GDT: Rd.2 AHL best-of-5 playoffs: Amerks (2&0) @ Crunch, Gm3 5/1 7pm

[PromoTheRobot]

Refs letting stuff go.

[PromoTheRobot]

Syracuse pulls the goalie with 6:47 to go 

He's back in.

Back out 

Rosen ENG. 4-0. 4:50 left 

Edited 18 hours ago by PromoTheRobot

[sabremike]

[PromoTheRobot]

Levi shutout win. 4-0. Next game Thursday in Syracuse.

[PromoTheRobot]

3 stars: 3) Kulich 2) Clague 1) Levi, 35 saves. 🧱

[Believer]

22 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Levi shutout win. 4-0. Next game Thursday in Syracuse.

35 saves on 35 shots.

Bravo, Levi!

[Flashsabre]

I wonder if they were as unimpressive as last game.😛

[Porous Five Hole]

The family had a blast.  
 

It was a weird game….it took three hours and ended in regulation.  
The KO from the fight, two pucks on the ice at one time at one point, a Cuse fan got booted by security in front of me, a lady took a puck to the face that stopped the game, etc. 

Let’s sweep the gross Crunch. I’ll be driving to Cuse for game three on Thursday.  

[Porous Five Hole]

https://pickinsplinters.com/2025/04/27/win-one-for-komarov-was-amerks-rallying-cry-after-scary-injury/
 

Write up from our beat writer 

[Jorcus]

That had to be the longest 2nd period I ever remember. Even before the fight it was really dragging. Syracuse plays a very trappy game and the Amerks were having a lot of trouble with it. Once Kulich blasted home the Power play goal The Crunch had to open up a bit and the Amerks had more ice to work with. To the Amerks credit even though they gave up a lot of shots few were high danger and it's not like either team was giving up breakaways. Levi was good not to give up any soft ones. Crunch had one open net post hit when the got behind Levi but that was it. Amerks needed to clean up own zone exits and offensive zone entries. Took too many off side plays. Still they can skate circles around the Crunch when they can avoid the checks. Hope they keep rolling. 

[PromoTheRobot]

[Taro T]

45 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Shades of the old short lived Campbell Conference playoff format (which went 2-3-2 & IIRC briefly let the higher seeded team decide whether to have the bookend games or the ones in the middle (might be misremembering that, but could swear they had that option for a year or 2)) in the Laval Cleveland series.

[thewookie1]

29 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Shades of the old short lived Campbell Conference playoff format (which went 2-3-2 & IIRC briefly let the higher seeded team decide whether to have the bookend games or the ones in the middle (might be misremembering that, but could swear they had that option for a year or 2)) in the Laval Cleveland series.

Very weird that the first two are in Cleveland; could easily backfire on Laval

[shrader]

1 hour ago, Taro T said:

Shades of the old short lived Campbell Conference playoff format (which went 2-3-2 & IIRC briefly let the higher seeded team decide whether to have the bookend games or the ones in the middle (might be misremembering that, but could swear they had that option for a year or 2)) in the Laval Cleveland series.

I’d love to see a 1-1-1-1-1 format someday (or the 7 game version). Travel isn’t really an issue when you get a Rochester-Syracuse matchup. It would have been great years ago when MLB had the subway series matchup. 

[inkman]

I like that Komorov is willing but the body must be able!  Oof!

 

 

[Rasmus_]

A winning environment, who knew that was a thing lol   Keep it up Amerks. 

[Big Guava]

9 hours ago, shrader said:

I’d love to see a 1-1-1-1-1 format someday (or the 7 game version). Travel isn’t really an issue when you get a Rochester-Syracuse matchup. It would have been great years ago when MLB had the subway series matchup. 

Way too much unnecessary travel

[Taro T]

9 hours ago, shrader said:

I’d love to see a 1-1-1-1-1 format someday (or the 7 game version). Travel isn’t really an issue when you get a Rochester-Syracuse matchup. It would have been great years ago when MLB had the subway series matchup. 

The team equipment managers would have a contract out on the head of whomever proposed that should it actually happen.

[DarthEbriate]

35 minutes ago, Taro T said:

The team equipment managers would have a contract out on the head of whomever proposed that should it actually happen.

The series format also needs to be consistent across all teams. If you need to open the series on the road because your arena has had a convention booked for 9 months, but you still want weekend revenue, fine. But 1-1-1, alternating between Abbotsford and Coachella Valley would be horrible.

[dudacek]

I was like “wow Komarov is actually hanging in there against a monster”D then that happened.

Overall, Amerks havent backed down an inch in the physical game despite the Crunch being very aware they need to play that way.

 

[Weave]

2 hours ago, inkman said:

I like that Komorov is willing but the body must be able!  Oof!

 

 

Oh snap!  And he bounced his chin off the ice.  Hope the kid is OK.

[shrader]

1 hour ago, Taro T said:

The team equipment managers would have a contract out on the head of whomever proposed that should it actually happen.

I thought I was pretty clear on the Rochester-Syracuse part. There’s no travel concern there. Hell, the Amerks did just that from 3/21-3/23 this year during the season. I’d love to see it happen at some point when two close teams match up. 

[Taro T]

1 hour ago, shrader said:

I thought I was pretty clear on the Rochester-Syracuse part. There’s no travel concern there. Hell, the Amerks did just that from 3/21-3/23 this year during the season. I’d love to see it happen at some point when two close teams match up. 

There's no travel concern there for the EQUIPMENT MANAGERS?!?!?  Seriously?  You think these guys want to clean then pack up 25 or so sets of gear each night and move it all to a different barn just so they can do THAT all again the next night?

Pretty sure those guys would be perfectly fine with the 1st 3 games being in 1 barn and the other 2 if necessary moving to the other city.

[Ctaeth]

really enjoyed the game on Sunday.  it wasn't a full house.  there was a crowd there, but maybe 2/3 capacity?  those that did go definitely got treated to a pretty good game (if you're rooting for the amerks).  

summary of what i saw:

the amerks came out buzzing at the start.  initially, they were all over the crunch.  

the first goal (helenius) was partially a result of luck.  the puck was knocked up into the air and landed right in front of helenius, who happened to be in front of the net.  two things lead to this goal imo:  they were initially controlling play and helenius went to the goal.  good things happen when you go to the goal!

after the goal was scored, the team seemed to settle down and the crunch started controlling the flow of play more.  with that being said, the crunch didn't really threaten levi much despite the number of shots they took.  the amount of high danger chances was pretty minimal.  

the crunch were controlling the flow of the game until the komarov fight.  even though komarov got caved in, the fight did two things imo.  he stopped the crunch's momentum and gave the amerks motivation (i forget who, but i saw an interview on twitter/x that said that they had to do it for komarov).  was great timing for the fight (if the timing was intentional, good on him).  honestly, i'm not sure if they win this without the fight.  komarov definitely held his own, but i think he got too aggressive and left the other guy an opening. all it takes is one bad one getting through.  hopefully this doesn't discourage him from fighting in the future. 

it got really chippy really quickly after that.  the refs quickly called another penalty to try to retake control of the game, putting the amerks on the powerplay and kulich cashed it in.  they needed that goal really badly and it set them up to win nicely.

clague had a really nice day.  great shot for the third goal and i think he assisted on one of the earlier goals too.  

on the empty net goal, it looked like it was going to be icing.  i think the ref was about to blow it dead and then saw rosen flying down there.  he can really fly.  he beat the crunch player to puck cleanly and scored from a funny angle.  as far as empty netters go, seemed like a pretty good one.  

after the eng and the amerks up 4-0, you could just feel the crunch were going to try to pull something.  things got physical.  my favorite was actually helenius in this situation.  even after the game ended, he was surrounded by crunch players and was still barking at them with his helmet off.  he's got some spunk for sure

 

All in all, it was nice to see some playoff hockey.  It really is just a different beast relative to the regular season.  I never was able to experience a live Sabres playoff game when I was younger, so here's hoping that this happens in Buffalo soon

[inkman]

Thankfully the Amerks have Prow and Brannstrom in the bullpen if Rathbone and Komorov miss any time.  They might want to dress Jagger Joshua next game to settle some scores.