After ‘great’ All-Star experience, Levi plays like an All-Star as Amerks win

By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA

In the span of five days, Devon Levi flew to California, took part in two days of American Hockey League All-Star festivities, then flew back to Rochester to resume the regular season.

That type of travel, combined with no practice time, always creates a little concern about sharpness upon return.

While the Rochester Americans and Belleville Senators weren’t necessarily at the top of their game on Friday night – “coming out of the break, it was a pretty sloppy game,” Amerks coach Michael Leone said – Levi was his usual stellar self in goal.

The second-year goalie made 29 saves, including 21 over the final two periods, to post his third shutout as the Amerks ran their winning streak to five with a 4-0 victory.

The shutout for Levi was nice, of course. But he was giving the credit to his teammates.

“The team played really well tonight; (Jack) Rathbone blocking two, three shots; Dunner (Josh Dunne), (Lukas) Rousek,” said Levi, the first Amerks goalie with three shutouts in a season since Andrew Hammond in 2019-20. “It was a lot of guys selling out in the third period.

“It (the shutout) feels good, everyone feels good, but it’s not just a personal accolade, it’s not really the end-all, do-all, it’s if you get the win and play solid as a team.”

He was actually quite happy to be back playing. The break, he said, was long enough.

“We all miss hockey a little bit, we miss the game, so there was a little bit of hunger,” said Levi, who along with wingers Isak Rosen and Brett Murray represented the Amerks in Palm Desert, Calif. “I was excited to play and a lot of times when, as a group, you have that swagger, that will to win, it goes your way.”

While he didn’t have much time off because of the All-Star Classic, he said the cross-country trip and festivities were well worth it.

“I had a great time,” Levi said. “That was like the first kind of hockey tournament experience vibe where the focus isn’t winning. It was different experience for me and I loved it.

“It was a great opportunity to meet other guys and develop some relationships with other guys that I’ve been playing against for so long but never had a chance to talk to. It was super cool, making new buddies, seeing some of my old buddies.”

But it was also nice to get back to work.

“Coming back from the All-Star break, I was in the mindset that I’m playing first game back,” he said.

Goals by Konsta Helenius and Kale Clague staked the Amerks to a 2-0 lead in the first period.

Helenius played sniper at 10:06 to end his 16-game goal drought. Moving in on right wing, he fired a wrister from the circle that zipped into the top corner of the net on the short side, over the glove of Leevi Merilainen.

“Somebody yelled for me to pass,” Helenius said, “but I decided to shoot.”

Good decision.

“It was a good feeling to score,” said Helenius, who scored six of his seven goals in his first 21 games. “It had been a long time.”

Leone inferred there were reasons for that slump. Helenius is a much more effective player “when he’s engaged in the game, when he’s skating, when he’s competing and staying on pucks,” the coach said. “When you play the game the right way, you get rewarded.”

Clague scored his ninth goal, tied for fourth-most in the AHL among defensemen, at 17:23. Viktor Neuchev couldn’t connect on a centering pass from the right corner by Nicolas Aube-Kubel but the puck continued across to the lower left circle and Clague was alone to fire it home.

“Getting the first two is huge, starting ahead,” Levi said. “Coming back from the break, I think it’s hard to claw back sometimes, you don’t necessarily have that swagger (you would have) coming off a win.”

The second period was scoreless, primarily because of Levi. He stopped all 10 Belleville shots, including three big-time saves: at 3:36 on a Jamieson Rees one-timer from the left of the slot, on Sam Gagner’s one-timer from the top right hash mark with 31.8 seconds left, and then on Stephen Halliday’s point-blank try with 10 seconds remaining.

“He was locked in tonight and made huge saves,” Leone said. “He did a great job reading plays. He was awesome tonight.”

The score didn’t change until the closing minutes, when Belleville pulled Merilainen for a sixth attacker. That led to empty-net goals for Graham Slaggert at 18:08 and Anton Wahlberg with 16.7 seconds remaining.

Helenius could have tried a low-percentage shot at the empty net from center but chose to push the puck ahead to Wahlberg, who connected for his eighth goal.

That Helenius was on the ice in the closing minute was recognition of his solid play all night.

“We had him out there six-on-five because I thought he deserved it,” Leone said.