AMERKS TOP MONSTERS IN REGULAR SEASON FINALE
Subban earns 20th win, Rochester clinches third place to set up second-round meeting with Crunch
Apr 16, 2023Four different skaters provided the offense and goaltender Malcolm Subban turned in a near-perfect 24-save performance to help Rochester Americans (36-27-6-3) close out the 2022-23 regular season with a 4-1 victory over the Cleveland Monsters (33-32-5-2) Sunday afternoon at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
With the win, the Amerks earned 22 out of a possible 32 points over the final 16 games of the regular season, including points in a season-long 10 straight games. Rochester finished the season third in the North Division and will meet the Syracuse Crunch in the North Division Semifinals starting on Friday, April 21 in Syracuse.
Rookies Filip Cederqvist, who scored his first-career hat trick on Saturday against the Monsters, and Josh Passolt, who made his AHL debut, both found the back of the net. Matt Bartkowski netted a shorthanded goal in the second period before Lukas Rousek finished rounded out the scoring in the final frame. Matej Pekar, Linus Weissbach, Isak Rosen, Mason Jobst, Michael Mersch and Mitch Eliot all produced an assist in the win.
Goaltender Malcolm Subban (20-14-5) made 24 saves to pick up his career-best 20th win of the season. His 39 games and 20 wins, both of which are career-highs, are tied for 13th and 12th in the AHL, respectively. Over his last 11 appearances, the Toronto, Ontario, native showed a 6-1-4 record along with one shutout.
Marcus Bjork scored his seventh goal of the season in the first second period with Jake Christiansen and Owen Sillinger earning the assists. Goaltender Jet Greaves finished the season with a 19-16-5 mark after stopping 25 of the 28 shots he faced.
On the ensuing shift after Bjork tied the scoring at one, Jobst carried the puck from the defensive zone to the center-ice logo. The Ohio State product sent a pass to Eliot along the wall before the blueliner hit Bartkowski in-stride as he skated across the far blueline.
Bartkowski rifled a shot from atop the left circle and restored Rochester’s one-goal lead with his third of the campaign.
Rochester took the 2-1 lead into the final intermission, and just over three minutes into the frame, the club extended the cushion.
With the puck inside their own zone, a Monsters defenseman was forced into a turnover by Pekar to the right of Greaves. Passolt skated in to scoop the puck up and drove to the net before flipping a shot past the glove for the first of his AHL career.
Over the course of the final 16 minutes of regulation, neither team was able to capitalize on a power-play before the Monsters pulled Greaves as they looked to spark a comeback.
Less than 20 seconds after gaining the extra attacker, Weissbach stripped a Cleveland skater of the puck and sent it up the ice for Rousek to deposit into the vacant net.
Rochester held off Cleveland for the final 2:41 of regulation to earn the 4-1 win.
In the opening frame, both teams traded a tripping infraction but went into the break scoreless.
During the first 90 seconds of the second period, Rochester was on a power-play when they drew another penalty.
On the delayed violation, Rosen fed Mersch the puck behind the Cleveland cage to draw the attention of defenders. The Amerks captain then flipped a pass to Cederqvist on the goal mouth and the Swedish forward fired it in-behind Greaves to open the scoring.
Later in the frame, Cleveland evened the score at the 16:20 mark but Amerks responded instantly to take a 2-1 lead into the third period.
Rochester closed out the victory on Passolt and Rousek’s third-period goals.
The playoff bound Amerks begin the postseason with Game 1 of their best-of-five series on Friday, April 21 at Upstate Medical University Arena. Game time is slated for a 7:00 p.m. start and will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV.
Storyline Stripes:
With today's victory, goaltender Malcolm Subban earned his 20th win of the season, which is a career-high ... Subban is the first Amerk netminder to post 20 or more wins since Scott Wedgewood had 28 during the 2018-19 campaign ... Josh Passolt was the 40th different Rochester player this season to appear in at least one game and the 37th to have one or more points ... Two of the three goals scored by Matt Bartkowski came while the Amerks were shorthanded, marking the first time in Bartkowski's career he recorded multiple shorthanded tallies in the same season.
Goal Scorers
ROC: F. Cederqvist (9), M. Bartkowski (3), J. Passolt (1), L. Rousek (16)
CLE: M. Bjork (7)
Goaltenders
ROC: M. Subban – 24/25 (W)
CLE: J. Greaves – 25/28 (L)
Shots
ROC: 29
CLE: 25
Special Teams
ROC: PP (0/3) | PK (3/3)
CLE: PP (0/3) | PK (3/3)
Three Stars
1. ROC - J. Passolt
2. ROC - M. Bartkowski
3. ROC - F. Cederqvist