UTICA – The stages keep getting a little bigger, but the role is the same for Ryan Schmelzer. Doesn't matter if it's the Buffalo Jr. Sabres, Canisius College or now the Calder Cup Playoffs.
The kid from Williamsville East who starred in junior and college hockey is making his mark in the pros, too. He's a captain again, just like at his previous two levels, and now it's for the Utica Comets, one of the top teams in the AHL.
"It's about setting the example. That's what your goal always is," Schmelzer, 28, told The Buffalo News last week. "You can say so many things, but if you don't actually live them and breed the culture that the New Jersey Devils want here, it doesn't really mean too much. You gotta live up to the things that you say, that you set for yourself, and just help out anyone you can."
Utica started the season on a 14-game winning streak and has been the class of the AHL's North Division all season. The Comets and Rochester Amerks will play Game 3 of the North semifinals Sunday afternoon at 5:05 in Blue Cross Arena.
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Schmelzer is one of 10 players with Western New York connections in the Calder Cup Playoffs and eight are involved in head-to-head matchups.
• Schmelzer is meeting Rochester center and West Seneca native Sean Malone. Schmelzer's former Canisius teammate, Dylan McLaughlin, is playing for Rockford and is teammates with Orchard Park native Carson Gicewicz in a series against Chicago, whose lineup features Williamsville native and AHL scoring leader Andrew Poturalski.
• Meanwhile, the Manitoba-Milwaukee series features former Canisius forward Nick Hutchison playing for Manitoba against Milwaukee captain Cole Schneider, the St. Joe's product who played six games for the Sabres in 2016 and 2017, and defenseman Dylan Blujus, the Buffalo native who was a second-round pick for Tampa Bay in 2012.
• In addition, East Amherst's Nick DeSimone is on the blue line for Stockton, which has advanced to the Pacific Division final after a sweep of Bakersfield, and Williamsville's Griffin Luce is at defense for Springfield, which has a 2-0 lead over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the Atlantic semifinals.
McLaughlin scored the series-winning goal in overtime as Rockford posted a 1-0 win over Texas last week to complete a two-game sweep. Chicago won the opening game of the best-of-five series against Rockford, 6-2, while Milwaukee and Manitoba are headed for a decisive Game 5 Sunday in Winnipeg. Like Schmelzer, Poturalski and Schneider are team captains. McLaughlin is an alternate in Rockford, a Chicago affiliate.
Poturalski, who played collegiately at New Hampshire, led the league in scoring this season with 101 points (28 goals, 73 assists) for Chicago (Carolina). Schneider posted a career-high 30 goals for Milwaukee (Nashville).
Utica overcame a 2-0 deficit to win Game 1 over Rochester on Tuesday night, 6-3. Schmelzer scored the tying goal in the second period, cleaning up his own rebound and banging it past Aaron Dell from close range. Schmelzer, who wrapped up his four years at Canisius in 2018, had a career-high 18 goals and 32 points this year for Utica in his fourth AHL season.
"It's been a great organization to me. They've really given me opportunity to play," Schmelzer said of the Devils, who have had him on their fall Prospect Challenge teams against the Sabres and other teams in LECOM Harborcenter. "They've been nothing but first class and the people in the organization have been awesome to me. I haven't found a reason to leave. I love being here. It's been great."
Canisius coach Trevor Large actually was recruiting Schmelzer to Army from the Junior Sabres but was glad as it turned out that Schmelzer chose the Griffs, as he ended up moving there as an assistant and then getting the top job in 2017.
"There's different types of leaders but the way Ryan is, the leadership ability does ooze out of him," Large said. "It's in a very quiet, very serious, very much by example by the way he behaves. I'm not surprised he's a captain in Utica. He was a heck of a captain here. It's who he is."
Utica fell behind, 2-0, after the first period of Game 1 and Schmelzer briefly gathered his team in the first intermission. He scored the tying goal in the second period and the Comets overcame the Amerks, 6-3.
"Our captain has been there for us all year,” Comets forward Joseph Gambardella said of Schmelzer. “He kind of just told us, ‘We've been in this position before, it's nothing new to us, we know what we’ve got to do.’ We had been off of the ice for 10 days, haven't played in game action. We just had to come back out and worry about the first five minutes and then kind of just go from there.”
The 6-foot-2 Schmelzer is tough down low and his goal in Game 1 saw him outwork the Rochester defense and bang his own rebound past goalie Aaron Dell.
"That will always be him," Large said. "It's a harder way to score at the same time that's where you have to go to score. And that's what Ryan does. I once saw him score a hat trick for the Junior Sabres in a game at Mississauga and not one goal was out of the blue paint. Maybe the distance was 3 feet total for all of them."
"We know Rochester has a ton of skill players and we know they came into this series really feeling good about themselves," Schmelzer said. "A lot of young up-and-comers that have some bright futures who can really be dangerous."
CAPTAIN ON THE SPOT 🚨 pic.twitter.com/Z9AtBNyE6k
— y-Utica Comets (@UticaComets) May 11, 2022
Schmelzer, McLaughlin and Poturalski are summer workout partners at Harborcenter and Schmelzer said he flipped on the AHL's streaming package last week when he saw that Rockford and Texas were going overtime in a scoreless tie. McLaughlin, who had 13 goals and 42 points in the regular season, ended the game after 56 seconds with a snapshot from the left circle.
"We keep in touch just about daily, so I'm always rooting for him," Schmelzer said. "It's good to see friends do well in the league and Buffalo people in general. Great to see the Griffs alum represent."
"I wish I had about eight TVs to watch all this," Large joked. "I put on Twitter about Dylan's goal that 'I've seen that before.' I'm not surprised. Dylan and Ryan were almost unstoppable together at times, but they are very different players. Dylan is an extremely high-end stick-skills skater who can score some beautiful goals. Ryan is in the crease down low."
WOW!!!!What a special night at @BMOHarrisCenter! @goicehogs with a 1-0 OT win in Game 2 to sweep the @TexasStars and head to the Central Div. Semis vs. @Chicago_Wolves! pic.twitter.com/5aTZ8x9112
— Joseph Zakrzewski (@JoeyZRadio) May 7, 2022
Large said having three of his former players pushing through in the AHL "changes the sentence" when he goes recruiting.
"It's no longer if you do well here, you may have that chance," he said. "It's when you do well here, you will have that pro opportunity. Big difference."
Large said he's feeling these are breakthrough seasons for Schmelzer and McLaughlin, leaving them "on the cusp" to get a real chance to crack the NHL next season.
"I've told them both. 'Hey, when you do it, I don't need to be your first call. But make sure I'm like, 3-4-5,'" Large said. "I gotta get the plane ticket. I gotta get the jersey. I will definitely be there for that day."
