By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
In his 9 ½ minute post-game media session on Sunday evening, seven times Rochester Americans coach Michael Leone said the Laval Rocket “were just better tonight” and eight times he said “they were really good tonight.”
Combined, that’s 15 references to how well the Rocket played in the deciding fifth game of the Calder Cup North Division finals.
In reality, those 15 references weren’t nearly enough.
The Rocket, who won the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as the American Hockey League’s regular-season champion, showed they might be the AHL’s best playoff team with a dominating 5-0 victory over the Amerks in front of a Place Bell crowd of 10,092.
“They were really good and we had no answer,” Leone said. “They were just better tonight, there’s no other way to put it.”
As a result, season 69 in Amerks franchise history is over. After a regular season that featured 42 victories and a plus-47 goal differential, the Amerks couldn’t get past a Laval team that, when playing at its best, is simply better.
From the first drop of the puck on Sunday, the Amerks were chasing the game – and never came close to catching it. They mounted no forecheck, created precious little sustained offensive-zone pressure and rarely won puck battles on the wall or in open ice.
“The game plan is really simple when you play at this time of the year,” Leone said. “It’s not a skill game. You have to reset pucks, you have to hunt and they were really good at that tonight. That’s their game, that’s what they’re built on.
“Tonight they were at a different level.”
Which is why they built a 2-0 lead in the first period, led 4-0 after two, and why Rocket goalie Cayden Primeau was rarely tested.
“Part of the sport is that you get one shot at Game 5 and we didn’t seize the moment,” Amerks winger Brett Murray said. “They were able to get tot their game faster than we were able to get to ours.”
As a result, the Rocket move on to face the Charlotte Checkers in the Eastern Conference finals while the Amerks will go their separate ways for the summer.
“They proved it all year they’re a very tough team to beat when they have their stuff,” defenseman Zach Metsa said. “We just couldn’t get to our stuff. They had a little more juice and we couldn’t match it.”
Alex Barre-Boulet put Laval ahead 1-0 with a power-play goal at 10:51 of the first period, rocketing a one-timer past goalie Devon Levi with Laurent Dauphin providing a perfect screen at the top of the crease.
Just 3:39 later, an innocent keep-in at the point turned into a goal by Sean Farrell for a 2-0 lead. Zach Hayes hustled to hold the puck in and in the same motion wristed a shot toward the net that was redirected by Farrell in the left circle.
The two-goal lead seemed like 6-0.
“They jumped out to that early lead and just locked it down,” Amerks captain Mason Jobst said.
The Rocket kept building on that lead, too. On the first shift of the second period, Lucas Condotta fired a shot from the high slot past Levi.
“That one at the start of the second period killed us,” Leone said.
When Joshua Roy took advantage of another Dauphin screen to score a power play goal at 18:50 of the second, the lead was 4-0 and the schedule was being drawn up for the Laval-Charlotte conference finals.
“Everything that probably could have gone wrong tonight went wrong,” Leone said.
The Amerks did have 27 shots on goal (Laval led 34-27), but few could be classified as Grade-A chances. Very few.
“They did a really good job protecting them middle of the rink,” Leone said. “It’s hard to get there, and you gotta be willing and tonight wasn’t a night we were good. Flat out, they were just a lot better; there’s no way to hide it.”
The loss is especially frustrating for the Amerks because they had played so well in Game 4, fighting off elimination with a resounding 5-1 victory. But as they had throughout the first four games of the series, the Rocket seemed to believe they could dissuade the Amerks from competing by mauling them with physicality.
Then along came Game 5 and the Rocket stopped taking foolish penalties, stopped initiating goal-mouth scrums and stopped having to kill off penalties. They very much used their size and physicality to their advantage, but within a structured system.
“They played desperate, they were heavier on pucks, they won more 50/50s and they killed a lot of plays in the corner,” Leone said.
In other words, Laval rose to the occasion in the do-or-die deciding game.
“You have to learn from it, learn the feeling of what it takes to become a championship team,” Leone said.
Amerks had the talent to beat Laval every game of this series was winnable except game 5 had Levi played at his best. Another big problem was Leone leaving the lineup status quo the entirety of the series. No reason for Komarov to be playing after his disastrous game 1 performance, same goes for Murray. They desperately needed more physicality to match Laval and we had Jagger, Slaggert and Tischke on the sidelines. Good coaches make lineup adjustments as needed as Laval coach did for game 5. As good as Levi is he was more like a serviceable backup goalie this series choking in Laval as he has all season except game 4. When we made the conference finals in 2023 Subban was outstanding ! Levi not nearly good enough to beat Laval and his performance head to head with Primeau was a huge advantage for Laval. The Amerks did have a good season but I believe they lost to Laval due to being out coached and having the much better goaltending. The disappointment is that this team had the talent to win a Calder cup, I do predict nobody will beat Laval
Well said Kevin. You covered all the bases. It was an awful game from the opening faceoff and for the 4th time in the 5 games Levi was simply not good enough. That has to be a bit of a concern for the Sabres going forward.
I thought Laval’s 2nd goal might have been offside at first. Watching the live action it sure looked like the puck may have squeaked over the blue line, but apparently not. Then poof, it was in the net. Other than Helenius’ missed partial breakaway, Primeau only faced shots that went directly into his pads. He’s too good to not test him properly. It was clear in the early minutes of the 2nd period that we probably weren’t going to score.
It was a terrible game and a disappointing way to end the season. Our only solace is that we all knew Laval was the better team. Still after Friday, I thought we may have put some doubts out there, but as you said, it was clear right from the start, who came to play and who didn’t.
And that’s it. Thanks for all your fine coverage this season. enjoyed it thoroughly and it gave us a chance to comment as well. (now we are stuck with the Red Wings for the summer…ugh)