AMERKS TAKE DOWN MONSTERS IN SHOOTOUT WIN
Kuntar scored a pair of goals as Komarov and Meyer tally markers in shootout win
Apr 6, 2026The Rochester Americans (29-27-5-4) saw a two-goal lead get erased in regulation on Monday night at Rocket Arena before coming from behind in a shootout for a 4-3 win against the Cleveland Monsters (35-25-6-2).
The Amerks, who are six points away from clinching their fifth straight trip to the Calder Cup Playoffs, have won each of their last four games that went beyond regulation dating back to Mar. 13. Three of those four games have been by a 4-3 score and two have come in the skills competition.
Trevor Kuntar (2+0) notched his third multi-goal performance of the season while Matteo Costantini, who scored the overtime-winner this past Saturday, notched his sixth goal of the campaign.
Konsta Helenius (0+2) pushed his career-long point streak to eight straight games (4+10) dating back to Mar. 22 as he booked a pair of assists. Zac Jones, Red Savage, Jagger Joshua, and Anton Wahlberg all added one helper.
Helenius and Olivier Nadeau both were unsuccessful in the shootout while Vsevolod Komarov and former Monster Carson Meyer’s attempts were true to cap the win.
Goaltenders Devon Levi stopped 35 of the 38 shots to earn the victory as he improved to 22-18-8 through a league-leading 48 appearances. Over his previous seven starts, the Quebec native, who made three saves in the skills competition, shows a 5-2-0 record while making 165 saves dating back to Mar. 22.
James Malatesta scored in the second period for the Monsters. Mikael Pyyhtiä and Owen Sillinger both collected a goal and assist in the final frame for Cleveland, who entered with a 13-7 record beyond regulation this season.
Netminder Ivan Fedotov (22-16-5) made 17 saves, which included just three from the start of the third period prior to the shootout. Fedotov is winless in his last five appearances (0-4-1).
FIRST PERIOD
In the opening period, the two clubs seemed to fill each other out as they combined for only 16 shots and both goaltenders made their respective saves to keep the game scoreless at the intermission break.
Levi stopped perhaps his two biggest saves of the frame that came from nearly the exact spot as he denied both Justin Pearsons and Hunter McKown as they fired a shot from the left faceoff dot.
Fedotov faced his majority of his work in the first period as the club was shorthanded, but he turned aside each of the three shots that came into his crease.
SECOND PERIOD
Early in the second stanza, Rochester utilized its quick-scoring attack as they struck for a pair of goals 66 seconds of one another with the first that came just 1:44 into the frame.
On the first of the two tallies, Joshua stopped a puck in the center of the neutral zone and tucked on his backhand to Komarov, who was streaking down the right wing. The defenseman pulled up once he crossed into the blueline, allowing Savage to fire a shot towards the crease. Before the shot reached Fedotov, Joshua redirected it wide of the net. As luck would have it for the Amerks, it caromed off the end boards and to the back post for Kuntar to slip inside the left post for his 18th goal of the slate.
On the ensuing shift, Isaac Belliveau broke the puck up the ice to Helenius, who was in front of the penalty boxes. Wahlberg and Helenius exchanged passes as they skated into the Cleveland zone and despite Wahlberg being unable to capitalized on Costantini’s backdoor feed, it laid at right circle. Helenius quickly retrieved the puck and centered a return feed through the zone for Costantini, and the rookie snapped home his sixth of the campaign with 17:10 left in the period.
Cleveland managed to trim into the deficit near the midway point as Riley Bezeau tracked down Corson Ceulemans’ puck in the right corner of Levi. The latter outmuscled a Rochester skater and through it atop the crease for Malatesta to steer overtop the right pad of the netminder at the 12:10 mark.
The Amerks, who were unable to solve Fedotov while on the power play, carried at 2-1 lead into third period.
THIRD PERIOD
During the first minutes of the final stanza, Rochester drew an interference penalty on a Cleveland skater, who was on the bench.
The Amerks made the home club pay for its infraction as Jones and Helenius traded a series of passes atop the Monsters’ zone. The Finnish forward waited on the return feed before connecting with Kuntar and the latter fired a long-range through traffic to restore the two-goal cushion on his second of the night.
Later in the period, Cleveland pulled Fedotov twice for an extra skater and on both attempts used the additional player to beat Levi and ultimately send the game into overtime.
OVERTIME
The extra period saw the two clubs trade chances, however both Levi and Fedotov turned aside the opposition, forcing the contest to the shootout.
SHOOTOUT
Sandwiched between Helenius and Nadeau’s unsuccessful attempts on Fedotov, Pyyhtiä beat Levi to give Cleveland a 1-0 lead. McKown had an opportunity to seal the shootout win but the Amerks’ netminder denied the shot with his left pad despite missing a poke check.
In the third round of the skills competition in a sudden-death situation, Komarov carried the puck down the left wing on his forehand and faked towards the center of the ice then backhanded a shot overtop a sprawling Fedotov.
Cleveland’s Jack Williams followed Komarov in the shootout but despite beating Levi, his attempt rang off the cross bar, continuing the skills competition.
In a mirror image of Komarov’s move, Meyer carried the puck down left wing, faked to the middle before roofing a backhanded tally overtop the right leg of Fedotov to give Rochester a lead.
The Amerks finished off the 4-3 shootout win as Brendan Gaunce’s shot went wide of the cage.
STARS AND STRIPES
With a pair of assists tonight, Konsta Helenius (41) and Zac Jones (48) become the first set of Amerk teammates to record 40 or more assists in the same season since Clay Wilson (46) and Jamie Johnson (44) did so in 2009-10 ... Trevor Kuntar is one goal shy from reaching the 20-goal mark for the first time in his pro career while Jagger Joshua established a new career high in points (26) ... Rookie Matteo Costantini has scored four goals and two assists over his previous nine games.
UP NEXT
The Amerks close out their 12-game season series with the Syracuse Crunch on Wednesday, April 8 for a 7:00 p.m. puck drop. All the action from Upstate Medical University Arena will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM WGR Rochester as well as AHLTV on FloHockey.
Goal Scorers
ROC: T. Kuntar (18,19), M. Costantini (6)
CLE: J. Malatesta (8), M. Pyyhtiä (17), O. Sillinger (15)
Goaltenders
ROC: D. Levi – 35/38 (W)
CLE: I. Fedotov –17/20 (OTL)
Shots
ROC: 21
CLE: 38
Special Teams
ROC: PP (1/4) | PK (3/3)
CLE: PP (0/3) | PK (3/4)
Three Stars:
1. ROC - T. Kuntar
2. ROC - D. Levi
3. CLE - M. Pyyhtiä