GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS AND MARLIES CLASH IN WINNER-TAKE-ALL GAME 3
Winner advances to face Laval in North Division Semifinals
Apr 26, 2026By Andrew Mossbrooks | @ Mossbrooks48
For a fifth straight year, the Rochester Americans will play a winner-take-all game in the Calder Cup Playoffs as they face the Toronto Marlies in Game 3 of their first-round series Sunday afternoon at Coca-Cola Coliseum.
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EVEN STEVEN
After being shutout at Toronto in Game 1, Devon Levi and the Amerks responded 48 hours later when the series shifted to the Flower City, topping the Marlies by a 4-0 final to return the favor and send the series back to Toronto for a winner-take-all Game 3.
Levi was tremendous, making 29 saves, including key stops on former Amerk Alex Nylander and Marlies leading goal-scorer Bo Groulx. The Amerks struck twice in the opening period thanks to a power-play goal from Konsta Helenius, followed by a slot drive by Carson Meyer.
Vsevolod Komarov added the insurance marker midway through the third period to make it 3-0 before Ryan Johnson shot the puck the length of the ice into an empty net late in regulation to seal the deal.
Levi’s shutout was the third of his career in the postseason and 11th overall. Artur Akhtyamov, who earned the shutout for Toronto Wednesday, made 20 saves in the loss.
BOLSTERED ON THE BLUELINE
The two skaters who scored for the Amerks Friday night at Blue Cross Arena were two welcomed returns to the lineup after dealing with injuries. Komarov had missed the previous five games, while Johnson was out since the end of March.
The pair of blueliners each finished the regular season establishing new career-highs in goals, with Komarov potting four and Johnson converting five times. The latter of the two logged a goal and an assist Friday, giving Johnson his first multi-point game since Nov. 12, 2025. Both players were credited with their first career playoff goals.
While the additions were a plus, the Amerks did enter the weekend with unfortunate news as forward Trevor Kuntar is expected to miss the remainder of the playoffs with an upper-body injury.
THREE FEELS LIKE FIVE
This marks the first time in five all-time postseason series against Toronto that one of the two teams do not sweep the other. It’s also the first time the North Division adversaries meet in a series that is anything less than a best-of-five.
Since 2022, Rochester has played in four winner-take-all games, emerging 2-2. Each of those were Game 5’s, including two against Syracuse, one with Utica and last year against Laval. The Amerks played three of those games as the road team, winning twice. Rochester has not recorded a win at Coca-Cola Coliseum since opening weekend in the 2023-24 season.
Including Game 1, the Amerks have been shutout in each of their last two games at Toronto.
TOP TALENT
The Amerks had four skaters reach the 20-goal mark in 2025-26, their most since the 2021-22 campaign, which also had four. Three of the four players established career-highs in goals with all three posting 21 on the slate in Konsta Helenius, Riley Fiddler-Schultz, and Trevor Kuntar.
Toronto features three 20-goal players in Nylander, Groulx, and their captain, Logan Shaw.
From an experience standpoint, the Marlies’ roster combines for the third-most professional games played in the AHL at 5,387 games. Rochester is the seventh-youngest squad with 3,996 games. Toronto is also the second-heaviest team in the league and sixth-oldest based on average age.