Jiri Kulich's power play goal sends Amerks past Laval to even series
Jiri Kulich took a cross-ice pass from Lukas Rousek and pounded a shot home from the right circle to snap a tie with 7:53 left and send the Amerks to a 5-3 win over the Laval Rocket. The victory evened the AHL's North Division finals at one win apiece.
We saw the Jiri Kulich power-play one-timer plenty this season in Buffalo. It made an appearance at the perfect time for the Rochester Americans Friday night in the Calder Cup playoffs.
Kulich took a cross-ice pass from Lukas Rousek and pounded a shot home from the right circle to snap a tie with 7:53 left and send the Amerks to a 5-3 win over the Laval Rocket. The victory evened the AHL's North Division finals at one win apiece for Rocherster and Laval.
The best-of-five series heads to suburban Montreal for the final three games, starting Wednesday night.
Rochester Americans head coach Michael Leone speaks with assistant coach Vinny Prospal in the third period of their
AHL division final playoff game against the Laval Rocket at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Joed Viera/Buffalo News)
Kulich, who had 15 goals for the Sabres this season, notched his second goal of the playoffs for the Amerks to spark bedlam in the strong crowd of 9,126 in Blue Cross Arena.
Isak Rosen scored two goals for the Amerks, including the empty netter with nine seconds left to seal the win.
Devon Levi made 16 saves in goal for Rochester while Jacob Fowler − who had a 1.00 goals-against average and .953 save percentage in the first round against Cleveland, made 32 saves for Laval. Cayden Primeau played Game 1 for the Rocket in a mild surprise, but Laval went back to Fowler, who just signed his entry-level deal out of Boston College last month.
The Amerks had a pair of first-period leads, as defenseman Kale Clague opened the scoring on a power play at 5:58 of the first period and Rosen made it 2-1 at 14:23 on a neat tip-in of a Ryan Johnson shot.
Laval got even at 4:41 of the second period as Lucas Condotta stuffed the puck past Levi while all alone in front. The play was made by Laval winger Luke Tuch, younger brother of Sabres forward Alex Tuch. The younger Tuch pressured Amerks defenseman Zach Metsa, and Metsa's ill-advised pass in front of his goal deflected off Tuch's stick right to Condotta.
Laval took the lead at 13:14 on Jared Davidson's goal after he took a rebound and fluttered a second chance past Levi from the right circle. The Amerks got that one back with 39.4 seconds left as Rousek worked hard to get to the net and dove to his right to poke a puck home off the post and by Fowler.