HELENIUS' HAT TRICK POWERS AMERKS PAST HARTFORD
Rochester scores five straight unanswered goals in 6-3 rout of Wolf Pack
Mar 22, 2026A natural hat trick from Konsta Helenius ignited a five-goal run by the Rochester Americans (26-24-5-3), who overcame an early 3-1 first-period deficit before cruising to a 6-3 win over the visiting Hartford Wolf Pack (24-32-4-2) Sunday afternoon at The Blue Cross Arena.
GAME SUMMARY PHOTO GALLERY POST-GAME REPORT
With the win, the Amerks took a four-point lead over the sixth-place Belleville Senators for the fifth and final playoff spot in the AHL’s North Division standings entering the final week of March.
Rochester also improved to 10-1-1-0 over its last 12 games against Hartford dating back to the 2018-19 season, including seven straight wins on home ice, outscoring the Wolf Pack 39-23 over that span. The Amerks, who have at least two wins in the season series with the Wolf Pack for the sixth time in the last seven seasons, have 13 games remaining in the season, the most amongst all North Division teams.
In addition to Helenius scoring his second career hat trick, Carson Meyer and Anton Wahlberg both tallied a pair of assists for a multi-point effort. Jake Leschyshyn, Jagger Joshua, and Vsevolod Komarov scored one goal each for Rochester, which has scored at least four goals in each of the last five games against Hartford. Olivier Nadeau, Ryan Johnson, and Matteo Costantini all had one assist to complete the scoring.
Goaltender Devon Levi (18-16-8) halted his eight-game winless streak (0-6-2) as he stopped 33 of the 36 shots he faced in his league-leading 42nd appearance of the season, which matched a career-high.
Trey Fix-Wolansky, Anton Blidh, and Brody Lamb all scored first-period goals for Hartford, which has two wins over its last seven games dating back to March 11.
Netminder Spencer Martin (3-10-2) made his 16th appearance of the season, stopping 20 of 25 but was dealt the loss.
FIRST PERIOD
Less than four minutes into the first period, Adam Sýkora retrieved an outlet pass atop the Hartford blueline and tapped it forward to Brendan Brisson. The latter quickly snapped the puck to Fix-Wolansky for a breakaway from near Rochester’s end and the veteran forward made no mistake to give the Wolf Pack an early 1-0 lead just 3:38 into the contest.
Rochester responded four minutes later, though, to even the score at 1-1 as Gavin Bayreuther gave the puck to Meyer in front of the Amerks bench. The Amerks’ assistant captain sent a cross-ice pass to Wahlberg, who was streaking down the right wing. As Wahlberg reached the top of the right circle, he centered it for Helenius to snap between Martin’s pads at the 7:35 mark.
Hartford quickly restored its lead on the strength of back-to-back goals from Anton Blidh and Brody Lamb just 3:47 apart, giving the Wolf Pack a two-goal advantage that wouldn’t stand long.
Things appeared to go from bad to worse as not only did the Amerks take a penalty, but the visitors appeared to have taken a 4-1 lead, which was ultimately disallowed for goaltender interference.
The Amerks not only avoided going down by three, but they also successfully cleared off the infraction, using the momentum to cut the deficit in half in the dying seconds of the period.
After former Wolf Pack Zac Jones flipped the puck ahead to the Hartford zone, Costantini outworked a Wolf Pack skater to gain possession. The rookie helped the puck to the left point to Noah Laaouan and drifted to the left side of Martin’s crease. Johnson eventually played the puck to Costantini, who one-touched a cross-zone pass for Helenius to hammer inside the left post with 14 seconds left in the frame.
SECOND PERIOD
Rochester picked up right where they left off as Helenius was given the puck along the left wall in front of the penalty box from Wahlberg. The Finnish forward banked a pass to himself off the near boards, darted around the Hartford defenseman to reclaim the puck and then converted on the resulting breakaway opportunity just 30 seconds into the middle frame to complete the hat trick and knot the contest at 3-3.
Hartford had a golden chance to reclaim its lead as they had an extended 5-on-3 power-play for 90 seconds. The Amerks, though, successfully cleared off both infractions with timely plays from its shorthanded unit as well as big saves by Levi to hold the score even at three.
With just over six minutes to go in the middle period, Johnson broke the puck out of the Rochester zone after Bayreuther caused a turnover at the blueline. Nadeau was on the receiving end of Johnson’s pass and then handed it to Meyer, who was skating down the right wing. As Meyer got below the dots, he slid the puck through the crease to a streaking Leschyshyn to finish at the back-post to give the Amerks their first lead of the contest.
THIRD PERIOD
Early in the third period, Noah Laaouan’s attempted clearing pass missed Johnson and went the length of the ice into the Wolf Pack’s zone. Pressuring the Hartford skater, Joshua, in a single motion, somehow managed to both knock the puck off his stick and find space between the left post and left leg of Martin to increase Rochester’s advantage.
Komarov sealed the 6-3 win as he scored into the vacant net while Martin was pulled for an extra attacker with three minutes left in regulation.
STARS AND STRIPES
With today’s win, the Amerks improved to 4-0-1-0 when holding its annual Bills Day game dating back to the 2021-22 season… The club has outscored the opposition (Bridgeport, Cleveland, Hartford and Utica, twice) by a 24-15 margin while averaging 7,982 fans per game over that same span … Rochester scored six goals in regulation, its most since recording a 6-1 win at Belleville on Dec. 10, 2025.
UP NEXT
The Amerks close out the month of March in the first of a three-game weekend on Friday, March 27 with a return visit from the Toronto Marlies at 7:05 p.m. All the action from The Blue Cross Arena will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM WGR Rochester as well as AHLTV on FloHockey.
Goal Scorers
HFD: T. Fix-Wolansky (26), A. Blidh (7), B. Lamb (2),
ROC: K. Helenius (16, 17, 18), J. Leschyshyn (12 – GWG), J. Joshua (8), V. Komarov (4)
Goaltenders
HFD: S. Martin – 20/25 (L)
ROC: D. Levi – 33/36 (W)
Shots
HFD: 36
ROC: 26
Special Teams
HFD: PP (0/5) | PK (0/0)
ROC: PP (0/0) | PK (0/5)
Three Stars:
1. ROC - K. Helenius
2. ROC - J. Leschyshyn
3. ROC - C. Meyer