Amerks may lean on rookie goalie Devon Levi in their push for the playoffs

Somewhere along the way in his hockey journey, goalie Devon Levi picked up a little phrase that I’ve noticed is one of his go-to responses when he speaks to reporters.

“My focus is just where my feet are,” he has said, both when dealing with the media who cover the Buffalo Sabres and those who cover the Rochester Amerks.

Right now, his feet are in Rochester and unless there’s an injury in Buffalo to either Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen or Eric Comrie, Levi’s feet could very well be planted here for the balance of the AHL regular season and the postseason if the Amerks get there.

The 22-year-old Levi, who won the Mike Richter Award given to the outstanding Division I goalie in America in each of his last two years at Northeastern, burst onto the scene in Buffalo last spring and helped the Sabres make a push toward the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Making the leap from college to the NHL is rare for goalies, but Levi won five of the seven games he started and the Sabres fell a mere point short of ending their deplorable 12-year playoff drought.

He built on that strong professional debut in training camp, but after starting Buffalo’s first four games of the season, Levi’s inexperience became evident. Pretty soon he was sharing the crease with both Luukkonen and Comrie in a cumbersome three-goalie rotation, while the reality is that Levi probably should have been in Rochester all year because the AHL has long been the best way to develop goalies on their way to the NHL.

Case in point is Luukkonen. The Sabres’ 2017 second-round draft pick has played 69 games spread across five years for the Amerks in what has been a laborious process of establishing himself as an NHL starter. It has certainly been a rollercoaster ride for him, but now he’s playing the best he’s ever played for the Sabres.

Since Dec. 30, Luukkonen has gone 6-3 with a 1.57 goals-against which is second-best in the NHL in that span, and a .940 save percentage which is eighth-best. As he has emerged as the clear-cut No. 1 goalie, management stopped the three-goalie experiment, settled on Comrie as the backup, and sent Levi down to Rochester last week.

Amerks: Russian forward Viktor Neuchev is translating to success for Rochester

“We’re in a situation where wins are imperative, so all indicators are you’re going to go with the guy who is going in as many games as you can when he’s separated himself from the group,” Sabres coach Don Granato told reporters Sunday when the Sabres returned to practice following the All-Star break. “Upie has done a really good job of that. What does that mean for Devon? Today it means he’s in Rochester. Tomorrow circumstances could change and we would make a decision based on changing circumstances.”

Levi had already played three games for the Amerks before this latest demotion, and last week he started two of Rochester’s three games. He lost 2-1 at Blue Cross Arena to Syracuse, but then was stellar at Laval on Saturday as he stopped 32 of 33 shots to lead the Amerks to a 3-1 victory.

So far, Levi has posted a 2.41 GAA and .917 save percentage in his five Rochester appearances and he will likely get the bulk of the starts moving forward, except on weekends when the Amerks play on back-to-back nights.

Jiri Kulich, Isak Rosen played in the AHL All-Star Game

The team’s two scoring leaders were in San Jose, California over the weekend for the AHL’s midseason festivities representing the Amerks, though their selections were based largely on what they accomplished early in the season. Both players got off to blazing hot starts, but they are now currently mired in deep offensive slumps.

In his first 17 games, Rosen produced 19 points (8 goals, 11 assists) and that earned him a brief call-up to the Sabres for his NHL debut. He played in seven games but had minimal impact - no points and only eight shots on goal while averaging 8:35 of ice time. In the 21 games since his return to Rochester, he’s been ice cold with just eight points (3-5).

Kulich scored 16 goals and 22 points in the first 22 games before he left to play for his native Czechia in the World Junior Tournament in Sweden. He captained the team and was its best player as he piled up 12 points, but that proved to be a tiring experience and in his 10 games back with the Amerks, he has just three assists.

However, perhaps the All-Star trip did them some good. They played together in all three of North Division’s 10-minute mini games in the wide open 3-on-3, round robin format. They did not score in the first game, a 1-1 tie with the eventual champion Pacific, nor in the last, a 6-1 loss to the Atlantic. But in the middle game, a 3-2 victory over the Central, they each drew an assist on a goal by Cleveland’s Jake Christiansen, and Kulich also assisted on the winning goal by Laval’s Logan Mailloux.

Amerks coach Seth Appert recognizes that both players have been scuffling lately, but he also believes this is what young players sometimes have to go through.

“I like the way they’re playing and these are good lessons to go through,” Appert said. “How do you help your team win when you’re not feeling it offensively? Those are things that you have to learn because in the NHL that’s what it’s going to take.”

The Amerks are in a fierce battle to qualify for the Calder Cup playoffs. At the All-Star break they’re tied for third in the seven-team North with Toronto at 46 points, but are just three points ahead of last-place Utica. The top five finishers make it, so the Amerks need their two young scoring stars to find their touches, and fast.

Amerks lineup notes

▶ F Brett Murray, who set career highs for goals (23), assists (26) and points (49) last season, got off to a sluggish scoring start this year but in his last seven games he has 5-2 - 7.

▶ D Jacob Bryson was recalled to Buffalo and will probably stay there for a while because of the season-ending injury suffered by Mattias Samuelsson. However, the Amerks have solid depth on the blue line.

▶ D Nikita Novikov is one of the defenseman who may play more minutes with Bryson done as he leads the Amerks in plus-minus at plus-12. The Russian rookie, playing his first season in North America, has been a physical presence and has also become more confident in exiting the zone and joining the rush. He scored his first AHL goal on Jan. 27 against Laval and also has 12 assists.

▶ F Mason Jobst has been on a nice little run as he has 4-6 - 10 in his last 12 games. He remains minus-6 for the season, but that’s partially because he’s a reliable two-way forward who is often on the ice against the opponent’s best offensive lines.

What’s next for the Amerks

They had a fairly light start to the calendar year 2024 with only four games in the first 16 days of January, but it’s about to pick up now that the All-Star break is over.

Starting Friday night at home against Syracuse the Amerks have nine games in a 16-day stretch, seven of those against North Division rivals so it’s obviously a key milepost in the schedule.

The Amerks trail first-place Cleveland by eight points and second-place Syracuse by seven. Finishing at least third is critical because that would give the Amerks a first-round bye and keep them out of the dangerous best-of-three play-in series.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out each Friday during the offseason, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Sabres have sent Devon Levi to Amerks, possibly for rest of the year