AMERKS LOOK TO STAY HOT TONIGHT AGAINST BELLEVILLE
Dec 30, 2022By Suzie Cool
The Rochester Americans look to extend their win streak to five straight games tonight as they take on the Belleville Senators, and the club will ride with who’s hot in terms of lines and goaltending. However, there’s always some instances where we’ll see things shaken up a little.
“Sean Malone is out week to week with an upper body injury, and so our lines will have to juggle a little bit,” commented Amerks head coach Seth Appert following today’s morning skate at Blue Cross Arena. “But I will keep Biro and Rousek and Murray together.”
That line combo of forwards Brett Murray, Brandon Biro and Lukas Rousek came together on Wednesday, producing six points on three goals and three assists.
Tonight’s get-together is the third of eight scheduled meetings this season between the Amerks and Senators and the second in Rochester since the Amerks a earned 4-3 overtime win back on Oct. 19. The Senators, meanwhile, earned a 3-2 shootout victory in the lone meeting at CAA Arena on Nov. 12.
Here's who we’ll see in the crease and a little more on the line combo of Murray, Biro and Rousek as the Amerks take on the Senators tonight.
GOALTENDER MALCOLM SUBBAN
Subban is currently red-hot, riding a four-game win streak and starting five of the Amerks last six games.
“Subban will start again tonight,” stated Appert when asked who would be getting the nod in the crease against the Senators. “We are just really pleased with the progress he continues to make. He's got a little bit of a streak right now and you kind of want to ride that hot hand when we can.”
After suffering a defeat in his season-debut, Subban has gone 6-1-0 since, including four straight wins dating back to a 4-3 shootout victory against the first-place Toronto Marlies on Dec. 10.
After his 23-save effort against the Marlies, including all three shooters in the shootout, he went on to have himself a 75-save weekend in Rochester’s two-game sweep over the Charlotte Checkers. Subban's 4-0 shutout win was his first in the AHL since April 8, 2017, with the Providence Bruins.
Over his current four-game streak, Subban has compiled a 2.19 goals-against average and a .939 save percentage while totaling 125 saves.
FORWARD BRETT MURRAY
Murray is currently one of three Amerks with at least 20 points on the season and is on pace to surpass the career-high 15 goals he scored in 2021-22 after recording his team-leading 11th goal of the season on Wednesday against the Utica Comets. Additionally, Murray completed a Gordie Howe hat trick on Wednesday with a spirited bout against Utica forward Nick Hutchison.
“Brett Murray, when he gets angry, and this is pretty consistent now over the couple of years I've had him and it's been consistent when he's been in Buffalo, most of Brett Murray's fights are when he's sticking up for his teammates or when a teammate has been wronged. That's just that's how he's wired,” Appert said.
The fourth-year pro comes into tonight with six points on two goals and four assists in his last three games and six goals over his last 10 games dating back to a two-goal effort against Providence on Nov. 23. He needs just three more points to reach 100 as an Amerk.
“He’s (Murray) playing his best hockey of his career right now, both offensively, defensively and physically,” said Appert when discussing Murray’s play this season.
FORWARD BRANDON BIRO
Despite missing six games due to injury, Biro is atop the team's scoring lead following five straight two-point outings. Biro currently paces the Amerks with 17 assists and 25 points through 20 games. In the Amerks' 5-4 overtime win over Utica Wednesday, Biro, who also leads the team with 10 multi-point games, was a plus-two for the fourth straight game.
The crazy thing is, with how well Biro is playing, Appert doesn’t even feel the forward is just riding some hot streak mixed with a little bit of luck. Appert truly feels the third-year pro is finally just playing his game with a ton of confidence and consistency.
“The crazy thing is I don't even I wouldn't say that he's (Biro) hot (right now),” started Appert when asked about Biro following Wednesday’s win. “I think he's just playing his game consistently over and over and over. He's doing it offensively and defensively. His level of care and, for lack of a better term, ‘give a crap,’ to be a great player and to help his team win is just extremely high right now. It's been fun to see and it's fun to coach.”
Dating back to last season, Biro has totaled 28 points 10 goals and 18 assists over his last 23 games and hasn't gone more than one game without a point over that span. Since the start of the 2022 calendar year, Biro has posted 18 multi-point outings in 49 games, totaling 54 points on 17 goals and 37 assists.
Additionally, the Amerks are 11-5-1-1 when Biro records more than two points in a game and have outscored the opposition 73-61.
FORWARD LUKAS ROUSEK
Coming off a two-point effort Wednesday against Utica, Rousek enters the weekend with eight goals and 12 assists while being one of four Amerks to appear in all 26 games to start off the 2022-23 campaign. Rousek has accounted for half of his eight goals this month alone with an impressive four goals in his last five games.
“We've all seen the skill from Rousek, right?” said Appert when asked about keeping the line of Rousek, Murray and Biro together tonight. “His (Rousek) talent, his skills, his creativity are always there, but you also got to be competitive as heck every single day in practice and every game if you want to play in that job. I think that Rousek has really continued to raise that part of his game on the puck, off the puck type of competitiveness to accentuate his creativity and his intelligence.”
In 45 career games with Rochester the Czech Republic native has registered 24 points on nine goals and 15 assists and is a perfect two-for-two in the shootout.
Tonight marks the Amerks final home game of the calendar year before finishing up 2022 north of the border tomorrow against the Toronto Marlies. Puck drops at The Blue Cross Arena tonight against the Senators at 7:05 p.m. and will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV.