Sens vs. Americans 4/10/04 Articles: Amerks ecstatic with tie in Binghamton
April 11, 2004

Posted by: Bob Howard
Credit: Kevin Oklobzija of Democrat and Chronicle.com

Amerks ecstatic with tie in Binghamton

Point gives Rochester third place, allows team to skip playoff mini-round

By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA

Staff writer

(April 11, 2004) — BINGHAMTON — Never has a team been so happy to earn a tie. Or to start the Calder Cup playoffs on the road.
But there were the Rochester Americans, exchanging high fives on the bench as the third period ended and before overtime began on Saturday night.

The Amerks were able to celebrate, albeit quietly, before the game was even over because in gaining the one point for reaching overtime in what became a 2-2 tie with the Binghamton Senators, they avoided the dreaded best-of-three mini-round qualifying series.

The Amerks finished the American Hockey League’s regular season with a 37-34-10 record (including five overtime losses) and 89 points. The Cleveland Barons also have 37 wins and 89 points, but the Amerks won the tiebreaker by virtue of a 10-7 point advantage in the regular-season series (4-2-2).

Thus, it’s off to Syracuse on the weekend to start the best-of-seven North Division semifinals, while Cleveland hosts Toronto in the mini-round.

”The playoffs are your reward,” Amerks coach Randy Cunneyworth said. “This is when it’s really fun to compete and play. The playoffs are the players’ spotlight.”

The spotlight was shining on rookie center Derek Roy on Saturday night after his goal with 29 seconds left in the second period tied the score 2-2. It was his first goal in three games since rejoining the Amerks from the parent Buffalo Sabres.

”Roysie needed that to get going for the playoffs,” linemate Chris Taylor said. “You come down for three games, you don’t score a goal, you start to wonder. But that was a big goal.”

Indeed, Roy’s goal allowed the Amerks to play as though they had the lead, needing just a point. They were content to play simple, smart hockey. Each team had just four shots on goal in the third period, and the Senators had one great scoring chance, but Jody Hull shot wide on a two-on-one.

”We knew we needed a point to get into third so we played smart,” said Taylor, who along with Norm Milley assisted on Roy’s goal. “Sometime when we have the lead in the playoffs we’ll have to do the same thing, so this was good practice.”

Jason Pominville scored the other goal for the Amerks, who trailed 1-0 for 4:18 of the first period and 2-1 for 9:03 of the second. The rest of the game, the score was tied.

”We wanted to ensure us a point and we were very responsible,” Cunneyworth said. “In a very high-pressure situation, we handled it well.”

Especially the defensive corps of Doug Janik, Brian Chapman, Scott Ricci, Steve Lingren, Rick Mrozik and David Cullen. They were more assertive and played more physical as the game went along.

Former Amerk Denis Hamel scored the first goal at 4:20 of the first period and set up Charlie Stephens’ goal at 10:22 of the second.

Amerks goalie Ryan Miller prevented Binghamton from moving ahead 3-1 with two great point-blank saves on a Senators power play. Cory Pecker was alone at the left of the crease, but Miller slid over to block his shot. About 30 seconds later, he dove across to deny Chris Kelly.

The Amerks had generated little offense all period but tied it with 29 seconds left as Roy shoveled in his own rebound.

”I was stuck on nine goals in Buffalo and stuck on nine goals in Rochester, so it was nice to score,” Roy said.

KEVINO@DemocratandChronicle.com