ROCHESTER, N.Y. --- The Rochester Americans fell to the Laval Rocket 6-5 in triple overtime of game three of the north division finals of The Calder Cup Playoffs. A game that felt more like a screamer than a rollercoaster, it included four lead changes. The Amerks end their playoff run with three members of the team, top five in the AHL in points. Arttu Ruotsalainen ends with 12 points as well as Rookie JJ Peterka both tied for second overall, and Peyton Krebs 11 assists slot him at fourth on the leaderboard.
Both goalies played out of their minds, which doesn’t sound right seeing the 6-5 box score. Cayden Primeau posted 34 saves on 39 shots but overall proved to have had Rochester in his pocket the whole series. Aaron Dell was the only thing, aside from the powers that be, that kept Rochester in this game. His 54 saves on 60 shots does not show his performance justice, at one point making a high glove save with three players directly in front of him.
The Amerks got off to a lucky start to begin the first period as Cayden Primeau tapped the puck into no man's land in front of the goal. Mark Jankowski swept in and placed the puck top right net and the Amerks were up against Laval for the first time since the first period of game one. Then, just to cement things for the first period, JJ peterka put away a power play goal from the left wing to extend the lead to two just 8:05 into the first. The remainder of the period saw two more power plays, one for either team but both were successfully killed. Although leading by two the Amerks trailed the Rocket in shots 6-13.
In the second things looked to be going amazing for Rochester, the first 13 minutes were scoreless and The Amerks had the momentum on their side. Then, 13:55 into the period Brandon Gignac opened the scoring for Laval. One minute later, Amerk kryptonite, Danick Martel scored his first goal of the game and fifth of the series. A minute after that Laval took the lead and a minute after that, you guessed it, another one. By the time there was 2:22 left in the period, The Amerks were sucker punched and down by two when, five minutes earlier, they were the one’s up by that Margin. The momentum was now completely with Laval and Rochester just looked completely defeated heading into the locker room.
In the third the Amerks came tearing out of the gate, first Brett Murray scored only 13 seconds into the game followed by a power play goal from JJ Peterka just over a minute later, as he crashed into the blue paint to tie it up. The match continued and about midway through the period Murray found the back of the net again, while screening the goalie he caught a piece of Ethan Prow’s shot and put it in the back of the net. Despite Murray being the savior twice over he was also The Amerks downfall as the game inched closer to its conclusion. With 1:58 left on the clock Murray was sent to the penalty box and Rochester was forced into the penalty kill. With 1:07 left Jesse Ylönen slotted the puck past Aaron Dell to tie the game back up at five. With 22 seconds left The Amerks had a power play but it was not enough time and before they knew it, Rochester was heading to overtime for the fifth time this postseason.
This overtime was not what anyone expected though, spanning 41 minutes and 51 seconds, making this the third longest game in Amerks history. The first two periods of overtime were back and forth. Hope rose early, with a power play in the first overtime for Rochester but they couldn’t execute. Eventually somebody had to give and that was The Amerks early on in the third period of overtime. A destined shot from former Amerk Jean-Sebastian Dea to send Laval to the semis and Rochester, home.