Amerks lose in D'Amigo's debut

• Jerry D'Amigo arrived in Rochester in the morning and made his Amerks debut at night
• D'Amigo showed flashes of what he can do%2C but the transition to a new team was evident
• The fifth-year left winger says he intends to be a player the team can rely on every night

Day 1, or Night 1, for Jerry D'Amigo as a member of the Rochester Americans didn't quite go as the fifth-year left winger had hoped.

Oh, there were no catastrophes, no haunting mistakes, no embarrassing trips at the blue line. Nothing like that.

But whenever a player is traded in the third month of a season, he wants to show what he can do right away. Make an immediate impact and right away you're the new hero in town.

That, of course, is easier to imagine than it is to implement.

D'Amigo didn't have a point on Wednesday night and the Amerks lost 3-2 to the Syracuse Crunch in front of 6,014 fans at Blue Cross Arena at the Rochester Community War Memorial.

Twice the Amerks used power-play goals to tie the score, by Matt Ellis at 18:20 of the first period and Chad Ruhwedel at 11:28 of the second. But Mike Blunden's goal off a rebound into the slot just 2:14 into the third period became the game-winner.

"Any time you switch teams, you want to make a good impression," Amerks coach Chadd Cassidy said. "He looked a little bit nervous to me at the start."

D'Amigo was traded to the Buffalo Sabres organization on Tuesday afternoon and immediately assigned to the Amerks. He had been playing for the American Hockey League's Springfield Falcons. In return, the Sabres sent Amerks left winger Luke Adam to the Columbus Blue Jackets organization.

D'Amigo joined the Amerks Wednesday morning. It was a whirlwind 30 hours. Digest the shock of the trade, pack up, head out, and spend the next morning doing the "Hi, my name is..." with a dressing room of new teammates on game day.

He played a regular shift and killed penalties, something he is adept at doing. His speed will be a major asset for the Amerks, who aren't all the quick up front.

But there was a transition period against the Crunch.

"I felt a little slow; the travel day hurt me," D'Amigo said. "But once I got going, I felt good."

He reunited with Cassidy in the morning. The two spent two years together at Ann Arbor, Mich., as part of USA Hockey's National Team Development Program.

"It's been so long since he coached me," D'Amigo said. "Slowly but surely I want to be a player he can rely on, play those hard minutes.

"You want to make an impact so if I can bring it like I did before, we'll be good."

KEVINO@DemocratandChronicle.com

Twitter.com/@kevinoDandC

Kevin's 3 stars

1. Philippe Paradis, LW, Crunch ... Scored 1 goal, 4 shots, always seemed to be in the middle of the action.

2. Yanni Gourde, LW, Crunch ... Scored one goal, set up another.

3. Mike Blunden, RW, Crunch ... The patience to understand just how much time and space he had to score the winning goal.