The Toronto Marlies defeated the Rochester Americans by a score of 2-0 on Sunday afternoon at Ricoh Coliseum in the Big Smoke.
The Marlies now hold a commanding 2 games to none series lead.
The Amerks will need to dig down deep to try to find a solution that will help to score on Marlies backstop Drew MacIntyre.
Thanks, marlies.ca
Game 3 will be played in Rochester on Wednesday night. Game 4 is Thursday night in Rochester.
Former Sabres draft choice Mike Zigomanis scored his first goal of the playoffs at 12:39 of the second period to give the Marlies a 1-0 lead.
Jerry D’Amigo scored the insurance goal at 1:45 of P3.
Former Amerk Drew MacIntyre made 25 saves to earn his first shutout since joining the Marlies in February. Matt Hackett took the loss in his first ever Rochester Americans playoff start. He made 18 saves on the 20 shots he faced.
Rochester out shot Toronto 25-20
Toronto went 1-for-8 on the powerplay and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill
Mikhail Grigorenko wore #52 and played in his first ever Amerks game.
It marked the first time that both of the Buffalo Sabres’ first round picks in the 2012 NHL Draft were in Rochester’s lineup at the same time, as Grigorenko (12th overall) skated alongside Zemgus Grigensons (14th overall).
Grigo is the highest drafted Sabres prospect to play for the Amerks since Thomas Vanek (5th overall, 2003) spent the 2004-05 season in Rochester. Grigo was -1 with one shot one MacIntyre. No more excuses for the rookie. His new team is in a jam right now and they need instant offensive.Grigo will have to go full bore in games three and four.
Since March 2012, the Amerks have lost 16 of 17 to Toronto, including all five playoff games.
Get used to hearing Lindy Ruff's name in the coaching rumour mill.
Now that Colorado has punted its head coach Joe Sacco after its dismal season, the Avalanche will be looking for a veteran leader ASAP.
There have been rumbling the past few weeks that Avs ownership will be looking for a new head coach and a new GM. Sacco is gone. Will GM Greg Sherman be soon to follow?
There is speculation that the Avs may entrust their hockey operations department to their Hall Of Fame leader, Joe Sakic, who has been working in their front office since returning a few years ago.
The hot coaching name du jour in Denver is that of Patrick Roy. Sakic and Roy won Cups together in the late '90s.
How does Ruff figure in to the equation?
What if Buffalo makes a bold move and hires Roy as their permanent head coach this off season?
The Avs would then be charged with having to find a veteran coach with a proven track record of coaching young players. The Avs are one of the youngest teams in the NHL right now. They remind me a lot of the 2006 Buffalo Sabres in that they have an uber-talented young core that features such greats as Landeskog, Duchene, O'Reilly, Stastny, Johnson, Varlamov, playing alongside the Staals, Hall, Eberle and more stars.
Ruff is the head coach of Team Canada's squad at the World Championships in Sweden. He and the team will depart for Sweden on Tuesday. Ruff will have a ton of one on one time with two of the Avs' biggest stars in Duchene and O'Reilly, who will be playing for Ruff at the Worlds. If Duchene and O'Reilly return from the Worlds singing the praises of Ruff and his coaching style, it will be hard for the Avs ownership to overlook Ruff as a candidate, especially if Canada wins the gold medal in the talent-rich tourney.
Ed Snyder, Paul Holmgren and the Flyers brain trust will be watching Ruff closely at the Worlds as well.
Giroux, Read, Simmonds, and Luke Schenn will be playing for Canada, as well as Stamkos, The Staals, and many more studs.
Many eyes will be on Ruff at the Worlds. His coaching stock is red hot right now and will get even hotter if Team Canada brings home cold.
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Keep an eye on Dallas, too. Now that they have fired GM Joe Nieuwendyk, the talk is that the future o their current head coach Glen Gulutzan is now in serious question.
The likely replacemenet to Nieuwendyk will be long time Detroit AGM, Jim Nill, according to Elliotte Friedman.
Nill is a Detroit confidante of Steve Yzerman and Mike Babcock. Its likely that both hockey men, as well as Scotty Bowman, will vouch for Ruff, having spent time with him at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
Nieuwendyk tries the young guy approach with Glutzan, whom the Stars promoted from AHL Texas (sounds like Sabres and Rolston, eh?). However, the Stars haven't made the playoffs for the past four seasons and its time to carpe diem because their young guns Loui Eriksson and Jamie Benn are entering their prime years and its time to start winning. They have young stars in the making in Alex Chiasson, Cody Eakin, radek Fakso, Toby Petersen, and Brett Ritchie, Jamie Oleksiak, Jack Campbell and many more who are about to break onto the scene.
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