GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS’ SEASON ON THE LINE IN FINALE AT HERSHEY
Rochester needs one point on final day of season to qualify for Calder Cup Playoffs
Apr 19, 2026By Andrew Mossbrooks | @ Mossbrooks48
It all comes down to this.
In the final regular season game of the 70th season in franchise history, the Rochester Americans (31-31-5-4) will have one final try at qualifying for the Calder Cup Playoffs in game 72 of the year when they face-off with the Hershey Bears (31-31-6-3) Sunday afternoon.
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These are five things to know before a pivotal game at Giant Center.
WHACKED IN WILKES-BARRE
The Amerks were at one point outshooting Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 16-8 early into the second period, but timely scoring in several situations allowed the Penguins to flex their muscle big time in a lopsided 8-0 final.
Scott Ratzlaff would start the game, but be relieved by Topias Leinonen midway through the action, with both goaltenders allowing four goals apiece.
This marked the fourth time all season the Amerks have been shutout, as Sergei Murashov made 27 saves for the Penguins to blank Rochester. Each of the Amerks’ four games in which they came up empty-handed have all taken place on the road.
Despite another sellout crowd on home ice, Hershey also found themselves landing in the loss column with a 2-1 setback to Bridgeport. The Bears clinched a playoff berth earlier in the week, sending the AHL’s oldest team back to the Calder Cup Playoffs for a fifth straight year.
SIMPLE MATH
As the Amerks have hit another fork in the road on their current four-game winless skid, the Utica Comets surged down the stretch, topping it off with a home-and-home sweep of the AHL regular season champions, the Providence Bruins. In doing so, the Amerks wake up Sunday morning sitting outside a playoff spot for the first time in months.
While Rochester is tied with Utica, the Comets have won the tiebreaker, meaning the Amerks need a point against Hershey to get back in front of their intrastate foe, otherwise their season will end. Reaching overtime, a shootout, or winning against the Bears will satisfy the requirements for an Amerks playoff berth.
Hershey, on the other hand, have secured a playoff berth, but are not locked into a definitive spot. Currently, the Bears occupy the sixth and final seed in the Atlantic Division, which would send them to Charlotte for all three games in the play-in round due to travel distance. The Checkers are both the defending Eastern Conference Champions, as well as the team who ended Hershey’s quest for a threepeat as Calder Cup Champions last spring in the Atlantic Division Finals.
To avoid facing the Checkers, the Bears need a win which would guide them to fifth in the division, going on to face Bridgeport in the best-of-three series.
LEVI’S BIGGEST REGULAR SEASON START
Amerks head coach Mike Leone will turn to the AHL’s workhorse in 2025-26, with Devon Levi making his league leading-52nd start to close out his third season in red, white, and blue. Levi has the most starts by an Amerks goalie since Linus Ullmark (55) in 2016-17 and will attempt to get Rochester back to the playoffs with what could be his biggest regular season performance to date.
Levi, 24, has faced do-or-die scenarios before, playing in both game five of the 2024 North Division Semifinals and Game 5 of the 2025 North Division Finals against Syracuse and Laval, respectively.
This season, the Quebec native has gone 23-20-8 with a 2.79 goals-against average and a .905 save percentage. In his only prior career start at Hershey, Levi earned the Amerks a standings point with 37 saves in a 2-1 overtime final Feb. 24, 2024.
CALLING THE FIDDLER
As mentioned by Leone earlier in the week, all signs point to forward Riley Fiddler-Schultz returning to the lineup following an injury that had sidelined Rochester’s leading goal scorer since Mar. 28.
Fiddler-Schultz is having a career year and up until his injury, the Edmonton, Alberta, native had appeared in every game for Rochester this season. Fiddler-Schultz has amassed 21 goals and 36 points in his 61 games this season, smashing his 26-point campaign from the year prior. He has scored a goal in three of his last five road games and posted one on home ice against the Bears on Jan. 30.
HOME (NOT SO) SWEET HOME
The Sweetest Place on Earth has been anything but to the Bears of late. Hershey skates into the finale of the team’s 88th season having lost five home games in a row, with their last win at Giant Center coming Mar. 2 when they topped Charlotte in overtime.
During Hershey’s home struggles, the team has been outscored, 23-10. The Bears’ 13 home wins are the fewest by any of the 22 teams that have secured playoff berths and another loss to end the season would mark this as the worst home ice performance in the history of the franchise. The Bears’ two worst home campaigns came when the club won 14 games during the pandemic-shortened season and matched that number many moons ago in the 1955-56 season, the season prior to the birth of the Rochester Americans.
The Amerks, however, have not fared well in the Keystone State over the last four seasons, winning just one of their last 12 games in Pennsylvania (1-9-1-1).