GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS HOST COMETS IN AFTERNOON MATINEE
Feb 18, 2024TODAY'S GAME OVERVIEW
The Rochester Americans (23-16-5-1) continue their busy stretch as they host the Utica Comets (19-20-4-3) today for a 3:05 p.m. matinee at The Blue Cross Arena. The North Division showdown will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV.
The Amerks, who have points in five straight games and nine of their last 12 dating back to Jan. 17, enter the weekend third in the AHL’s North Division standings, seven points back of the second-place Syracuse Crunch with two games in hand.
Utica, which comes into the matchup with a 5-5-0-0 record in its last 10 games, sits in the basement of the North Division with a 19-20-4-3 record through 46 games having lost three straight.
HEAD-TO-HEAD RESULTS AGAINST COMETS
Rochester has won 10 of the previous 11 games on the road against the Comets, the only exception being a 6-0 loss on Nov. 11. The Amerks maintain a 5-2-1-0 record through the first eight games of the season-series.
The Amerks boast a 13-10-1-1 record in Utica over the past five seasons while also showing an almost identical 12-10-1-1 mark in the Flower City.
The Amerks have scored at least one power-play goal in 22 of the 41 games (31-for-140) against Utica since Seth Appert took over as head coach.
After today’s contest, the intrastate rivals will meet three more times prior to season’s end with two of the three coming in Rochester in March.
LAST TIME OUT
A pair of goals in each of the second and third periods combined with a career-high 41-save effort by goaltender Devon Levi helped the Amerks secure a 5-3 win over the visiting Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Friday night at The Blue Cross Arena.
Michael Mersch (2+1), Mason Jobst (0+3), and Linus Weissbach (1+1) combined for eight points (3+5). Tyson Kozak and Jiri Kulich both scored while Joseph Cecconi and Jeremy Davies each notched an assist.
Levi (5-2-2), who made his ninth appearance of the campaign and fifth straight start, turned aside 41 of the 44 shots he faced, both of which were career-highs in the AHL.
THE BEST OFFENSE IS A GOOD DEFENSE
Jeremy Davies and Kale Clague are among the AHL’s top scoring defensemen, having combined for nine goals and 42 points this season.
Davies, who scored a career-high 11 goals last season, including three game-winning tallies, is tied for 24th amongst all defensemen with 88 shots. He’s recorded at least one shot in all but five games this season. Davies, who closed out the month of October on a five-game point streak, has recorded one point in 17 of his first 39 games this season, never going more than four straight games without a point.
Back following a one-day recall with Buffalo, Clague is tied for 17th among all blueliners with 20 assists. With two assists Wednesday at Utica, Clague has now reached the 20-assist mark for the second time in his career and has eclipsed the 20-point mark for the third time since his rookie campaign.
ROUSEK RACKING UP THE POINTS
Lukas Rousek has been the team’s most consistent point-getter since the turn of 2024, having recorded points in 12 of his 16 games in that stretch.
Rousek, a sixth-round selection (160th overall) by the Sabres in the 2019 NHL Draft, currently leads the team with 25 assists and 34 points while his nine goals are tied for sixth. Among all Amerks who have appeared in at least 30 games, he is tops in points per game (0.85).
The third-year pro and AHL All-Star saw his career-long point streak come to an end on Jan. 26, stopping at 13 games. He totaled 14 points between Dec. 20 and Jan. 20, the second-longest point streak in the league behind only Toronto’s Alex Steeves, who had a point in 16 straight games.
Rousek’s point streak was the longest by an Amerk in 24 years since Hall of Famer Domenic Pittis had points in 14 straight contests from Jan. 22 to March 4 during the 1999-2000 campaign. In 129 career AHL games with the Amerks, Rousek has amassed 94 points on 26 goals and 68 assists.
NEW YEAR, NEW NEUCHEV
After producing just five points in his first 23 games, rookie foward Viktor Neuchev has unsurprisingly emerged as one of the team’s leading scorers through the middle of February.
Dating back to Dec. 29 and the turn of the New Year, Neuchev has erupted for 14 points on five goals and nine assists over his previous 13 games.
Neuchev has recorded at least one point in eight games over that span, including a season-long six-game point streak from Dec. 29 to Jan. 20 which saw him score three goals and record eight points.
Buffalo’s third-round selection (74th overall) in 2022, Neuchev’s most impressive performance of the season came back on Jan. 27, finding the back of the net for the third time in five games with the game-winning goal along with two assists in the 7-4 win over Laval. Since Jan. 6, Neuchev has recorded four multi-point games, which includes a pair of three-point efforts.
Of Neuchev’s seven goals this season, five have been scored on home ice and three have come against Laval. Neuchev, who had a 40-goal season while playing for Russia’s junior league during the 2021-22 campaign, currently leads all Amerks rookies with 19 points (7+12) and 54 shots in 34 games.
APPERT REACHES CENTURY MARK
The 3-2 win at Charlotte on Jan. 12 was a milestone win for Seth Appert, who became just the seventh head coach in the 68-year history of the franchise to reach 100 career victories with Rochester. He joins an impressive list that includes the likes of Amerks Hall of Famers Randy Cunneyworth, John Van Boxmeer, Joe Crozier, Mike Keenan, Chris Taylor and Brian McCutcheon.
On Dec. 16 against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Appert also became the seventh head coach in team history to be behind Rochester’s bench for 200 games.
Since the 2020-21 season, Appert has guided the Amerks to a 106-88-20-8 record as well as two straight playoff appearances, which included a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2023.
It was the team’s deepest playoff run in nearly 20 years and their first to the Conference Finals since the 2004 Calder Cup Playoffs.
LEANING ON LEVI
Devon Levi has earned the start in seven of the last nine games since being reassigned to Rochester on Jan. 20, including five straight.
Levi, who boasts a 5-2-2 record in nine appearances with the Amerks, joins, Eric Comrie, Michael Houser, Devin Cooley and Dustin Tokarski to man the blue paint for Rochester this season. It marks the third straight year Rochester has had five or more goaltenders play in its net and first since a three-year stretch between 1995 and 1998.
Levi, who ranks 12th among rookie netminders with a 2.56 goals-against average, has held the opposition to three or fewer goals in eight of his nine starts, including each of the last six. He’s 5-1-2 this season in those games.
Levi won the Mike Richter Award, given annually to the top goaltender in men’s college hockey, for the second straight year following the 2022-23 season.
The only two-time winner in the award’s history, Levi led the nation again with a .933 save percentage, one year after he set the second-best mark in NCAA history with a .952 save percentage. He tied for third in the nation in both shutouts (6) and saves (1,183). Levi’s 16-career shutouts are a Northeastern University school record.
TOKARSKI ON THE MOVE
Veteran goaltender Dustin Tokarski, who missed the first eight games of the season due to an injury he sustained in training camp, made his season debut back on Nov. 3 against Utica.
In doing so, the two-time Calder Cup winner and AHL All-Star became just the 18th goaltender in league history to play in 400 career games, a list that also includes former Amerks Bobby Perreault (512), Michael Leighton (507), Drew MacIntyre (440) and Ed Chadwick (417).
Tokarski, who’s in his second stint with the Amerks and 10th different AHL franchise, went 1-1-0 during a brief two-game stint with Rochester as part of the COVID-shortnened 2020-21 campaign. He went 12-20-7 in 42 appearances with the Buffalo Sabres from 2021-23.
Currently in his 15th season, he joins Marcel Paille and Michael Leighton as the only goaltenders all-time to play at least 15 seasons in the AHL.
Tokarski, who’s 7-7-2 in his first 16 starts, surpassed the 10,000-save mark for his AHL career following a 31-save effort against Utica on Nov. 10. He also reached the 12,000-save mark for his pro career the week prior when he made his season debut against the Comets.
Entering this weekend, the 34-year-old Tokarski is six wins away from tying Red Almas for 11th all-time in career wins (218). He’s also two games away from tying Ed Chadwick for 16th all-time (417) and will tie Yann Danis for eighth all-time on his next shutout.
A JOLT OF JOST
Rochester’s forward group was bolstered at the end of the 2023 calendar year with the addition of veteran forward Tyson Jost. .
The St. Albert, Alberta, native made his Amerks debut on Dec. 29 against Hershey and has since recorded 12 points (2+10) through his first 18 games. His 10 assists are tied for 11th amongst all Rochester skaters.
A former first-round selection (10th overall) of the Colorado Avalanche in the 2016 NHL Draft, Jost has totaled 19 points (7+12) in 31 career AHL games with the Amerks, San Antonio Rampage and Colorado Eagles over parts of three seasons. He’s also recorded 138 points (56+82) over 442 career NHL games for Buffalo, Minnesota and Colorado, including 29 this season with the Sabres.
SERIES NOTABLES
Amerks forward Mason Jobst enters tonight with 16 points (6+10) over his last 16 games since the turn of the new year. On Wednesday in Utica, Jobst appeared in his 200th professional game only to follow up with a career-best three-assist outing on Friday night against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. In 201 career games, all in the American Hockey League with Rochester, San Jose, Bridgeport, and Binghamton, the Ohio State product has notched 42 goals and 65 assists for 107 points.
After enjoying a career-best 14 goals, 24 assists and 38 points in 61 games last season with Rochester, Jobst has nearly matched those totals in 2023-24 (13 goals, 18 assists, 31 points) in only 40 games.
Both Rochester (11-3-1-2) and Utica (10-3-1-1) come into the matchup sporting nearly identical winning records when leading after the first period. The Comets are a 14-1-1-2 this season when carrying a lead into the second period while the Amerks remain a perfect 14-0-0-0 in that regard.
The Amerks (15) top the league with games decided beyond regulation while Utica (10) has also appeared in double digit games in overtime this season.