Special teams lead the way as Amerks roll past Toronto in season opener

Every football coach on the face of the earth will preach every day and, obviously, twice on Sundays, about the importance of special teams. Well, hockey coaches do the same thing, and those units were front and center for the Rochester Amerks Friday night.

The Amerks scored three power-play goals and another while they were shorthanded as they opened their 67th American Hockey League season with a resounding 4-2 victory over the Toronto Marlies in front of 6,063 at Blue Cross Arena.

Amerks coach Seth Appert was channeling his inner Sean McDermott after the game when he said, “The special teams came up huge tonight and credit to the players but also credit to my assistant coaches.

“I have two fabulous assistant coaches in Michael Peca and Mike Weber and they run the special teams. I certainly have input but those guys are in charge, they take great pride in it and I think they did a really good job of getting the guys pretty dialed in on that tonight.”

Of course, it’s nice when you have a veteran like Lawrence Pilut who can orchestrate things from the blue line with the man advantage, but Appert said any of the defenseman he has this season can go out there and make the right decisions.

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“Pilut is excellent up there but I will say this, we have six defensemen that all could run the first unit power play,” Appert said. “We have a very mobile puck moving, transitional-oriented defensemen. All six of these D have run power plays in the American Hockey League, a lot of them have played in the NHL. We have plenty of options up there which is a good problem to have.”

Here’s what happened in the game:

First period: Amerks power play was rolling early

To say referees Jim Curtin and Adam Tobias called the game tightly throughout would be an understatement as they whistled 14 penalties in all including four against the Marlies in the opening period. The Amerks made good use of all that power-play time by scoring twice to open a 2-1 lead.

Toronto had opened the scoring 3:30 into the game when Rochester’s Sean Malone lost control of the puck in the left circle, it popped into the air, Toronto’s Pontus Holmberg was able to direct it to Alex Steeves and he banged it past Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. And it could have been 2-0 a couple minutes later but UPL stopped Nicholas Robertson on a 2-on-1 chance.

Robertson then took the Marlies first penalty and 34 seconds later at 8:27 Linus Weissbach tied the score as he backhanded a loose puck off the left post past Toronto goalie Erik Kallgren while Amerks captain Michael Mersch was creating some havoc in the crease, which is nothing new for him.

Less than a minute after the Amerks killed a penalty, Toronto’s Kyle Clifford was sent off and the Amerks made it 2-1. Jiri Kulich whiffed on a great chance but the puck slid to Brett Murray parked near the right post and he wristed one past Kallgren on the short side.

Second period: Amerks defense locked it down

UPL was a pretty lonely guy for much of the middle 20 minutes as the Amerks’ defense, led by the top pair of Pilut and Ethan Prow kept the Marlies out of the scoring areas and UPL had to make only five saves.

His best stop came late in the period when he turned away Robertson from point blank range off a Toronto rush, the first shot Toronto managed in nearly 10 minutes.

At the other end, Kallgren had to leave the game with 12:26 left in the period when Prow bowled him over at the end of a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play. Prow came charging down the slot and after Kallgren robbed him, he really had nowhere to go but right through the goalie.

Dylan Ferguson took over in the Toronto net and he only had to make one save through the rest of an uneventful period as the Amerks couldn’t generate much of an attack outside of a great chance for Kulich during a delayed penalty with 8:43 remaining.

Third period: Two quick goals put it away

The Marlies had an early chance to get even on the power play and they put three shots on UPL to no avail, but then they committed the mistake that pretty much sealed their fate.

There was a turnover at the Rochester blue line and Weissbach raced into the Marlies end on the right side. He fed Brandon Biro charging down the left side and just as it looked like Biro was going to go around the net, at the last moment he whistled a centering pass to Chase Priskie moving into the right circle and he one-timed a shot past Ferguson to make it 3-1.

Just 2:03 later with the Amerks on yet another power play, a Toronto defender fell down near the blue line and Pilut curled around him before feeding Isak Rosen who ripped one home from the right faceoff for his first career AHL goal.

“I saw him on the ice there and was just trying to get into it and it was right in the wheelhouse,” Rosen said. “I got a good pass from Pilut and was just trying to shoot it right away. Not the hardest shot but it was a pretty good shot.”

Toronto - playing with a two-man advantage with a power play and the goalie pulled - finally ended nearly 55 minutes of offensive silence when Logan Shaw fired one past UPL with 2:34 remaining.

What they said in the locker room

▶ Appert on the play of the young players: “Real good job for the first game. Great crowd, really good energy in the building. Toronto played a very pressure oriented game, they seemed to be in our face a lot so you’re under duress. There’s not a lot of time and space and I thought for the most part after the first 10 minutes, we did a pretty good job. The young guys were able to make some plays and handle that pressure.”

▶ Luukkonen on the defense: “I think we played really well tonight and the defense played really well, especially when we got into the pace of the game. It was a really good game all around. I think we have a really good D, a lot of skilled guys that can move the puck and still play really solid in the defensive end.”

▶ Rosen on his first game in Rochester: “It was a fun, nice atmosphere with the fans so it was a great win for us.”

What’s next

Both teams boarded buses after the game and made the trip to Toronto where it will be the Amerks’ turn to serve as the home opener opponent at Coca-Cola Coliseum. Puck drop is 4 p.m.

The Amerks then return home Wednesday for a 7:05 faceoff against Belleville, the same Senators who they eliminated in the first round of the 2022 playoffs.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.To subscribe to Sal's new twice-a-week newsletter, Bills Blast, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Rochester Amerks win AHL season opener over Toronto Marlies