Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen pumped his fist as Amerks players left the bench to celebrate with their winning goalie Tuesday night in Blue Cross Arena.
Luukkonen, a second-round pick of the Sabres in 2017, had just secured a 3-2 win for Rochester with a left pad save in the final shootout round. Jack Quinn, JJ Peterka and Arttu Ruotsalainen scored in the shootout to help keep the team’s playoff hopes alive. West Seneca native Sean Malone’s tying goal at 10:53 into the third period got the game into overtime.
“I was impressed with the courage, really, to have played that calmly and to go to things that they trust in such a pressure moment,” said Rochester coach Seth Appert. “Everybody knows where we’re at right now. We’re in the playoffs right now.”
The Amerks (36-27-9) are clinging to the AHL North Division’s fifth and final playoff spot. Their 81 points are seven more than sixth-place Toronto, although the Marlies have a game in hand.
Rochester has four games left on its schedule, beginning Friday night at Utica. If the season ended Thursday, the Amerks would face Syracuse in a best-of-three first-round playoff series. It would be Rochester’s third consecutive postseason appearance. The AHL didn’t have a postseason in 2019-20 and 2020-21 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Amerks are getting clutch performances from some of their top players during the regular season’s final weeks. Luukkonen has a .926 save percentage in his last five starts, Quinn has at least one point in seven of his last 10 games and Malone has eight goals with 12 points in his last 11 games.
Malone, 26, has been limited to 35 games because of a lower-body injury that required surgery. But he has set career highs in goals (18) and points (35).
Quinn, the Sabres’ first-round draft choice in 2020, has 25 goals and 57 points in only 41 games. Peterka, a winger who was selected in the second round in the same draft, leads all AHL rookies this season with 63 points in 66 games. He has 24 goals during his first year in North America.
Center Arttu Ruotsalainen, a pending restricted free agent, has 18 goals and 50 points in 53 games.
The Amerks’ remaining schedule is as follows:
• Friday at the Utica Comets, 7 p.m.
• Saturday at home against the Cleveland Monsters, 5:05 p.m.
• Sunday at Cleveland, 3 p.m.
• Friday, April 29 at home against Utica, 7:05 p.m.
Returning
Defenseman Mattias Samuelsson will join the Sabres in New Jersey for their game against the Devils on Thursday night in Prudential Center. Samuelsson missed practice the past two days because of a “family matter,” said coach Don Granato.
Samuelsson, 22, is coming off one of his best games of the season Sunday in Philadelphia. He led the team in ice time (26:05) while contributing four shots on goal, five hits and four blocked shots.
Sabres’ lines/pairs at practice with Samuelsson absent:Skinner-Thompson-OlofssonKrebs-Mittelstadt-TuchAsplund-Cozens-OkposoBjork-Girgensons-HinostrozaHayden, Eakin rotating in.Dahlin-BrysonPower-JokiharjuButcher-FitzgeraldMiller-Pysyk
— Lance Lysowski (@LLysowski) April 20, 2022
Winger Kyle Okposo returned to practice Wednesday in LECOM Harborcenter after missing a day for maintenance.
Opponent outlook
Lindy Ruff’s New Jersey Devils were 27th in the NHL standings with a 27-42-7 record and 61 points entering play Wednesday, but they are 3-1-1 in their last five games. The Devils delivered a significant blow to Jack Eichel’s odds of making the playoffs by defeating the Vegas Golden Knights, 3-2, on Monday night.
The Devils are without their best player, Jack Hughes, because of a season-ending injury. The Sabres are 1-3-2 in their last six games against New Jersey, including regulation and overtime losses this season.
