GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS CHASE HISTORIC 2,500TH WIN AGAINST HARTFORD
Amerks look to remain red hot, create history on home ice
Nov 7, 2024
By Andrew Mossbrooks | @Mossbrooks48
The Rochester Americans (6-3-0-0) make a brief stop back home to host the Hartford Wolf Pack (5-3-1-1) Friday night at Blue Cross Arena.
Tonight is the first of two meetings with Hartford this season and the lone appearance for the Wolf Pack in the Flower City. The Amerks travel to Hartford later in the season, concluding the season series on Jan. 25 at XL Center.
LAST TIME OUT
Jiri Kulich returned to Rochester after being reassigned from the Buffalo Sabres and made an instant impact, scoring the game-winning-goal Wednesday evening in the Amerks’ 4-2 win over the Cleveland Monsters. The win was Rochester’s fifth straight and capped off a perfect four-game sweep of the team’s road trip, with two wins a piece against Cleveland and Utica.
In addition to Kulich, Graham Slaggert, Konsta Helenius, and Aleksandr Kisakov scored, while Felix Sandström made 22 saves to secure his second win as an Amerk, while subsequently remaining undefeated lifetime against Cleveland with a 4-0-0 record.
While Rochester was topping Cleveland, the Wolf Pack played host to Syracuse and pulled off a 2-1 overtime win against the Crunch on Wednesday. With seven seconds left in overtime, veteran forward Alex Belzile netted the game-winner.
Since the 2017-18 season, Rochester has won nine of the previous 13 meetings with Hartford, including all five encounters with the Wolf Pack at Blue Cross Arena.
HISTORY AT STAKE
The Amerks have won five straight games and while extending their winning ways to six is the goal, there is a bigger milestone within reach.
Should Rochester secure a win Friday, it would mark the 2,500th win in the near 69-year history of the AHL’s second-oldest franchise. Only the Hershey Bears (3,107) have reached 2,500 wins in the AHL, allowing the Amerks to become the second team in the 89-year history of the league to reach such a feat.
Over 5,177 games, the Amerks are 2,499-2,090-401-115 all-time. Of the team’s 69 seasons, the Amerks have been an affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres for 43 of them.
EVERYTHING’S JUST ROSEY
Amerks forward Isak Rosen is riding a team best five-game point streak, scoring two goals and totaling seven points in the process. The third-year Amerk leads Rochester in scoring with 10 points (3+7) through nine games. His 10 points are tied for 12th in league scoring, while Rosen’s seven assists put him tied for ninth across the AHL.
Rosen is three points shy of 100 as an Amerk, posting 37 goals and 60 assists across his 142-game tenure. Last season, the Stockholm, Sweden, native scored a goal and an assist in the two-game series with Hartford.
PLAYING THE PACK
Hartford skates into tonight winless away from home. The team has gone 0-2-1-1 away from XL Center, being outscored, 13-6.
Brett Berard leads Hartford with five goals, while Benoit-Olivier Groulx leads the team in points overall with nine (4+5) after spending the previous three seasons with San Diego.
Dylan Garand is undefeated in regulation, posting a 4-0-1 record through five starts to begin the year, though the Amerks scored six times on 24 shots when they faced Gerand March 20th of last season.
HOMECOMING FOR FAMILIAR FACES
Hartford’s lone visit also sees the return of several familiar faces, including defensemen Casey Fitzgerald and Chad Ruhwedel. Recently named the 15th captain in franchise history, Fitzgerald played parts of four seasons (2018-22) with the Amerks after being selected in the third round by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2016 NHL Draft.
Like Fitzgerald, Ruhwedel also began his pro career with Rochester, patrolling the Amerks blueline from 2013 to 2016 and piling up 90 points over 178 career games.
Hartford assistant coach Jamie Tardif is also a former Amerk, having spent the 2013-14 campaign playing alongside Ruhwedel in what would be his final AHL season.
Wolf Pack forward Nathan Sucese is a Fairport native and a former teammate of current Amerks forward Brett Murray at Penn State.
Groulx, who’s in his first season with the Wolf Pack after four in Anaheim’s organization, is the son of former Amerks head coach, Benoit Groulx.