The Rochester Americans faced the prospect of going down 2-0 in their best-of-five AHL North second-round series against the Laval Rocket at Blue Cross Arena on Friday, but Jiri Kulich broke a 3-3 tie late in the third period on the power play to give Rochester a lead they would not relinquish in a 5-3 victory. Isak Rosen scored a pair of goals, Kale Clague tallied his club-leading fifth goal of the playoffs, and Lukas Rousek added his first of the postseason in a must-win for the Amerks.
After taking the lead early in the first on Clague’s power play goal, Laurent Dauphin tied the game with his fourth of the playoffs, but Rosen put Rochester back in front just 34 seconds later. Laval bounced back in the middle frame, tying the game on a Lucas Condotta goal and taking the lead on Jared Davidson’s second of the post-season, but the Amerks tied the game with 40 seconds left in the second.
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Devon Levi faced only 19 shots in the contest and made 16 saves for his fourth win of the playoffs, while Jacob Fowler faced 35 Rochester shots in the loss.
The Sabres top prospects did most of the damage in the contest, as 2024 top pick Konsta Helenius set up Clague for the opening goal, Rosen finished with three points, 2022 first-rounder Noah Ostlund assisted on Rosen’s empty-netter, Kulich had a goal and an assist, and 2019 top pick Ryan Johnson had a helper on Rosen’s first period goal.
The series will now shift to Laval for the next two (or possibly three) games, where the Amerks split the season series with the Montreal Canadiens affiliate 2-2 during the regular season. Because of the peculiarity of the Calder Cup Playoff schedule, Game 3 will not go until this Wednesday, with Game 4 on Friday and a potential deciding Game 5 next Sunday.
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