For the second straight season, the Amerks faced Toronto in the Calder Cup playoffs. For the second straight season, they couldn’t manage to win a single game en route to getting booted out of the playoffs.
The Amerks lost yesterday 3-2 in overtime, having their season end on home ice yet again. Zemgus Girgensons and Nick Tarnasky were the goal scorers for Rochester, and David Leggio rebounded nicely from his poor Game One performance to make 27 saves in the losing effort.
Twice did the Amerks come back from a goal down to tie the game, but just 5:40 in to overtime, Toronto’s Will Acton put the game winner past Leggio, and then it was all over but for the crying.
Girgensons had himself a very nice, albeit short, postseason, leading the Amerks with three goals, while Johann Larsson chipped in three assists. The Amerks, however, struggled to find any offense against Drew MacKenzie and the Marlies, with Tarnasky and Cody McCormick being the only other players to score for Rochester.
The Marlies have been the Amerks nemesis these past two seasons, winning an astonishing 17 of the last 18 meetings. Rochester will need to find a way to solve this problem, and soon, especially if these two teams keep seeing each other in the postseason. The series loss is equally depressing because now the last time the Amerks won a playoff series was 2004-05, taking after their parent club in the worst way.
The Amerks will now have to figure out what to do with their head coaching situation, with the future of both Ron Rolston and Chadd Cassidy up in the air.