Amerks Open Three-game Road Swing Tonight In Syracuse
Feb 20, 2021
TONIGHT’S GAME OVERVIEW
The Rochester Americans (3-1-0-0) look to make it four consecutive wins tonight as they set out on a three-game road swing against the Syracuse Crunch (1-2-1-0) at Upstate Medical University Arena. The 7:00 p.m. contest will be the second of 12 scheduled meetings between the two teams this season after the Amerks earned a 4-3 overtime win to begin their winning streak back on Feb. 10 in Rochester. The game will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM ESPN Rochester as well as AHLTV.
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LAST TIME OUT
A power-play goal with 5:55 left in regulation by captain Steven Fogarty sent the Amerks into overtime before Jean-Sebastien Dea sealed the 4-3 come-from-behind victory in the third round of the shootout Thursday night against the Utica Comets at The Blue Cross Arena.
With the win, Rochester’s third consecutive after dropping the season opener to the Comets, the club has collected at least one point in 20 of the last 28 games against Utica dating back to the start of the 2017-18 campaign, going 15-8-2-3 over that span.
Dea (1+1) turned in his third straight multi-point effort to begin the campaign for the first time in his professional career. Forward Remi Elie also notched his third marker of the season to round out the scoring.
Forwards C.J. Smith and rookie Jack Quinn, who recorded an assist on Fogarty’s game-tying third-period goal and made his professional debut, both scored during the skills competition before Dea finished off the victory.
Goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (3-0-0) managed the pipes for the third consecutive game for Rochester and pushed his winning streak to three as he made 35 saves, plus one additional stop in the shootout.
The Amerks scored a pair of power-play goals in Wednesday’s contest for the third consecutive game. Four games into the campaign, Rochester’s power-play has gone 7-for-15 with a 46.7% conversion rate that is currently tops in the American Hockey League coming into tonight. The Amerks’ seven goals on the man-advantage are also tied for most in the league.
Rochester’s penalty kill unit has also began the season decent by allowing five goals to the opposition on 17 opportunities. Prior to Wednesday’s game versus Utica, the Amerks were tied for third in North Division and tied for eighth-best in the AHL with an 84.6% success rate.
LAAKSONEN LEADING THE WAY
Newcomer Oskari Laaksonen has quickly emerged as one of the top offensive defensemen in the AHL. Coming off his three-assist effort against Syracuse last Wednesday, the first-year defenseman ranks second on the team with five points through his first four games of the season.
He currently leads the league in assists among all defensemen and is tied for second overall for most points by a blueliner, trailing only Jamie Drysdale of the San Diego Gulls.
Coming into this week, Laaksonen was one of eight AHL defensemen to either lead his team in scoring or tied for the team lead.
YOUTH MOVEMENT
Rochester’s roster features 12 incoming rookies ready to make a splash in their first season in the American Hockey League, most of whom are products of the NCAA in forwards Brandon Biro (Penn State), Dawson DiPietro (Western Michigan), Dominic Franco (Army West Point) and Patrick Polino (R.P.I.); defensemen Ryan Jones (Nebraska-Omaha), Nick Welsh (St. Mary’s) Griffin Luce (Michigan) and Mattias Samuelsson (Western Michigan).
During last Friday’s 7-3 road victory over Cleveland, Samuelsson, Buffalo’s second-round selection (32nd overall) in the 2018 NHL Draft, recorded his professional goal as well as first multi-point effort (1+1). After earning the primary assist on the first marker of the second period, Samuelsson notched his his first goal. The unassisted-tally followed fellow rookie defenseman Nicholas Welsh’s first as a pro. To complete the rookie scoring, Ryan Jones notched his first two points as a pro with a pair of assists.
Jack Quinn, Buffalo’s eighth overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, made his professional debut against Utica on Wednesday, notching an assist as well as a shootout goal. The highly touted 19-year-old prospect is coming off an explosive 52-goal season for the Ottawa 67’s in 2019-20, becoming just the eighth player since 2000-01 to reach the 50-goal mark in his NHL Draft Year.
TERRIFIC TRIO
After leading the Amerks in points (39) and holding a share of the team-lead in goals (15), during the 2019-20 season, his first in Rochester, forward Jean-Sebastien Dea is again atop the team’s leaderboard this season with a team-high six points points on three goals and three assists in just three games. Averaging two points per game, Dea is tied for sixth in scoring among the AHL’s top point-getters while he also shows a team-best plus-six on-ice rating, which is tied for fourth in the AHL with linemate Remi Elie.
Elie tallied a pair of markers in his first game of the season last Wednesday night against Suracuse before adding an another Wednesday against Utica. The two-goal outing was the first career multi-goal effort for Elie. He has scored 19 goals in 62 career games with the Amerks since 2017-18.
Despite shuffling between Rochester and the Buffalo Sabres’ taxi squad, forward C.J. Smith enters tonight’s contest with four points through his first three games to start the campaign. Smith, who was named as one of the Amerks’ alternate captains for road games, has recorded 133 points (59+74) in 172 career contests since the start of the 2017-18 season.
In their first three games this season, the trio has been on the ice for four of Rochester’s 17 goals while combining for 20 shots, eight goals, six assists and a plus-15 on-ice rating.
SCOUTING THE CRUNCH
The Crunch open up a three-game homestand tonight as they host the Amerks for the first time this season at the Upstate Medical University Arena. Syracuse has not had more than 12 regulation losses at home in the last four seasons while they show a combined 92-38-6-10 record since the start of the 2016-17 campaign. Over that same span, the club has finished with the most wins in the Division twice while sharing the top spot once.
Syracuse is fueled by forwards Alex-Barre-Boulet and Aleksi Heponiemi, both of whom have four points through the first three games of the slate. Barre-Boulet shares the team-lead with three goals while Heponiemi is first among Crunch skaters with four assists.
SERIES NOTABLES
The Amerks scored a power-play goal in six of their last nine games against Syracuse dating back to last season, going 9-for-34 (26.5%) with the man-advantage over that span.
Amerks goaltender Dustin Tokarski and defenseman Dylan Blujus both spent time with the Crunch after being drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2008 and 2012, respectively. Blujus played his first three seasons there.
After going 4-5-1-0 against the Crunch during the 2017-18 campaign, the Amerks are 13-7-1-1 in their last 22 contests against Syracuse.
Syracuse Crunch head coach Benoit Groulx spent two seasons behind the bench in Rochester from 2008-10, leading the team to a playoff berth during the 2009-10 campaign.