Another night of frustration for Amerks' Ruhwedel

At one end, high in the defensive zone, a puck shot by Andrey Pedan was just grazing or just missing Chad Ruhwedel's stick and then went zipping past the right arm of Rochester Americans goalie Andrey Makarov.

This was midway through the second period and tied the score 2-2 on Wednesday night.

At the other end, on one of the surest of scoring chances in hockey, the two-on-zero fast break in overtime, the puck came whistling off the blade of Ruhwedel's stick as he one-timed the Justin Bailey pass — and went right into the massive pad attached to the right leg of goalie Joe Cannata.

Instead of a 4-3 Amerks victory on that shot, Utica won in a shootout.

Those two plays, 33 minutes of game clock apart, were pretty much a microcosm of Ruhwedel's season.

They define frustration. So, too, does his season so far.

A mobile, hard-shooting defenseman who has proven he can use his puck skills to adeptly move the puck out of the defensive zone, Ruhwedel has struggled.

In 23 games, he has scored just two goals — he scored 10 in 72 games last year — and his plus/minus is a team-worst minus-15. Only three players in the American Hockey League are lower.

"I know when I'm playing well and if I'm not playing well it can definitely effect the team," Ruhwedel said.

If it can go wrong, it does. Like the Pedan shot in the second period.

"It's been one of those starts for him," coach Randy Cunneyworth said, "and it's lingering a little bit longer."

A year ago, the third-year defenseman averaged half-a-point a game (36 in 72 games) and was a minus-6. This on a team that finished 14th in a 15-team conference.

"It's frustrating, no doubt about it," he said.

He had chances to score in the second period, when the Amerks had 11 minutes and 1 second of power-play time. They did score twice — Matt Donovan at 1:01 and Dan Catenacci at 4:09 — but wasted four full minutes of never-ending power play late in the period.

"We had plenty of chances to seal it in the second period," Ruhwedel said.

Said Cunneyworth: "We needed the killer instinct to finish them off and we didn't do it."

The game, too, was just another example of what ails the Amerks. There are plenty of reasons why their record is just 10-11-2. Too many of their big guns haven't done enough. They have shown little of that killer instinct.

The overtime was a end-to-end bonanza of offensive chances. The Comets had four shots and Makarov stopped them all. The Amerks have five, and Cannata made every save.

"They turned it into three-on-three for a reason," said Evan Rodrigues, who scored the Amerks third goal, also in the second period. "A couple posts, they had a three-on-one, we had a two-on-oh."

In the end, however, the Amerks were just left with more frustration.

KEVINO@gannett.com

Kevin's 3 stars

1. Andrey Pedan, D, Comets ... One goal, one assist, seven shots.

2. Evan Rodrigues, LW, Amerks ... 1 goal, created chances.

3. Alex Friesen, C, Comets ... Scored the tying goal, was dangerous.