Rochester on the brink of elimination after Game 3 loss in double overtime
Devon Levi put on a clinic in his third playoff start for the Rochester Americans, but unfortunately, the club in front of him could not generate enough offense to make his effort a winning one, as the Sabres AHL affiliate is on the brink of elimination after a 2-1 loss in double overtime to the Syracuse Crunch on Thursday.
After winning the opener of the best-of-five series 3-2 at Blue Cross Arena last Friday, Syracuse wrestled home-ice advantage away from the Amerks with a 4-3 overtime victory on Sunday. The two clubs exchanged goals in the second period, with Alex Barre-Boulet opening the scoring for the Crunch and Isak Rosen tying the game on a penalty shot.
The story of the game was Levi, who stopped all 21 Syracuse shots in the first period, and another 23 shots in overtime to keep the Amerks alive until Waltteri Merela’s breakaway goal midway through the second extra frame.
“Devon was excellent,” Amerks coach Seth Appert said. “I think that was just his game. He’s just a really good goalie. I thought we defended the front of the net extremely hard and battled and cleared rebounds and blocked shots in tight. And I thought he did a great job finding pucks from the perimeter.”
The Sabres were hoping that some of their young prospects would get a further dose of postseason experience with the Amerks as they did last season when Rochester reached the Eastern Conference Final before losing to the eventual Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears. The club trailed Syracuse 2-0 in the first round last year before rallying to win the next three games, and if they hope to extend their postseason they will have to win Game 4 on Saturday to force a deciding Game 5 next week.
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