Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
Devon Levi has established that he can carry a crew via the common season.
Now the 23-year-old Rochester People goaltender is beginning to discover that very same success within the Calder Cup Playoffs as properly.
Levi pocketed two shutouts in three video games because the Amerks swept the Syracuse Crunch of their best-of-five North Division semifinal collection. With 30 saves in Thursday’s 4-0 series-clinching victory, Levi prolonged his shutout streak to 156 minutes and 31 seconds; he has stopped 90 of 92 pictures to this point this postseason.
After he signed his entry-level cope with Buffalo on Mar. 17, 2023, Levi’s first prolonged run with the Amerks got here halfway via the 2023-24 season, and he put collectively a dominant efficiency to take Rochester into the postseason. The Sabres wished their prime goaltending prospect to get ample enjoying time in a number-one function and Levi performed 23 of the crew’s last 36 regular-season video games, ending 16-6-4 with a 2.42 goals-against common and a .927 save proportion.
However the Amerks stumbled early in final spring’s Calder Cup Playoffs, falling to the Crunch within the division semifinals – regardless of Levi’s .923 save proportion within the five-game collection.
He constructed on that work this season, taking up one other heavy workload and going 25-13-4 with a 2.20 GAA and a .919 save proportion. He led the league with seven shutouts, and represented the Amerks on the AHL All-Star Traditional.
Levi left the Crunch shaking their heads final spherical. Syracuse had its probabilities, however Levi held agency all through. Now the Amerks await their subsequent opponent and are already a number of days into what will likely be a considerable break earlier than the division finals. That leaves loads of time to interrupt down both Laval or Cleveland into the smallest of particulars.
That would additionally bode properly for the heady, analytical Levi.
An extended playoff run is a crucial alternative because the Buffalo group continues its rebuilding undertaking. Three years in the past, Rochester reached the division finals with a gaggle that featured Jack Quinn, JJ Peterka and Peyton Krebs. In 2023, the Amerks went to the Jap Convention Finals with Jiří Kulich and Isak Rosén enjoying key roles.
Now this yr’s group has that very same likelihood.
“Whatever the consequence, simply having the ability to compete on the market with the blokes and play for one thing that could be very significant, it jells a gaggle, bonds a gaggle,” Levi said after closing out the Syracuse series. “Everybody’s doing it for one another.
“There’s instances the place as a goalie you’re alone in your crease however you may really feel the presence of your crew and the unity, and that unity was positively there within the collection.”
The Amerks had their ups and downs coming into the ultimate few weeks of the common season earlier than they finally settled right into a second-place end within the North Division. However Levi has been a drive almost all through. In his previous 5 begins courting again to April 16, he has allowed all of 5 objectives and stopped 138 of 143 pictures for a .965 save proportion. Return to March 28, and he has 4 shutouts in his final 11 begins.
Might is right here. June is not going to be far off. The Amerks have a prime goaltender, and that makes them a really actual Calder Cup menace.
As Levi informed TheAHL.com in February, “I simply love stopping pucks.”
On the American Hockey League beat for 20 years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally at present covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a daily contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.
