GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS HOST STRUGGLING ISLANDERS FRIDAY NIGHT
Rochester shoots for third straight win as magic number drops to single digits
Mar 28, 2025
By Andrew Mossbrooks | @ Mossbrooks48
For a second straight weekend, the Rochester Americans (37-18-3-3) play three games in as many days, beginning Friday night at home as they take on the Bridgeport Islanders (14-42-4-3).
This is the second and final meeting in the season series between Rochester and Bridgeport. It’s also the first time the Islanders are back at Blue Cross Arena since opening night last season, where the team rallied to top Rochester by a 3-2 final in overtime 532 days ago.
In their only previous game this season, Felix Sandström registered a season high-36 saves, while Mason Jobst scored twice against his former team to help the Amerks prevail with a 6-3 win at Total Mortgage Arena on Jan. 4. The game was the final win in Rochester’s eight-game road win streak earlier in the season, which matched a franchise record.
LAST TIME OUT
Down 2-0 with just over a minute to play in the second period, defensemen Nikita Novikov and Erik Brännström scored 19 seconds apart for the Amerks on Sunday, beginning the charge of scoring four straight on their way to completing the rally for a 4-3 win over the Utica Comets. The game wrapped up the season series between the intrastate foes in what was a very one-sided rivalry this season, with Rochester displaying a 10-1-0-1 mark against Utica.
After tying the game going into the third, it was Noah Östlund scoring what was the go-ahead goal at the time just 1:10 into the final period. The game-winning goal ended up being an empty-net conversion from fellow Swede, Anton Wahlberg.
Devon Levi was stupendous in net yet again, registering 33 saves to pick up his 21st win of the season. The 23-year-old leads the North Division in wins and is fifth overall in the AHL.
Bridgeport last played Wednesday against the already playoff-bound Hershey Bears, dropping a 4-1 final to the back-to-back Calder Cup Champions. Team captain and Rochester native Cole Bardreau scored his fourth goal of the season as the lone conversion for the Isles, while Henrik Tikkanen made 26 saves in the losing effort.
DOWN TO SINGLE DIGITS
The Amerks enter the weekend with the possibility of being able to clinch a berth in the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs before everything ends come Sunday.
At this point, Utica is the only team that cannot mathematically catch Rochester in the standings. The Amerks enter the final full week of March with 80 points and 11 games remaining. Two teams from the North Division will not qualify for the playoffs. The next club of focus for the Amerks would be the Belleville Senators, who have 66 points and are currently sixth in the division.
In simple terms, Rochester’s magic number to clinch a playoff berth is nine. That number will decrease by the Amerks gaining points and/or Belleville losing points. For example, the Senators host the Lehigh Valley Phantoms Friday while the Amerks entertain Bridgeport. If the Amerks win and Belleville wins, the magic number will shrink to seven. If the Amerks win and Belleville loses in overtime or a shootout, the number drops to six, and a Rochester win and Sens loss in regulation can decrease the number down to five.
The Amerks can also be helped if Cleveland or Syracuse, who both have three-game weeks, were to lose all of their games in regulation. If this were to happen and the Amerks were to win all three of their games this coming weekend, Rochester could officially clinch a playoff berth as soon as this Sunday.
NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
Earlier in the week, the Buffalo Sabres signed forward Tyler Kopff to a two-year entry-level contract that begins in 2025-26. In the interim, the 6-foot-4, 215-pound forward out of Brown University will join Rochester on an Amateur Tryout contract (ATO) for the remainder of the current season.
Kopff recently completed his sophomore season with Brown University, where he ranked second on the team with 28 points in 32 games. He led the team in assists (19) and shots (114) and ranked fourth in goals (9).
The Ridgewood, N.J. native compiled 46 points (15+31) in 62 career NCAA games. Prior to Brown, he spent two seasons with the Coquitlam Express of the British Columbia Hockey League.
ON THE WRONG SIDE OF MAKING HISTORY
The Amerks’ 2024-25 roster not only shares the franchise record for consecutive road wins, but also could claim a co-share of the all-time single season road wins record should they come out victorious in each of their four remaining road games. The team is chasing history and in the larger picture are looking to end a 29-year championship drought come later this spring.
The same cannot be said for Bridgeport, which has already been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention in the Atlantic Division. Bridgeport is on pace to finish last across the league for the third time in the last six seasons. After shocking everyone March 12 with a 5-2 win over the league’s best in Laval, the Islanders have come back down to earth, losing four of their next five.
The next closest team to Bridgeport would be the Central Division’s Manitoba Moose, and even they have eight more wins and are 14 points clear of the Islanders and their claim to last in the league. At 14 wins, the Isles could be the first team to finish an AHL season with fewer than 20 wins (excluding the shortened 2020-21 season) since the Lowell Lock Monsters went 19-51-7-3 in the 2001-02 campaign.
Despite their struggles, the New York Islanders’ AHL affiliate still have a pair of big-time producers on offense, with Brian Pinho leading the team in goals with 22, while veteran Chris Terry continues to be an all-time great when it comes to AHL history. The soon-to-be 36-year-old winger leads his team with 59 points (19+40) over 61 games played.
Last Saturday, Terry scored a goal and an assist against Springfield. The assist marked his 800th AHL point, becoming just the 12th player in the league’s near nine-decade history to reach 800 points. Terry would need 11 more points to crack the top-10 in league history and needs just one more goal to reach the 20-goal mark for the eighth straight year.