Helenius Scores Second Hat Trick, Reaches 18 Goals for Rochester Americans

Konsta Helenius scored his second hat trick of the AHL season in Rochester's 6-3 win over Hartford, pushing his season total to 18 goals and 48 points across 50 appearances and making clear that the Buffalo Sabres' 14th overall pick in 2024 is quickly outgrowing the minor leagues.

The three-goal performance against Hartford ended what RotoWire described as his first multi-game drought since January and arrived less than two weeks after Helenius recorded his first career hat trick in North America. That earlier milestone came in a dominant 4-0 Rochester victory over the Belleville Senators, a natural hat trick in which Helenius converted three consecutive goals without an opponent scoring between them. The sequence that put the game away was a study in transition hockey: Brett Murray twirled the puck out of his own end to Riley Fiddler-Schultz, who pivoted into the Senators' zone and fed Helenius crashing the net for a top-corner finish with 1:16 left in the second period. In the final minute of the third, with Belleville's net empty, Murray forced the puck ahead to Helenius for the empty-net clincher. That game lifted him to 12 goals on the season.

Fiddler-Schultz scored the game-winning goal on a power play in the opening minute against Belleville and added an assist, while Kale Clague and Brett Murray each posted two-assist nights. Devon Levi handled the rest, stopping all 27 shots he faced to record his league-leading seventh shutout of the season. Rochester held Belleville to nine shots in the third period, nearly all from the perimeter.

The numbers since the calendar turned tell the story of a player who has found another gear. Since returning from an NHL stint, Helenius has posted 18 points on 9 goals and 9 assists in 16 games. For the full season, he has put 123 shots on net and carries a minus-9 rating alongside his 48 points.

Amerks assistant coach Nathan Paetsch, who spoke following a recent game in place of head coach Mike Leone, described the development in direct terms. "That's a goal that a first-rounder scores, not a seventh-rounder like myself," Paetsch said, referencing his own selection as the 202nd overall pick by Buffalo in 2003. "It's amazing for a young kid how strong he is. He was powerful, and, obviously, the shot was beautiful, and it's encouraging."

Paetsch also identified the mechanical shift that has driven Helenius's surge. "When he struggled, he was slowing things down," he said. "That's typical of somebody coming from Europe that's played on the bigger ice, especially in the Finnish League, they tend to slow things down. It's more control based, whereas here, time and space is limited. You got to play fast."

The growth has not come without friction. On December 27 in Cleveland, Leone benched Helenius for multiple shifts, telling reporters afterward that Helenius had not been "playing the right way." At that point, Helenius had 26 points in 28 games. The benching registered. In a recent game against the Laval Rocket, he cut to the slot from the right circle, took a backhander with defenseman William Trudeau pressuring him from behind, and scored what Paetsch called arguably the most dynamic goal of his rookie season. Helenius's own description was considerably more understated. "Made a little dangle," he said. After the goal, he made sure Trudeau knew about it. "I let them know after the goal."

The 5-foot-11, 189-pound Finn selected 14th overall has now put together a season that is reframing the timeline on his path to Buffalo.