There wasn’t much that anyone on the Amerks side could say following a 5-0 loss to end their season on Sunday.
The game came unglued early for Rochester, as they surrendered two first-period goals followed by a third goal 24 seconds into the second period. From there Laval clamped down, forced the visitors to open up their game, and then burned them for two more third-period tallies.
“I thought they were better than us in every category,” captain Mason Jobst said. “There was no quit. We fought.”
With such a decisive outcome, there hardly seemed any need to dissect the game too much.
“I just told the group I was really proud of them for the things they accomplished this year,” said first-year head coach Michael Leone, whose team posted 42 regular-season victories and tied for fourth in the AHL with 92 points. It was the Amerks’ first 40-win season since 2018-19.
“But it’s hard to even go in the room after,” Leone continued. “Nothing you’re going to say is going to make the guys feel better. You’ve got to learn from it, learn the feeling, and what it takes to become a championship team.”
Rocket head coach Pascal Vincent’s moves going into Game 5 worked out.
Defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon, who left Game 3 and did not return, missed his second consecutive contest Sunday. Noel Hoefenmayer, who came into the lineup for Game 4, dressed again on Sunday, and Vincent also brought defenseman Zack Hayes into the lineup for the first time this postseason. Hayes took the place of William Trudeau and picked up an assist.
Up front, rookie Luke Tuch came out for Xavier Simoneau, who returned following a three-game absence. Simoneau also recorded an assist.
And then there was the decision to start Cayden Primeau in net after Jacob Fowler didn’t get through the second period of Game 4. Primeau’s 27-save shutout gave him a 3-0 record, a 1.71 goals-against average and a .936 save percentage during the series.
Quite simply, one team had to lose.
It came down to one shot, one rebound, one goal for the Stars to finally outlast the Admirals. And even then, the teams struggled down to the final seconds of regulation to settle this series.
“We had bigger plans this year,” Admirals head coach Karl Taylor said after the season-ending 3-2 loss on Sunday. “Obviously the room’s devastated. I thought we were in good shape. We just couldn’t get that next goal.”
A post here, a missed chance there, and the Admirals may have advanced. Said captain Kevin Gravel, “I don’t know whether you truly ever get over these losses. You do what you can to grow from it, but it will sting for a while here.”
But the Admirals can go into the offseason at peace with their effort, if not the result – particularly after a season in which struggles for the Nashville Predators eventually meant having to rework the Milwaukee roster on the fly significantly. Painful as it may be, hard losses are also a part of the development process.
“Guys are going to think about the different things that happened,” Taylor said, “and maybe some people got nervous. That’s where the message is after the game with the guys: Process this. Don’t just move on. Process it, so when you’re in this position again, you can adjust and be more comfortable in the uncomfortable.”
But the effort level is not in question. It never has been with this Milwaukee club.
“There’s no regret with effort or professionalism from this group, that’s for sure.”
In the prior two years, it had been the Admirals who sent Texas home. This time, though, the Stars came through, and now await an opponent in the Western Conference Finals.
“It’s been three years of trying to get through Milwaukee,” head coach Neil Graham said. “They’re a heck of a team. They’re well-coached. I’m proud of the resiliency of our guys.”
No matter the opponent, the Stars will be starting on the road in either Colorado or Abbotsford. Game 1 will be Thursday night. And as it was with Milwaukee, they will be going into a difficult building as both the Eagles and Canucks present loud, challenging environments for visitors.
“We’re going to have to reset,” Graham said. “There’s going to be a bigger challenge coming up here.”
But it does not seem that much can rattle the Stars, who were 20 minutes away from elimination down 2-1 in Game 5. Graham said that he told his players in the second intermission to “go for two.” Matěj Blümel went out and tied the game 1:44 into the third period, and Texas kept pressing until Justin Hryckowian banged in a rebound with 5:05 to go in regulation.
Said Graham, “We played without fear.”
― with files from Patrick Williams
