: you might have a good first, but then in the second and third, they just keep coming. You have to dial it in.”

 

His mindset was focused all week long, as the coaches and team used each day to make adjustments to their game. “That was the focus of our team the whole week: focus on the details and make sure we’re ready to go,” Subban said.

 

“I don’t think we played bad the first two games; they just played really well,” he continued. “We had to step it up to that next level, working on it in practice, focusing on the details. And coming out, we showed it. We played a full 60 minutes.”

 

Kulich opened the scoring, recording his second goal of the weekend. The rookie forward, who appeared in his first career playoff game on Friday night, looked calm and collected, despite his lack of experience.

 

“He has a knack for big moments, as we saw at the World Juniors. He’s not afraid of the stage at all. I was really impressed Friday,” Appert said of Kulich. Appert also loved how rookie forward Isak Rosen responded over the weekend.

 

 

Despite the final scores, the games were locked down for much of the first 40 minutes both nights, with only four goals scored in the first and second periods. “I like that we didn’t go searching for offense,” Appert said. “You’re getting chances and you’re not scoring, [Lagace] is making acrobatic saves and kicking his leg up behind him, and it’s really easy to get discouraged.”

 

“I thought the collectiveness of the group to play the right way, and play the shift in front of them, instead of being worried about what wasn’t going in was pretty darn good tonight, especially with the age of some of our forwards.”

 

When speaking of playing the right way, Appert also thought that defenseman Lawrence Pilut was “exceptional” on Sunday. Pilut tallied the Amerks’ second goal, early in the third, to give Rochester a 2-0 lead, and a slight sigh of relief.

 

“It’s all about the angles, right?” he said after the game. “If I can get it past the first guy and create a little chaos in front, that’s a big thing for our forwards. They’ve been doing a great job both those two games here."

 

"Everybody’s leveled up and been playing the way we should.”

Even with his goal, Appert thought that it’s truly Pilut’s defensive game that impressed over the weekend. “That’s the real special thing about guys like him and [Ethan] Prow and [Jeremy] Davies: they’re somewhat considered more offensive defensemen, but those guys defend hard.” He applauded that they didn’t start cheating for offense as the games remained close.

 

“We’re just thinking defense first,” Pilut explained. “If we keep playing that way and staying above everybody, playing hard and winning those battles, it’ll go our way eventually. Everybody is buying into that.”

 

The team will approach this week with same mindset as last week, with another five days before Game 5 on Saturday night. “You don’t want to think too far ahead,” Subban said. “I’m not trying to get there yet. We have to take every day this week and pay attention to the details and get your mind right. Take it day-by-day.”

 

Appert echoed the sentiment of utilizing their time to prepare well. Though it’s odd to have so many days between playoff games, it can be an advantage for a young team: “It’s one thing to show 15 video clips and have them try to apply that under pressure, and it’s another thing to be able to actually practice the things you’re showing them."

 

“It makes for better retaining of knowledge that they need. We’ll need to regroup and rest, but I have a great staff and we’ll attack this thing. We’ll think about the things we need to do to give ourselves the best chance to win Game 5.”

 

The Amerks will hit the ice on Wednesday to start to focus on those details, after a rest day on Monday and off-ice workouts on Tuesday.  They’ll have three days on the ice in Rochester before heading to Syracuse on Friday afternoon for the Saturday night puck drop.

 

 

 

Tickets for Game 5 in Syracuse are on sale now. Fans can also stream the game through AHLTV, where playoff subscriptions are available, listen on The Fan Rochester, or watch at The Distillery — Mt. Hope location.

 

The winner of Game 5 will face the winner of the series between the Toronto Marlies and Utica Comets, which is currently tied 1-1. For all playoff information, please visit Amerks.com/Playoffs.

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