PLAYOFF PREVIEW: AMERKS AND ROCKET MEET IN WINNER-TAKE-ALL GAME 5
2-2 series to be decided in Place Bell Sunday afternoon
May 24, 2025
By Andrew Mossbrooks | @ Mossbrooks48
For the fourth time since 2022, the Rochester Americans will play in a series-deciding Game 5, facing off against the Laval Rocket Sunday afternoon at Place Bell.
Rochester trailed 2-1 in the series before storming away with a win in Game 4 north of the border Friday night to even the best-of-five North Division Finals. The winner of Sunday’s game will advance to meet the Charlotte Checkers in the Eastern Conference Finals. Both the conference and Calder Cup Finals series will be played in a best-of-seven format.
Sunday marks the first time in 28 years that Rochester will play a winner-take-all game in the division finals. The last time the Amerks did so was in the 1997 Empire State Division Finals against Albany. The Amerks would force a Game 7 via a 6-2 win in Game 6, but would fall by that same score to the River Rats in the final game of the series.
The last time the Amerks won a winner-take-all division finals game came on May 17, 1993, when the team topped the Binghamton Rangers on the road in Game 7 by a 3-2 final. Rochester won the final two games of the series and would go on to advance to the Calder Cup Finals.
Ethan Prow and Michael Houser are the only current Amerks who were born before Rochester’s triumph in 1993.
GAME 4 RECAP
It was the Josh Dunne show Friday night at Place Bell as the veteran center scored two goals and assisted on two others for a career-high four-point night to help the Amerks keep their season going with a 5-1 win over the Rocket in Game 4.
Dunne scored once on the power-play and his two-goal game was the sixth of his career and second ever in the Calder Cup Playoffs. Joining Dunne with goals on special teams were Isak Rosén via a five-on-three power-play, along with Konsta Helenius netting a shorthanded goal in the third period.
Tyson Kozak also found the back of the net, while Devon Levi protected Rochester’s lead, making 22 saves in goal to pick up the team’s fifth win of the postseason.
Rochester went 2-for-6 on its man-advantage in a game that featured a playoff-high 154 combined penalty minutes. Joshua Roy got the lone goal for Laval, which went scoreless on the power-play for a third straight game. Jacob Fowler was pulled after giving up a fourth goal less than halfway through the game, handing him the loss with 10 saves. Cayden Primeau came in relief to make six saves.
NOW YOU’VE GONE AND DUNNE IT
Dunne finds himself in the Calder Cup Playoffs for a second straight year and is looking to make it to the Eastern Conference Finals in consecutive seasons after reaching Game 7 in the penultimate round with Cleveland a year ago.
The Buffalo Sabres signed the 26-year-old to a two-year, two-way contract in the offseason after Dunne was limited to just 25 regular-season games with the Monsters due to injury in 2023-24. In the playoffs, the O’Fallon, Missouri, native dominated, leading Cleveland with seven goals and 11 points through 14 games.
As an Amerk, Dunne is now up to a point-per-game pace after his career outing in Game 4 Friday. Through seven playoff contests, Dunne has scored three goals and four assists. His four-point performance is the first by an Amerk in the playoffs since Lukas Rousek piled up four (1+3) in Game 3 of the 2023 North Division Finals against Toronto.
DO IT, DEVON!
Devon Levi has the opportunity to send his team to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in his young professional career. The Dollard-des-Ormeaux native can do so in front of friends and family, as Levi was born just half an hour outside of Laval, Quebec.
In seven career starts at Place Bell, the AHL All-Star has gone 4-3-0, including a loss and win in Games 3 and 4, respectively.
This will be Levi’s second do-or-die game in the Calder Cup Playoffs, with his last being in the 2024 North Division Semifinals when he made 15 saves in a 5-2 loss against Syracuse.
The Sabres prospect went 25-13-4 through 42 games during the 2024-25 regular season. He led the AHL with seven shutouts, then posted back-to-back whitewashes in Rochester’s last series against
Levi finished the season sixth in the league with a 2.20 goals-against average. Based on how this series has gone so far, Primeau likely draws the net for Laval in Game 5. The sixth-year pro finished in a tie for first in the AHL with a 1.96 goals-against average. His. 927 save percentage ranked third, where Levi stood sixth with a .919 mark, though Levi played nearly 1,000 more minutes than Primeau during the regular season.
ESCAPE ARTISTS
The Amerks have won five straight elimination games on the road, dating back to the team’s 2022 North Division Semifinal series against Utica. Over its 5-0 run, Rochester has outscored its opponents, 22-11. Each of their five wins have seen the Amerks score at least four goals, with two of their wins coming in overtime.
Rousek has posted multi-point outings in three straight road elimination games, totaling two goals and five assists for seven points. Jiri Kulich and Tyson Kozak each have two goals as visitors when their season is on the line.
Collectively, the Amerks play their best in the third period. Three of the last four road elimination wins have seen the red, white, and blue score three goals in the third periods of games. They have trailed at some point in three of their four wins.
