GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS LOOK FOR REDEMPTION TONIGHT IN REMATCH WITH B-SENS
Feb 3, 2023TONIGHT'S GAME OVERVIEW
he Rochester Americans (20-17-2-1) look to snap their three-game skid with a 7:05 p.m. rematch against the Belleville Senators (17-22-3-1) tonight at CAA Arena. All the action will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV.
Tonight’s get-together is the sixth of eight scheduled meetings this season and the second of a two-game set prior to the annual AHL All-Star break as Belleville took Thursday's matchup by a 5-3 score. The Amerks and Senators have split the season series thus far with the home team emerging victorious each time and Rochester showing a 2-2-0-1 mark.
HEAD-TO-HEAD SERIES SNAPSHOT
Despite boasting a 3-3-1-1 record in the eight-game series last season against Belleville, Rochester shows a 14-10-5-2 mark over the last five years between the two teams.
Rochester is 14-15-2 all-time against Belleville despite being outscored 113-104 through the first 31 meetings with the Senators. Five of the last 11 matchups have been decided beyond regulation, including both games in the play-in round of the 2022 Calder Cup Playoffs.
Both the Amerks and Senators have scored five goals each in the third period during the season-series. Additionally, each of the teams have produced five goals in each of their last wins.
LAST TIME OUT
The Amerks fell behind 3-0 and were never able to fully recover as they dropped the first of back-to-back meetings, 5-3, to the Senators Thursday at CAA Arena.
Amerks defenseman Ethan Prow assisted on Rochester's first two goals of the night while forwards Jiri Kulich and Isak Rosen both scored in the second period before Anders Bjork added a third-period marker. Sean Malone, Brett Murray, and Lawrence Pilut all recorded on assist each.
Goaltender Malcolm Subban (10-7-0) made his 18th appearance of the season but suffered the loss.
SUBBAN SURGING INTO FEBRUARY
After suffering a defeat in his season-debut on Nov. 18, Subban has gone 10-6-1 since over his last 17 starts, including seven straight wins between Dec. 10 to Jan. 14. The seven-game win streak was the longest of his pro career and the third-longest streak among all AHL goaltenders behind Toronto's Joseph Woll and Calgary's Dustin Wolf.
He was the first Amerks goaltender to post seven straight wins since Jonas Johansson won nine consecutive contests during the 2019-20 campaign.
Subban had arguably his best performance of the season during a 75-save weekend in Rochester’s two-game sweep over the Charlotte Checkers in mid-December. A night after stopping a regular-season career-high 45 saves, Subban was flawless in a 30-save shutout on Dec. 17, his first in the AHL since April 8, 2017, with the Providence Bruins.
Subban, who picked up his 100th career win in the 5-4 overtime victory over Utica on Dec. 28, has topped the 40-save mark three times in his last 13 starts and is currently tied for 20th amongst all netminders with 10 wins.
BIRO PILING UP THE POINTS
Despite missing six games due to injury, third-year forward Brandon Biro has blazed his way atop the team's scoring lead following a productive December in which he led the team with 16 points (6+10) in 10 games. He recorded multi-point efforts in seven of his 10 appearances, including six straight between Dec. 9 and Dec. 30 before closing out the month with an assist in the 3-2 win in Toronto.
Biro, who made his NHL debut with the Buffalo Sabres last season, currently paces the Amerks in assists (20) and points (29) through 31 games and his recent seven-game point streak to close out the 2022 calendar year was the longest of his career.
Dating back to last season, Biro has totaled 70 points on 21 goals and 49 assists over his last 79 games and hasn't gone more than six games without a point since Nov. 27, 2021.
ROUSEK ALL-STAR BOUND
The American Hockey League announced last week the addition of Amerks forward Lukas Rousek to the North Division All-Star roster for the upcoming 2023 AHL All-Star Classic presented by Bell in collaboration with Manulife Bank. The annual event will take place Feb. 5-6 at Place Bell in Laval, Quebec, home of the Laval Rocket.
Rousek will replace fellow forward Brandon Biro, who was originally named the team's lone representative, but is unavailable to participate in the event due to injury.
Currently in his second season with the Amerks, Rousek ranks third on the team with 18 assists and tied for second in scoring with 28 points while being one of only two Rochester skaters to appear in all 40 games this season. He also ranks third on the team with 10 goals.
Rousek has been one of the team's most consistent point-getters since the start of December, having recorded 15 points (6+9) over his last 22 games. More impressively, Rousek totaled 12 points (6+6) over a 12-game stretch between Dec. 3 and Jan. 7, highlighted by a season-long six-game point streak, and never went more than one game without a point over that span.
A native of Ostrov nad Ohri, Czech Republic, the 5-foot-11, 191-pound forward was the Buffalo Sabres’ sixth-round selection (160th overall) in the 2019 NHL Draft. He enters the weekend with three assists in his last four games, including a two-assist effort last Wednesday against W-B/Scranton.
PROWESS ON THE BLUELINE
Entering the Jan. 19 game against Laval, Ethan Prow was the only Amerks defenseman to appear in every game this season. Overall, he has skated in 109 of the 115 games dating back to the start of the 2021-22 campaign.
By being held without a point for just the third time since Christmas, Prow saw his four-game point streak (2+3) halted. The seventh-year veteran has posted 12 points (2+10) in his last 14 outings dating back to Dec. 28.
Through 39 games this season, Prow is tied for 22nd in scoring amongst all AHL defensemen while his 19 assists are tied for 16th in the league. He needs one more assist for his fourth consecutive season with 20 ore more assists and by recording a point last Wednesday, he reached the 20-point mark for the fifth straight year dating back to the 2018-19 campaign.
SERIES NOTABLES
Amerks goaltender Malcolm Subban played his junior career with the Belleville Bulls of the OHL, who play at the CAA Arena. Subban totaled a 64-42-6 record and eight shutouts in 118 career games. During his final season with the Bulls, he helped Belleville finish first in the East during the regular season by posting a career-best 29 wins in 46 appearances.
So far this season, both Rochester and Belleville have used five different goaltenders. It marks the third straight season that the Amerks have used at least five different goaltenders. The Amerks have used a different netminder in each of the five games versus the Senators. Mads Sogaard is the only goaltender to appear in multiple games so far between the two teams in the season-series.
Through the first 31 meetings between the Amerks and Senators, neither team has won three consecutive games against one another, a feat that Belleville is attempting to earn with a win tonight.
Rochester Americans vs Belleville Senators: Head To Head Stats
Summary
|
Description |
Result |
|
| Head to Head Record 2022-23 Regular Season | Rochester 2-2-0-1 | Belleville 3-1-1-0 |
| Head to Head Record 2021-22 Regular Season | Rochester 3-3-1-1 | Belleville 5-2-1-0 |
| Last 5 Years record between teams | Rochester 10-8-3-2 | Belleville 13-7-3-0 |
| Rochester vs. Belleville Last 5 Years record at Rochester | Rochester 4-5-2-1 | Belleville 8-3-1-0 |
| Rochester vs. Belleville Last 5 Years record at Belleville | Rochester 6-3-1-1 | Belleville 5-4-2-0 |
| Previous Meetings This Season | Rochester 3 @ Belleville 5 (Feb 2 2023) Final Belleville 5 @ Rochester 1 (Jan 4 2023) Final Belleville 3 @ Rochester 5 (Dec 30 2022) Final Rochester 2 @ Belleville 3 (Nov 12 2022) Final SO Belleville 3 @ Rochester 4 (Oct 19 2022) Final OT |
How the two teams match up
|
Belleville |
Rochester |
|
| Team Record | 17-22-3-1 -- 38 points | 20-17-2-1 -- 43 points |
| Division Ranking | 7th North | 4th North |
| Conference Ranking | 15th Eastern | 12th Eastern |
| League Ranking | 29th | 23rd |
| Past 10 Games | 3-6-0-1 | 3-6-1-0 |
| Streak | 1-0-0-0 | 0-3-0-0 |
| Last Game | 5-3 W vs Rochester (Feb 2 2023) Final | 5-3 L @ Belleville (Feb 2 2023) Final |
| Home Record | 10-11-0-1 | 11-9-1-0 |
| Away Record | 7-11-3-0 | 9-8-1-1 |
| GF | 138 | 124 |
| GA | 160 | 137 |
| PP (Overall) | (41/204) 20.1% | (26/138) 18.8% |
| PP (Home) | (26/105) 24.8% | (21/78) 26.9% |
| PP (Away) | (15/99) 15.2% | (5/60) 8.3% |
| PK (Overall) | (46/196) 76.5% | (29/126) 77.0% |
| PK (Home) | (18/99) 81.8% | (14/62) 77.4% |
| PK (Away) | (28/97) 71.1% | (15/64) 76.6% |
| PP vs. Opp. | (3/18) 16.7% | (5/21) 23.8% |
| PK vs. Opp. | (5/21) 76.2% | (3/18) 83.3% |
| Leading Rookie | Crookshank (13-10-23) | Kulich (8-14-22) |
| Most PIM | Sabourin - 165 | Weissbach - 37 |
| Team PIM/GM | 15.9/Game | 9.8/Game |
| Leading Scorers | Sokolov (12-27-39) | Biro (9-20-29) |
| Lucchini (9-18-27) | Weissbach (13-15-28) | |
| Sabourin (14-10-24) | Rousek (10-18-28) | |
| Crookshank (13-10-23) | Murray (14-12-26) | |
| Greig (12-11-23) | Mersch (7-16-23) | |
| Last 5 Games | 5-3 W vs Rochester (Feb 2 2023) Final | 5-3 L @ Belleville (Feb 2 2023) Final |
| 6-1 L @ Springfield (Jan 28 2023) Final | 5-3 L vs Charlotte (Jan 28 2023) Final | |
| 5-1 L @ Springfield (Jan 27 2023) Final | 4-2 L vs Charlotte (Jan 27 2023) Final | |
| 2-1 W @ Laval (Jan 25 2023) Final OT | 3-2 W vs Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (Jan 25 2023) Final | |
| 4-2 L vs Hershey (Jan 21 2023) Final | 4-1 L @ Hartford (Jan 21 2023) Final | |
| Leading After 1st | 3-0-1-0 | 11-3-0-0 |
| Leading After 2nd | 10-1-2-0 | 13-4-1-0 |
| Tied After 1st | 12-8-0-1 | 4-6-2-1 |
| Tied After 2nd | 6-1-0-0 | 2-2-1-1 |
| Trailing After 1st | 2-14-2-0 | 5-8-0-0 |
| Trailing After 2nd | 1-20-1-1 | 5-11-0-0 |
| Out Shooting Opponents | 7-11-0-0 | 6-7-1-0 |
| Out Shot by Opponents | 10-11-3-1 | 14-7-1-1 |
| 1-Goal Games | 8-6-3-1 | 11-4-2-1 |
| 2-Goal Games | 4-8-0-0 | 6-5-0-0 |
| 3-Goal Games | 2-3-0-0 | 0-3-0-0 |
Rochester Americans
| # | Player | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Ethan Prow | 5 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 6 | -4 |
| 11 | Lukas Rousek | 5 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | -3 |
| 10 | Brandon Biro | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | -3 |
| 96 | Anders Bjork | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | -2 |
| 17 | Sean Malone | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| 28 | Michael Mersch | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | -1 |
| 13 | Linus Weissbach | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | -3 |
| 51 | Aleksandr Kisakov | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -1 |
| 26 | Mason Jobst | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | -2 |
| 25 | Jiri Kulich | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | -3 |
| 81 | Brett Murray | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | -2 |
| 18 | Isak Rosen | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 20 | Lawrence Pilut | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | -1 |
| 45 | Brendan Warren | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 3 | Joseph Cecconi | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 71 | Filip Cederqvist | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | -1 |
| 56 | X Kale Clague | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 44 | Tyson Kozak | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | -1 |
| 27 | Chase Priskie | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | -3 |
| 16 | Peter Tischke | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 35 | X Beck Warm | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 43 | Matt Bartkowski | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 |
| 31 | X Eric Comrie | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 88 | X Brandon Davidson | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Jeremy Davies | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | -1 |
| 52 | Mitch Eliot | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | -2 |
| 23 | Vinnie Hinostroza | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -2 |
| 2 | X Oskari Laaksonen | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 | X Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 | X Kohen Olischefski | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 12 | X Matej Pekar | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 | X Riley Sheahan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 47 | Malcolm Subban | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| # | Player | GP | W | L | OT | MIN | GA | GAA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 35 | X Beck Warm | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 65:00 | 2 | 1.85 | 0.941 |
| 1 | X Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 63:29 | 3 | 2.84 | 0.870 |
| 47 | Malcolm Subban | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 116:09 | 7 | 3.62 | 0.857 |
| 31 | X Eric Comrie | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 58:53 | 4 | 4.08 | 0.857 |
Belleville Senators
| # | Player | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | Egor Sokolov | 5 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 2 | 5 |
| 17 | Ridly Greig | 3 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 3 |
| 7 | Viktor Lodin | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 3 |
| 48 | Jonathan Aspirot | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| 34 | Roby Jarventie | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| 21 | Maxence Guenette | 5 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| 26 | Brennan Saulnier | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 1 |
| 3 | Dillon Heatherington | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| 44 | Kristians Rubins | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 1 |
| 33 | Lassi Thomson | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 49 | Scott Sabourin | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | -1 |
| 14 | Rourke Chartier | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 36 | Angus Crookshank | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -2 |
| 9 | Jake Lucchini | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Philippe Daoust | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 27 | Jack Dougherty | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | -1 |
| 22 | X Tyler Hinam | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Jacob Larsson | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| 18 | Jarid Lukosevicius | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | Cole Reinhardt | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 3 |
| 20 | Matthew Wedman | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | -1 |
| 6 | X Nick Albano | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 24 | Jacob Bernard-Docker | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 11 | Kyle Betts | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 35 | Antoine Bibeau | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | Matthew Boucher | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 | X Alex Breton | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 25 | X Joe Carroll | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 12 | Cole Cassels | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 |
| 8 | Jayce Hawryluk | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -2 |
| 31 | Kevin Mandolese | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 19 | X Cedric Paré | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 40 | Mads Sogaard | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 29 | X Chad Yetman | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| # | Player | GP | W | L | OT | MIN | GA | GAA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 35 | Antoine Bibeau | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 65:00 | 2 | 1.85 | 0.926 |
| 40 | Mads Sogaard | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 178:16 | 8 | 2.69 | 0.915 |
| 31 | Kevin Mandolese | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 63:22 | 4 | 3.79 | 0.867 |