Here we are with a much more relaxed and normal recap. Other than convincing my buddy that “Homer the Yellow” wasn’t a great name for his D&D character, there are no distractions.
The BSens played an entertaining game against a talented Rochester American squad last night. The Amerks took the game pretty lightly as evidenced by them dressing former BSen bust Conor Allen (he’d only played two games in December and this was his first in January)–for those who don’t know Allen was a mid-season acquisition in the 2015-16 season that didn’t pan out (added and then discarded). With that said, let’s delve into the basics (boxscore):
Shots: 35-23
PP: 1-4
PK: 2-2
Goaltender: Andrew Hammond was between the pipes and miraculously didn’t need to be that good for the team to win (five key saves); Marcus Hogberg backed up, while both Chris Driedger and Danny Taylor were scratched.
It’s worth pointing out this is the second largest margin of outshooting a team this season (the largest was also against Rochester) and only the fifth time this year they’ve both scored on the powerplay and not been scored on the penalty kill. While the performance wasn’t perfect, there was a lot to like about how the team played.
The Goals
1. Werek is wide open in front for Rodewald and dekes the goaltender
2. Rochester – Flanagan passes to the wrong team and the Amerks score on the 2-on-1
3. Rochester – deflection in front
4. Reinhart bangs in Jaros’ rebound
5. PP Murray walks in and scores shelf with a wrister
Scoring chances (15): Rodewald (x3), Werek (x2), Reinhart (x2), Perron (x2, sh), DiDomenico (x2), Murray (pp), Englund, Burgdoerfer, Lajoie
The Roster
The main change was the addition of Chris Kelly on a PTO (right before he was named to Team Canada), the deletion of Filip Chlapik on recall, and Kyle Flanagan slotting in for the useless Tyler Randell.
The Lines
Paul-Reinhart-DiDomenico
McCormick-O’Brien-Gagne
Werek-Flanagan-Rodewald
Perron-Kelly-Blunden
Lajoie-Burgdoerfer
Englund-Jaros
Murray-Erkamps
How Reinhart’s 7-1-0-1 performance warranted centering the first line I don’t know, but he did score, so that’s something. The second line…I’m glad Gagne played more, but I don’t like who he plays with. I also don’t like Perron on the fourth line, who was good again tonight, but the talent at forward tonight was reasonable enough that he wasn’t completely wasted.
Special Teams
Powerplay
Werek-Reinhart-DiDomenico/Paul-Murray
Gagne-Perron-Blunden/Lajoie-Jaros
Werek-Reinhart-DiDomenico/Jaros
Werek-Reinhart-DiDomenico/Murray (scored)
Penalty Kill
Forwards: Kelly-Blunden, McCormick-O’Brien, Perron-Flanagan, Kelly-Flanagan
Defense: Englund-Jaros, Englund-Lajoie, Murray-Jaros, Englund-Burgdoerfer
The latter PP combinations were only for OT, with Jaros having jumped off for a change when the winning goal was scored. Blunden is far too slow to be on either special team, but he is a step up from Randell.
Notable Plays
Reinhart passes to the wrong team (first); Blunden blows a 3-on-2 by throwing a bad pass through everyone (first); McCormick takes a puck to the face (first); Perron with a fantastic backhand pass (first); McCormick hits the post (second); Paul passes to the wrong team in front of his own net (third); Jaros with a great rush (Gagne’s shot is over the net; third).
Players Notes
Lajoie: I’ve been happy to see him play more–great hands, although both his foot speed and defensive play need work–had a fantastic scoring opportunity in the game, but is still looking for his first goal
Murray: it took a very long time for him to appear comfortable on the powerplay and while I still think there’s room to improve he’s finally putting up numbers; I’d rather see him on the second unit, but I’m less bothered than I was with him previously
Kelly: while he wasn’t particularly distinguished, this was his best game of the season–clearly playing in the Spengler Cup helped him a little
Perron: there have been a lot of positive signs from him of late–showing off great hands (particularly passing)–albeit he’s rarely been put in a position to capitalize on that talent
Werek: after spending five games spinning his wheels on the fourth line he was moved up to the third and his effectiveness improved at a commensurate rate
Gagne: I’d like him to play with a premiere passer, but Kleinendorst has veered away from that presumably fearing his defensive play (which isn’t that bad in my opinion)
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
2 Comments
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
eyeonthesens 
[…] Belleville 3, Rochester 2 (OT) […]
[…] seen highlights posted. The BSens had a season high in scoring chances (one more than their 3-2 win over Rochester a month ago), but were sloppy defensively, didn’t get a great night from […]