Helenius the bringer of (teddy bear) rain as Levi, Amerks blank Toronto

By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA

It was Teddy Bear Toss Day at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial on Saturday evening.

Popular across all levels of hockey, the promotion provides fun for fans while also helping to stock the toy shelves of a local charitable organization, in this case Pirate Toy Fund.

Bring a stuffed animal – or 10 – and hurl it onto the ice when the Amerks score the first goal. On most nights, that would be in the first period, considering Rochester is the American Hockey League’s highest scoring team.

The problem on Saturday, though: there weren’t any goals. Not in the first period, not in the second, not in the third, and not in a five-minute chess match that was the three-on-three overtime period. Heck, there weren’t even any goals through four rounds of the shootout.

But when rookie Konsta Helenius finally solved the riddle presented by Toronto Marlies goalie Artur Akhtyamov as the Amerks fifth shooter, it rained and snowed teddy bears. Hundreds and perhaps thousands of teddy bears in an instantaneous indoor downpour.

Just one issue: the game wasn’t over. Though advised over the public address system late in the third period to refrain from throwing the stuffed animals until a winner had been determined, the 8,027 fans saw a goal and fired away.

And for that, Amerks goalie Devon Levi says thank you.

“I was just laughing, I thought it was hilarious that they threw the teddy bears a little bit early,” Levi said after the Amerks defeated the Marlies 1-0 and maintained their place atop the entire AHL with a 33-14-3-1 record and 70 points.

The premature toss may have played a part in the victory, Levi said. The Amerks staff, rink crew and players, along with Marlies players, needed a good four or five minutes to clear the bears. They piled them into bins or pushed them into piles along the boards so Toronto’s fifth shooter, Nikita Grebenkin, had a clear path from which to shoot.

From Levi’s viewpoint, the delay gave Grebenkin far too much time to contemplate a game plan for his attempt.

“I saw him go back to his goalie, ask him what to do,” Levi said. “He had a lot of time to think about it. Honestly, I felt the pressure was on him in that moment just because if he missed, it was over.”

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Not only did Grebenkin miss, he didn’t even get a shot off, losing control as he attempted a deke in the deep slot.

As the puck slithered off toward the corner, the Amerks rushed to Levi to celebrate their third win in a row and 10^th in the past 12 games, and their goalie’s league-leading fifth shutout.

“This was a great look at it for us building to the playoffs,” said assistant coach Vinny Prospal, who pinch-hit for coach Michael Leone in the post-game media briefing. “You have to know how to check, you have to know how to defend.

“We are a team that can score goals but today I thought we defended very well as a team.”

Levi made 30 saves and another five in the shootout. The biggest was on Alex Nylander, stopping a breakaway by the former Amerk with 1:20 remaining in overtime. He also stopped Nylander in the shootout.

“I don’t mind stopping a guy twice in a row,” Levi said with a laugh.

The Marlies had the only three shots in overtime, which often can be five minutes of chaos. On this evening, puck possession was of the utmost importance for the entire OT.

“It just goes to show how important possession is in overtime,” Levi said. “There are a lot of guys on the ice who can make plays and are dangerous on both teams so you want to keep the puck out of the other team’s hands.

“It’s a little bit of a cat-and-mouse game where you want to go and score but you also don’t want to turn the puck over.”

Coming off his first three-point game as a pro (one goal, two assists in Friday’s 6-3 win over Belleville), Helenius was the offensive hero. He scored by making a lightning-quick fake deep in the slot before slipping the puck between Ahktyamov’s legs.

“I did the same move a couple times and it has worked so it was an easy choice,” Helenius said of his strategy.

The offensive artistry came with his mother, Maiju, and brother, Kasperi, in the stands visiting from Finland. His mother also was here in November but his brother is visiting for the first time, celebrating his ninth birthday on Saturday.

And while the Amerks filled the scoresheet on Friday, they enjoyed Saturday’s 1-0 victory just as much.

“Everybody wants to win the Calder Cup so this was a little bit like a playoff game,” Helenius said. “Last night we score six, tonight we score zero and win in the shootout, so that’s good.”