Amerks Come up Empty-Handed in Rematch with Marlies
AHL Rochester Americans

Amerks Come up Empty-Handed in Rematch with Marlies

Published on March 14, 2026 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Rochester Americans News Release


(Toronto, ON) - The Rochester Americans (25-23-5-4) fell behind early in the first period and were unable to generate any offense in a 3-0 shutout loss to the Toronto Marlies (29-20-5-5) Saturday afternoon at Coca-Cola Coliseum.

The North Division rivals, who entered the contest with a pair of wins through the first four games of the season series, split the home-and-home set with each winning on home ice. They will conclude the six-game series on Friday, March 27 with one final go-around in Rochester.

Gavin Bayreuther matched a season-high six shots for the Amerks while both he and Ryan Johnson (4) combined for almost half the team's 26 shots.

Goaltender Devon Levi (17-16-8) stopped 24 of the 26 shots in what was his leading-leading 42nd appearance of the campaign. The Quebec native is winless in his last eight games (0-6-2) despite holding the opposition to three or fewer goals in four of those contests.

Logan Shaw, Marc Johnstone, and former Amerk Alexander Nylander scored in each period, respectively, for Toronto, which posted its first shutout since April 18, 2025, another 3-0 win over the Amerks.

Goaltender Artur Akhtyamov improved to 18-10-4 as he stopped all 26 shots he faced to post his AHL shutout since last season.

FIRST PERIOD

On the ensuing shift after Kaleb Lawrence and Landon Sim dropped the gloves at center ice, Shaw won a draw to the left of Levi. As the Marlies captain skated towards the net, Dakota Mermis and William Villeneuve traded passes atop the point. Villeneuve fired a shot on net that glanced off Shaw and fell inside the right post just 2:44 into the frame to give the Marlies an early 1-0 lead.

While it took Rochester nearly eight minutes to generate its first shot on Akhtyamov, the Amerks finished with 10 in the period whereas Toronto had 13 and held a 1-0 advantage at the intermission break.

The two teams, who were playing their second game in less than 24 hours, combined for 24 penalty minutes and 23 shots.

SECOND PERIOD

The penalty-filled contest continued into the middle frame as the teams took four more infractions over the span of the second period.

The Amerks best chance of the contest came immediately after Lawrence stepped out of the box and was all alone from the blueline to the net, however, his attempt was turned aside by Akhtyamov with 11:44 left in the frame.

While neither team was able to capitalize on the extra skater, Toronto's Noah Chadwick began a play from inside the Marlies' zone in the final minute of the frame. The blueliner fed an outlet pass to Ryan Kirwan, who tapped it to Johnstone streaking down the left wing. Johnstone had the puck inside the dot, and using an Amerk as a screen, he wired his ninth goal of the season with under a minute to widen the gap.

THIRD PERIOD

During the final 20 minutes, both clubs clogged the shooting lanes and neutral zone as they registered just 12 shots.

The energy in the arena of the sold-out crowd remained fairly at peace until a spirited fight between Jagger Joshua and Cédric Paré with nearly five minutes to play in regulation.

Rochester attempted to spoil Akhtyamov's bid for a shutout by pulling Levi, however, the plan was negated by Nylander's empty-netter to cap the 3-0 win.

UP NEXT

The Amerks return home for back-to-back home games, beginning on Friday, March 20 when they host the Syracuse Crunch at 7:05 p.m. All the action from The Blue Cross Arena will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM WGR Rochester as well as AHLTV on FloHockey.

Goal Scorers

ROC: None

TOR: L. Shaw (19), M. Johnstone (9), A. Nylander (15)

Goaltenders

ROC: D. Levi - 24/26 (L)

TOR: A. Akhtyamov - 26/26 (W)

Shots

ROC: 26

TOR: 27

Special Teams

ROC: PP (0/2) | PK (6/6)

TOR: PP (0/6) | PK (2/2)

Three Stars:

1. TOR - A. Akhtyamov

2. TOR - L. Shaw

3. TOR - C. Paré

Check out the Rochester Americans Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from March 14, 2026


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