Kuntar's OT Goal Lifts Amerks Past Marlies 4-3, Ending Skid

Trevor Kuntar sprinted the full length of Blue Cross Arena the moment his shot hit the twine behind Dennis Hildeby, racing from the blue line at the Court Street end all the way to the faceoff circle at the Broad Street end. Ryan Johnson gave gleeful chase. The nine-game winless streak was over.

Kuntar's goal 83 seconds into overtime lifted the Rochester Americans past the Toronto Marlies 4-3 on Friday, March 13, snapping a season-long drought that had pushed the franchise to within one loss of its all-time consecutive-losses record. It was Rochester's fifth home win since Christmas.

The overtime winner was as much a team effort as an individual one. Konsta Helenius retrieved the puck off the opening faceoff just inside the Marlies zone, and he, Zac Jones and Anton Wahlberg kept possession in the Toronto end for roughly 45 seconds before handing off to Kuntar, Johnson and Riley Fiddler-Schultz. While Alex Nylander, Henry Thrun and Luke Haymes were stuck on the ice chasing throughout, Fiddler-Schultz set up Kuntar near the center point. Kuntar's shot with traffic in the slot beat Hildeby for his 15th goal of the season.

"It was so unselfish by Helenius, Jones and Wahlberg," Kuntar said. "They had the opportunity to change and pay it forward. That's probably the reason we scored."

Johnson put the moment in context simply: "You forget what it feels like, but it felt really good."

The win nearly didn't happen. Rochester built a 3-1 lead through 56 minutes on goals from Olivier Nadeau in the first period, Helenius in the second, and Vsevolod Komarov late in the third. Then Toronto scored twice in 21 seconds. Ryan Tverberg cut it to 3-2 at the 57:33 mark of game time, and Matthew Barbolini tied it 3-3 just 21 seconds later. Barbolini finished with two goals on the night; Marc Johnstone contributed two assists for the Marlies.

Coach Michael Leone credited his team's mental discipline through the chaos: "I thought we did a good job keeping our composure."

Rookie goaltender Scott Ratzlaff held the line when it mattered most. The 21-year-old, who celebrated his birthday earlier in the week, stopped 31 of 34 shots in his eighth game with Rochester, improving his record to 4-2-1. He has now made 30 or more saves in each of his last three appearances. Hildeby, meanwhile, allowed four goals in his 15th appearance of the campaign, his most in any game over the past 10 outings, and fell to 6-4-5.

The Marlies have now dropped eight of their last nine games that have gone beyond regulation dating to Jan. 7 — a number worth filing away, given Toronto is Rochester's likely first-round opponent in the Calder Cup mini-round play-in series.

The milestone understory belonged to Jones, who recorded an assist to become the first Rochester defenseman to reach 50 points in a season since Zach Redmond accomplished the feat in 2018-19. The two-time AHL All-Star is only the fourth blueliner to hit that mark for the franchise since 2009-10, joining Redmond, Michael Kostka (2010-11) and Clay Wilson (2009-10).

"It was an amazing play by 'Hele' to get the puck off the draw after we lost it," Johnson said of the overtime sequence that finished the job.

Rochester improved to 25-22-5-4 with 59 points, increasing its lead over sixth-place Utica to six points in the North Division. The Amerks remain fifth, sitting seven points behind Toronto. The two teams met again Saturday, March 14 in Toronto.