Levi pitches 20-save shutout in win against Crunch
- junipstudios1
- 41 minutes ago
- 5 min read
By: Juniper Lasky
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- In the thick of playoff contention, the Amerks were looking to get two consecutive wins for the first time in nearly two months. The Amerks had fallen to 4th in the North Division, behind the Crunch, the Marlies and the Rocket. A win in this game propelled them to second, two games behind the Rocket with a game in hand. Goalie Devon Levi and the Amerks defense both played a huge part in the jump up the standings, putting up a 3-0 shutout against the North Division rival Syracuse Crunch.
"I thought the guys did a great job when we were in our D zone," says Rochester Americans head coach Michael Leone. "We were committed to defending and playing hard."
The shots on goal ended up tied at twenty a piece, and the Amerks went one for two on the power play, while killing both of their committed penalties. The Rochester penalty kill unit has been in the bottom half of the league, but Leone says he is impressed by the performance of these units as of late.
"Even the last game against Belleville, we didn't even let them get in the zone," says Leone. Â "Our special teams had a huge part of the [Syracuse] game, especially our [penalty] kill."
The game started as many would expect for the upstate rivals, with high velocity and physicality. Helmets flew, boards were slammed, and offensive zone turnovers were short. Jagger Joshua delivered a hard hit in the neutral zone as well. The Amerks looked to have made a significant improvement in winning pucks off the boards during the first period. Around 12 minutes in, the Amerks looked to have put together a productive offensive zone, with consecutive faceoff wins and promising shots coming off both of them.
After a frightening defensive zone shift, which had Levi's head on a swivel, the Crunch would go on the power play due to a slashing called on Isaac Belliveau. The 9th best power play unit in the league would fail to convert however, as the Amerks struggling penalty kill would stand strong, and the Crunch would shortly after find themselves shorthanded due to a slashing of their own on Gabriel Szturc with one minute left in the first. The buzzer would sound with the game still scoreless and one minute left on the Amerks power play. The Amerks outshot the Crunch seven to four.
The second period was underway as Rochester had the power play, but the first shot registered would be after the power play, and would be two promising opportunities for Riley Fiddler-Schultz as the play broke down in front of the Syracuse net. The shots would bounce harmlessly off goalie Brandon Halverson's pads, however, as the Amerks would watch another promising offensive zone fall short of a score. The Amerks were back on it, however, as around five minutes later in game time, the Amerks would find another golden opportunity with another broken down play, and would result in a struggle that whistled the puck dead.
The play would end with a scrum and the Amerks would end up on another power play in the offensive zone, thanks to a roughing penalty on Matteo Pietroniro. This would lead to the first score on the night for the Amerks with a laser from the slot off the stick of Zac Jones. The Sabres and Amerks have played hot potato with Zac Jones, with four roster changes for him in the new year. In fact, he was just called down earlier today, and found the net for the fourth time this season in Rochester.
Zac Jones fourth goal on the season (Rochester Americans on X)
Zac Jones would go to thirty-three points on the season, which would put him at second in the league for defensemen, two behind Milwaukee Admirals defenseman Ryan Ufko. The first score of the game was 1-0 Amerks, with over thirteen minutes left in the second frame.
Zac Jones cites the play off the wall by Jack Rathbone and Trevor Kuntar as the main contributor to the goal. "It was a great play by them just winning that wall battle," says Jones." It drew two to three Syracuse defenders over to the wall."
After some back and forth, the Crunch would find themselves on the power play once again, due to a slashing from Riley Fiddler-Schultz about twelve minutes into the second period, but the Amerks would kill the penalty. Jagger Joshua even got a short-handed breakaway opportunity during the two minutes, but he would end up getting crossed up with a defender and crashed into the Syracuse net. Another opportunity rose with three Amerks skating unopposed into the Syracuse zone, but Riley Fiddler-Schultz was denied the opportunity by an Amerk's dropped stick square in the middle of the zone.
The period would end with the score of Amerks one, Crunch zero. The Amerks still owned the shots on goal advantage, at ten to seven in the second period, for a two-period total of seventeen to eleven. Eight of the fourty minutes played thus far were penalty minutes, twenty percent of the first two frames.
Zac Jones fifth goal on the season (Rochester Americans on X)
The Amerks would grab insurance nearly five minutes into the third, with Zac Jones' second goal in the game, and his fifth in the last fifteen games. This goal would inch him one closer to the lead for points by defenseman in the AHL, putting him one behind. The Amerks had the task cut out for them, hold the two-nothing lead with nearly fifteen minutes left in the game, and Levi would need to be a big component in that fight.
Levi faced six shots in the next twelve minutes, and stood strong on each of them. With two and a half minutes left in the game, Riley Fiddler Schultz would hit an empty net goal from deep in the defensive zone to give the Amerks a sure victory, but Levi still had to fight for a stat that he hadn't recorded since this past October, and he would grab the shutout, his second on the season.
Levi faced a total of seven shots in that fifteen-minute time frame from the second Amerks goal to the end of the game. Levi says he knew it was coming. "You know you're not finishing the game with eight shots, so it's kind of just waiting for the moment when the team needs you." He also gives a lot of the credit to the group in front of him for the shutout. "Forwards are in shooting lanes, D's are boxing out. I don't think there was a shot that got to me that I didn't see."
Levi now has his first shutout since October, and two on the season, for a team total of three. The Amerks go to Belleville to face the Senators this Friday at 7 p.m.