Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – The Rochester Americans will host the Syracuse Crunch on Friday for a winner takes all game. The best-of-5 series is tied at 2-2, and it’s going to be a sold out home crowd in Rochester.
This is the third season Seth Appert has helped coach the Amerks into the Calder Cup Playoffs. He’s looking forward to leading the Sabres' young players into a game like this.
"We’re excited. These are the games, as an athlete, you live for with the building sold out for the last two days. It’s a really exciting opportunity for our guys," said Appert during his appearance Friday on WGR with Jeremy White and Joe DiBiase.
The teams have been practicing for six days, because the AHL would rather have a sold out Friday game than a half-full building on a Monday. These same two teams played last season too, and the same thing happened between Games 2 and 3.
Appert says he's not too concerned about his players being rusty.
“When you play in this series (the second place team against the third place team), you need to let the 1-4 matchup catch up, because the four/five teams have to play in [during a best-of-three series]," he said. "They don’t want the series to end too far apart from each other.
"It’s just a balance of rest as a weapon with keeping the guys sharp so we have competitive practices, but short because I don’t like to go easy in practice. They’re competitive, but shorter in length."
These two teams went to a deciding Game 5 last year in Syracuse, with Rochester winning the game in overtime.
"You always feel the pressure and excitement of a game like this, but this group, with the runs over the last three years we’ve had, has earned a level of trust with one another," Appert said. "But it’s calming knowing that guys like Brandon Biro and Lukas Rousek, Linus Weissbach and Brett Murray, Mason Jobst, Michael Mersch, Ethan Prow, there’s a lot of guys that have given 'Kuli' [Jiri Kulich] and 'Rosey' [Isak Rosen] a lot to each other, and they haven’t quit on each other in hard times. That feeling gives you confidence in moments like this."
In Game 1, the Amerks blew a 2-0 lead, but midway through the third period, Rosen tipped in the game-winning goal by going to the net and holding his position. Rosen also scored on a penalty shot in Game 3, giving him two goals in four games.
"Rosen has had a great series," Appert said of the 2021 first-round pick. "He’s become one of our best defensive players, he’s one of our best penalty killers, and that versatility is huge.
"When I met with him earlier this week, I challenged all of our young players that you’ll probably get all of your points in the NHL in 45 games. There’s almost 40 games other than that, so what are you going to do in the games that you don’t score to help your team win? If the answer is nothing, then you’re of no use to this organization, because you need to be a good player on nights you don’t score. I think that 'Kuli' and 'Rosey' have done that very well in this series, but certainly it would be a nice night for them to go off offensively."
Kulich has struggled with just one assist in four games. That’s compared to last season when Kulich had seven goals and 11 points in 12 playoff games, before going silent in the Eastern Conference Final against a much older and much bigger Hershey Bears team.
Rosen had four goals and four assists for eight points in 14 playoff games last season.
"Kulich hasn’t scored as much in this playoffs. He was at a torrid pace last playoffs, but it’s different. Last year, he was an 18-year-old rookie with no pressure. Now, he’s a 19-year-old and he’s still a kid. But he’s a marked man now, as everybody in the league knows him," Appert said of the 2022 first-round pick. "They’re going to cross-check him every time, they’re trying to take him away on the power play. Now he’s a leader, and a go-to player for us."
In Game 4, the Amerks entered the third period down 3-0. They got up off the mat, scored three goals, and Murray won it in overtime.
"I went in the room immediately where I normally don’t do that, but I thought they needed to get their minds right, because we were playing very good," Appert said. "It was just a game where they happened to score three times and we didn’t, and I went in and said, 'Guys, we’re going to win this game. Take a breath, stay together,' and I told them we need an early one. I said the first five minutes, and getting it in the first shift was massive, because getting the early one gives us hope and belief and energy. But it also plants the seed of doubt in their minds, and it puts them on their heels a little bit. I told them the most important thing in a comeback, is keeping the opponent at the number they’re at and our defense and Devon Levi did a great job of that."
In the regular season, Levi played 26 games for Rochester and led them from almost falling out of the playoffs, to a tie for first place. Levi finished with a 16-6-4 record with a 2.42 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage.
In the playoffs, he’s 2-2 with a 2.25 goals-against average and a .938 save percentage.
"He’s been excellent," said Appert of his No. 1 goalie. "He’s been really good for us down the stretch. I was worried when he got called up for two-and-a-half weeks in the middle of our race, it was the right thing to do because the Sabres were trying to make the playoffs. I think a big thing for our group and our confidence is we went 5-0-1 when he was up, and that stretch gave our group a lot of confidence. And then for Devon to come back, now we’ve been a really, really strong hockey team.
"Devon gives you calmness in net, that he’s going to take care of what he needs to take care of. You know he’s going to be there in big moments. I knew we were going to keep them at three, because I looked into his eyes and I could see he was going to shut the door and give us a chance to win that game."
It surprises me a lot that defenseman Ryan Johnson has struggled so far in the playoffs. However, rookie defenseman Nikita Novikov has played well at the age of 20.
Novikov was a guy with second- or third-round talent, but dropped to the Sabres in the sixth round of the 2021 NHL Draft because most teams felt he wouldn’t come to North America from Russia. The Sabres smartly said if he doesn’t, it’s only a sixth-round pick. But what if he does? Novikov did.
"The first-rounders and the high prospects get a lot of the attention, but three guys in particular - Novikov, Tyson Kozak (2021 seventh-round pick) and Anton Wahlberg (2023 second-round pick) as a big power winger as an 18-year-old are names that the Sabres are going to see," Appert said.
"Kozak is probably our best defensive player. He’s a warrior, he’s a shot-blocker, and he’s going to be a future bottom-six, penalty killing forward for the Sabres.
"Wahlberg is a really good prospect - young, strong, North-South power forward. And in Novikov, he’s put up 23 points and he’s like plus-20 this year as a rookie D-man. That is not common in the American Hockey League. He’s still got a lot of things to work on, like getting his skating better, he’s got to get stronger and more fit in his body, but there’s a lot to him that we like."
The winner of Friday’s game will play either the Cleveland Monsters or the Belleville Senators. Cleveland visits the Sens on Friday, leading 2-1 in the series.
I'll be joining "Schopp and the Bulldog" live from Rochester at 5:30 p.m. ET to preview Game 5.
