Amerks Top Crunch 3-2 in Shootout, Bolstering Playoff Chances

After entering the shootout having converted just two of 22 attempts on the season, the Rochester Americans made it look effortless. Konsta Helenius and Olivier Nadeau both scored, Devon Levi turned away Maxim Groshev and Jakob Pelletier, and Rochester beat the Syracuse Crunch 3-2 on Sunday at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial.

The result, decided in two rounds with 7,463 fans watching, pushed Rochester's record to 28-25-5-4 and gave the Amerks a six-point lead over Belleville for the fifth and final North Division playoff spot, 65-59, with three fewer games played.

Helenius also set up both Rochester regulation goals, finishing with two assists before adding the shootout clincher. Zac Jones matched him with two helpers, his second consecutive two-point outing of the weekend, lifting him to a team-best 17 multi-point contests this season.

Matteo Costantini gave Rochester a 1-0 lead after the first period. Syracuse tied the game 1-1 just over four minutes into the second when Abruzzese beat Levi with a backhand. Both teams drew two penalties over the final 16 minutes of the period but neither scored, sending the teams to the third still deadlocked.

Forty-three seconds into the third, Helenius won a draw in the Crunch zone and set up Jones at the right point. Jones fired a shot toward Brandon Halverson that Trevor Kuntar redirected past the Syracuse goaltender, restoring Rochester's lead for the second time. It was Kuntar's 17th goal of the season.

The Crunch responded less than six minutes later. Ethan Gauthier finished off a feed from Tommy Miller at the top of the left point to make it 2-2. Neither team could find a go-ahead goal over the final 13 minutes, and both Halverson and Levi held firm through three shots each in overtime.

The shootout win was Rochester's first on home ice against Syracuse since March 11, 2018, snapping a four-game home winless streak dating to January 14 and giving the Amerks three wins in their last four games to close out March.

"Guys were incredible, just the sacrifice, the buy-in," Amerks coach Michael Leone said. "We've gotten a lot better this month, regardless of what our record is."

The victory also prevented Syracuse (39-20-3-3) from drawing level with first-place Laval in the North Division. It was the fourth meeting between the intrastate rivals in March and the second in less than 24 hours. Rochester now takes that six-point cushion over Belleville into four straight road games.