AMERKS FINDING A WAY TO POWER THROUGH ADVERSITY, GRUELING SCHEDULE
Feb 25, 2022By Suzie Cool
This past weekend, the Rochester Americans were faced with their first three-in-three of the season. Meaning they played three games in three days, after a week of travel and a season-long five-game road swing. Not to forget that since the turn of the New Year, the Amerks have been faced with three-in-fours every single week but one.
That’s a lot of hockey in a short amount of time and there’s still a lot to look forward to with the last two months of the season upon us.
With just a week left in February, the Amerks have another three-in-three to wrap up the month this weekend. In March, Rochester has 13 games in 31 days, which features two three-in-three weekends, eight homes games and a week where they’ll play four games over five days. To wrap up the 2021-22 schedule, the Amerks have another 13 games on deck in April that includes another five-game road stint, one last three-in-three and another week where they’ll face four games in six days.
To top it all off, the team is currently in a stretch where they will face-off against North Division opponents in 17 consecutive outings.
It's getting down to the grind and this past weekend was just the beginning.
WATCH: JIMMY SCHULDT POST-GAME FEB. 20
“We’ve been in a hard stretch with travel on the road, played on Tuesday and then into a three-in-three. It’ll be good to have some rest and relaxation,” commented Amerks head coach Seth Appert when asked about the rigorous schedule his team has been through as of late. “Some of our guys are playing through a lot of injuries right now. We just don’t have the luxury of giving guys a day of rest if they’re able to go.”
While the Amerks came through last Tuesday with a 3-2 overtime win over the Bridgeport Islanders, the weekend didn’t go as planned. Rochester was faced with three divisional opponents in the Syracuse Crunch on Friday, Utica Comets on Saturday and Laval Rocket on Sunday, all of which didn’t go in their favor. The first time all season that the Amerks took the loss in three consecutive games.
“We’ve done a really good job since Christmas, coming into this week, of finding ways to win ugly, low-scoring games. That’s just where we’re at right now with how many guys we have out of our lineup and then this weekend we weren’t able to,” discussed Appert following Sunday’s loss against the Rocket.
Trailing the Rocket 3-0 after the first period, the Amerks couldn’t find their way out of the hole that led to the eventual 5-1 score line. Appert admitted that his team can’t chase the game with the players that they currently have out.
“We can’t chase the game with the guys that we have out. We’re not going to be able to outscore our problems.”
On Sunday, the Amerks continued to miss important pieces from their lineup like forwards Jack Quinn, Ryan MacInnis, Sean Malone and Mason Jobst. The biggest surprise, however, was captain Michael Mersch missing his first game of the 2021-22 campaign. Mersch has now missed just two games in his Amerks career, the other being Feb. 5, 2020, when he wasn’t signed to his professional tryout until the very next day.
WATCH: SETH APPERT POST-GAME FEB. 20
Reflecting on the weekend, Amerks forward Ryan Scarfo discussed how it takes all parts in a three-in-three, especially with the players they have out.
“Obviously, we’ve been on the road the past week, so guys are a little bit tired with the travel and stuff. It kind of just takes all parts, especially since we’re missing some big pieces right now, so we need everybody.”
Additionally, alternate captain Jimmy Schuldt admitted that you kind of expect not everyone to make it through a three-game weekend, however, he thinks his team did a great job at fighting through the adversity.
“You kind of expect in a three-in-three that not everyone is going to make it all three games,” said Schuldt. “I think everyone did a really good job at just fighting through the adversity this weekend. Obviously, the weekend and the games didn’t go how would’ve wanted, but I think we just stuck together the whole weekend.”
Schuldt also mentioned how he was just trying to take the positives out of the weekend by saying, “just trying to take positives out of it, there was no finger-pointing and there was no hanging heads. I think through all three of the games we pushed for 60 minutes.”
As the Amerks head into an unusual week with no Wednesday game, Appert was just happy to have a day or two to have his team reset and refocus heading into another weekend of three-in-three action.
WATCH: RYAN SCARFO POST-GAME FEB. 20
“To have a day or two this week to kind of reset, mentally and physically. To get a pause, get a mental and physical reset and then get ready to get back to work.”
While the team needs rest, Scarfo knows that the Amerks have more than what they gave this season and is ready to get back to work when the weekend hits.
“There’s no excuses. I think we have more, and we’ll just have to get back to work this week.”
This weekend the Amerks are back in action with some more North Division matchups. On Friday they head to Syracuse to take on the Crunch at 7 p.m. before a home-in-home against the Toronto Marlies. Saturday at The Blue Cross Arena the Amerks take on the Marlies at 2:35 p.m. while Sunday they’ll head north of the border for a 4:00 p.m. tilt against Toronto.