GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS AND MARLIES BEGIN HOME-AND-HOME SERIES
Amerks aim for first win on home ice in 2024-25
Oct 17, 2024
By Andrew Mossbrooks | @Mossbrooks48
Following a 4-1 win in Utica last Saturday, the Rochester Americans (1-1-0-0) briefly return home Friday night to host the Toronto Marlies (2-0-0-0) at Blue Cross Arena.
Rochester will match its North Division foe twice in under 24 hours, with the two teams heading to Toronto immediately after Friday’s game for a rematch Saturday afternoon at Coca-Cola Coliseum.
Friday marks the first of six meetings against the Marlies this season, with the Amerks showing a 4-1-0-1 record through half a dozen games against Toronto last season.
MARLIES BY THE NUMBERS
The 2023-24 regular season ended with Rochester and Toronto having four of their six games take place in a 33-day span. Scoring first has carried weight in previous season series against Toronto, with the team that scores first winning 28 of the last 42 matchups.
While Rochester skated away with the season series win, the two sides were narrowly apart in goals scored, with the Amerks owning a 19-18 advantage. Three of last season’s six meetings were decided past regulation.
Additionally, the Amerks host two different Canadian teams to start a season at home for the first time in over 20 years, dating back to the 2003-04 season when Rochester hosted the Hamilton Bulldogs on Oct. 10 (2-1 win), followed by the Toronto Roadrunners on Oct. 17 (1-0 win).
ROSEN ROLLING
Third-year pro Isak Rosen started his season with a three-point weekend (1+2), including a goal and an assist in the team’s win against the Comets last Saturday. Collectively, the Stockholm, Sweden, native has amassed 90 points (35+55) in his 135-game tenure with Rochester.
Last season, Rosen registered five points (2+3) across the season series with Toronto, including a game-winning-goal scored on March 15. Since Feb. 24 of last season, the former Buffalo first round draft pick has posted points in 18 of his last 24 games, going consecutive games without a point only once.
RETURNING TO ROOTS
Like Rosen, fellow Amerks forward Graham Slaggert has also just started his third year as a pro, though the South Bend, Indiana, native’s career started north of the border, where Slaggert played the entire 2022-23 season in a Marlies jersey. There, the Notre Dame graduate scored six goals as part of a 10-point campaign.
“I think I’ve changed a ton,” said Slaggert earlier in the week when asked about how he’s different now versus his rookie season. “I think it’s about learning what I have to do at this level to be successful and kind of grow into the player I need to be in order to keep moving up the lineup and getting more ice time.”
Slaggert began his time with the Amerks last season and eclipsed his previous point totals with the Marlies in 17 fewer games, earning six goals and six assists over 46 games.
SHOOTING GALLERY
The Marlies began the 2024-25 season with 19 returning skaters from the year prior. In 2023-24, Toronto led the Eastern Conference in goals scored (249) and trailed only Coachella Valley for most goals across the AHL.
Toronto’s offense is headlined by three of its top four goal-scorers from a year ago being back in blue. Logan Shaw, the team’s captain, led Toronto in goals (30), while Alex Steeves (27) and Joseph Blandisi (25) finished second and fourth, respectively, though Blandisi led Toronto in overall scoring with 59 points.
Adding to the team’s scoring prowess this season is former Amerk Alex Nylander, who played 165 games with the red, white, and blue from 2016-19. The eighth-year pro has over 100 NHL games under his belt to go with 96 AHL goals across 332 games. He also made in19 NHL appearances with the Buffalo Sabres, who drafted him in the first round (eighth overall) of the 2016 NHL Draft.