GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS OPEN 68TH SEASON TONIGHT AGAINST BRIDGEPORT
Oct 13, 2023TONIGHT'S GAME OVERVIEW
The Rochester Americans open their 68th season in the American Hockey League tonight with an Eastern Conference showdown against the Bridgeport Islanders at The Blue Cross Arena. Game time is slated for a 7:05 p.m. start.
The Amerks and Islanders, who enter their 23rd season in the AHL and first under new head coach Rick Kowalsky, will meet just twice during the 2023-24 regular season, with tonight being the lone get-together in Rochester.
Following tonight’s season-opener, the two teams will have to wait nearly six months to get reacquanited until the Amerks travel to Bridgeport on Sunday, April 7 as part of a weekend swing through the Atlantic Division. The matinee will serve as Rochester’s penutlimate road game of the season
HEAD-TO-HEAD RESULTS AGAINST BRIDGEPORT
Tonight is only the 21st all-time meeting between Rochester and Bridgeport. The Amerks have earned points in 11 of the last 12 meetings dating back to the 2017-18 campaign and boast a 6-0-2-0 mark in the previous eight home contests at The Blue Cross Arena.
In 14 of the last 16 meetings, the winning team has scored three or more goals, which includes at least one power-play tally in 11 contests over that same span.
Nine of the previous 16 games between the two clubs have been decided beyond regulation, which includes five of the last six dating back to the 2018-19 season.
OPENING THE SEASON
Tonight’s season-opener with Bridgeport marks the first time since Oct. 5, 2001 that Rochester will begin a new campaign against the Islanders. That contest also served as Bridgeport’s first game in franchise history.
Tonight is also the first time since Oct. 5, 2018 the Amerks will open a clean slate opposite an Atlantic Division opponent.
The Amerks enter the new season with a 34-26-7 all-time record in season-opening games and have outscored the opposition 248-230 dating back to when the puck first dropped on Rochester’s inaugural season in 1956.
Rochester is also 41-20-6 all-time in home openers over the previous 67 years and have outscored their opponents 274-211 over that span.
MERSCH TO LEAD AMERKS LEADERSHIP GROUP
Veteran forward Michael Mersch returns for fourth season in Rochester and third as the team’s captain, overseeing an Amerks leadership group that also includes three alternate captains in forwards Brandon Biro and Brett Murray and defenseman Ethan Prow.
In addition to captaining the Amerks to the Eastern Conference Finals of the 2023 Calder Cup Playoffs, Mersch finished last season by matching a career-high 28 assists to go with 17 goals and 45 points.
The 10th-year pro has appeared in 531 career AHL games between the Amerks, Texas Stars, Ontario Reign and Manchester Monarchs, totaling 363 points (173+190). Additionally, Mersch, a five-time 20-goal scorer in the AHL who won a Calder Cup with Manchester in 2015, has skated in 17 career NHL contests with the Los Angeles Kings.
APPERT YEAR FOUR
Seth Appert enters his fourth season as head coach of the Amerks in 2023-24 after being named to the position on August 18, 2020.
Appert is 84-71-15-7 over his first three seasons behind the Amerks bench, which includes a 37-win campaign in 2021-22 that culminated with an extended playoff run as part of team’s first playoff appearance in four years.
Appert led the club to its most impressive and deepest playoff run in 23 years as they reached the Eastern Conference Finals. After losing three straight to close out the month of January, the resilient Amerks closed out the regular season going 14-8-4-2, earning points in 20 of their final 28 games.
After dropping their first two games of the Calder Cup Playoffs, the Amerks rattled off seven straight wins to complete the series comeback over the Syracuse Crunch before sweeping the top-seeded Toronto Marlies. The Amerks then came within two wins of advancing to the Calder Cup Finals for the first time since 2000 as the fell to the Hershey Bears in six games.
YOUTH MOVEMENT CONTINUES IN ROCHESTER
Of the 27 players on Rochester’s opening night roster, 13 are Buffalo Sabres draft picks, including three first-round selections.
Isak Rosen (14th overall) and Jiri Kulich (28th overall) both return for their second seasons in Rochester as members of Buffalo’s first-round selections in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Kulich recorded 46 points (24+22) during his rookie campaign to be named to the inaugural AHL Top Prospects Team. He topped all Amerks in goals and finished eighth in the league in scoring amongst all rookies. Rosen ranked ninth on the team in points (37), recording 14 goals and 23 assists in 66 contests.
Ryan Johnson (1st round, 2019), Viktor Neuchev (3rd round, 2022), Olivier Nadeau (4th round, 2021), and Nikita Novikov (6th round, 2021) all are set to begin their North American professional careers after being selected by Buffalo. Zach Metsa, the captain of Quinnipiac’s 2023 national championship team, will make his regular season debut after he skated in 13 games during Rochester’s run to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Aleksandr Kisakov (2nd round, 2021), Brett Murray (4th round, 2019), Filip Cederqvist (5th round, 2019), Lukas Rousek (6th round, 2019), Linus Weissbach (7th round, 2017), Tyson Kozak (7th round, 2021) round out the Sabres NHL Draft picks.
DEPTH ON DEFENSE
Excluding Riley Stillman, Novikov and Johnson, the other five defensemen patrolling Rochester’s blueline all appeared in at least one game at some point in 2022-23.
Ethan Prow paced the team’s blueliners in scoring for the second straight season with 41 points (6+35) in 70 games. The veteran defenseman reached the 40-point mark for the third time in four years and recorded more than 30 assists for the second straight season.
During the regular season in 2022-23, the current rostered blueliners of Jeremy Davies, Joseph Cecconi, Kale Clague and Prow combined for 21 goals and 57 assists for 78 points in 188 man games with Rochester. Johnson and Metsa both completed their collegiate careers while Novikov played the last two seasons in the KHL with the Moscow Dynamo.
SERIES NOTABLES
Rochester returns a total of 18 players from last year’s team, the most in recent years, including the team’s top nine point-getters.
Amerks goaltender Dustin Tokarski rejoins the organization for his second stint. The netminder of 399 career AHL games 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.
With his next game in the AHL, the two-time Calder Cup winner and AHL All-Star will become 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).
The 34-year-old Tokarski comes into the 2023-24 season ranked 18th all-time in games played and remains the only active goaltender on the list.
Among the newcomers for Rochester incude forwards Graham Slaggert and Justin Richards both joined the Amerks organization after spending the 2022-23 campaigns with the Toronto Marlies and Cleveland Monsters, respectively. Devin Cooley manned the goalcrease with the Milwaukee Adimirals during the last two season.
Cole Bardreau, a Fairport native, returns for his fifth season in Bridgeport. In 400 career games between Bridgeport and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the veteran forward has recorded 82 goals and 92 assists for 174 points. Additionally, he’s tallied three assists in 24 career playoff appearances while also skating in 11 games with the New York Islanders.
Islanders head coach Rick Kowalsky is a former Buffalo Sabres draft pick (227th overall in 1992.
Bridgeport Islanders vs Rochester Americans: 2022-23 Head To Head Stats
Summary
|
Description |
Result |
|
| Head to Head Record 2022-23 Regular Season | Bridgeport 1-0-1-0 | Rochester 1-0-1-0 |
| Head to Head Record 2021-22 Regular Season | Bridgeport 1-0-1-0 | Rochester 1-0-1-0 |
| Last 5 Years record between teams | Bridgeport 2-2-3-1 | Rochester 6-0-2-0 |
| Bridgeport vs. Rochester Last 5 Years record at Bridgeport | Bridgeport 1-1-2-0 | Rochester 3-0-1-0 |
| Bridgeport vs. Rochester Last 5 Years record at Rochester | Bridgeport 1-1-1-1 | Rochester 3-0-1-0 |
| Previous Meetings This Season | Rochester 0 @ Bridgeport 1 (Jan 20 2023) Final OT Bridgeport 5 @ Rochester 6 (Nov 25 2022) Final OT |
How the two teams matched up in 2022-23
|
Rochester |
Bridgeport |
|
| Team Record | 36-27-6-3 -- 81 points | 34-30-7-1 -- 76 points |
| Division Ranking | 3rd North | 7th Atlantic |
| Conference Ranking | 8th Eastern | 12th Eastern |
| League Ranking | 15th | 23rd |
| Past 10 Games | 6-2-2-0 | 5-5-0-0 |
| Streak | 1-0-0-0 | 0-1-0-0 |
| Last Game | 4-1 W @ Cleveland (Apr 16 2023) Final | 5-3 L @ Providence (Apr 15 2023) Final |
| Home Record | 18-13-4-1 | 17-18-1-0 |
| Away Record | 18-14-2-2 | 17-12-6-1 |
| GF | 236 | 238 |
| GA | 233 | 248 |
| PP (Overall) | (54/262) 20.6% | (55/240) 22.9% |
| PP (Home) | (37/135) 27.4% | (23/114) 20.2% |
| PP (Away) | (17/127) 13.4% | (32/126) 25.4% |
| PK (Overall) | (43/237) 81.9% | (55/282) 80.5% |
| PK (Home) | (24/121) 80.2% | (27/127) 78.7% |
| PK (Away) | (19/116) 83.6% | (28/155) 81.9% |
| PP vs. Opp. | (2/7) 28.6% | (1/5) 20% |
| PK vs. Opp. | (1/5) 80% | (2/7) 71.4% |
| Leading Rookie | Kulich (24-22-46) | Iskhakov (17-34-51) |
| Most PIM | Davies - 90 | Helgeson - 109 |
| Team PIM/GM | 11.1/Game | 13.7/Game |
| Leading Scorers | Rousek (16-40-56) | Terry (27-51-78) |
| Biro (16-35-51) | Andreoff (37-28-65) | |
| Murray (23-26-49) | Durandeau (24-31-55) | |
| Weissbach (20-27-47) | Iskhakov (17-34-51) | |
| Kulich (24-22-46) | Dufour (21-27-48) | |
| Last 5 Games | 4-1 W @ Cleveland (Apr 16 2023) Final | 5-3 L @ Providence (Apr 15 2023) Final |
| 4-3 L vs Cleveland (Apr 15 2023) Final | 5-1 W vs Hershey (Apr 14 2023) Final | |
| 7-4 L vs Belleville (Apr 14 2023) Final | 6-4 W vs Lehigh Valley (Apr 12 2023) Final | |
| 5-1 W @ Utica (Apr 8 2023) Final | 8-2 L vs Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (Apr 8 2023) Final | |
| 3-2 W @ Syracuse (Apr 7 2023) Final OT | 6-2 L @ Hartford (Apr 7 2023) Final | |
| Leading After 1st | 19-3-1-1 | 19-6-1-1 |
| Leading After 2nd | 24-5-2-1 | 26-4-1-0 |
| Tied After 1st | 9-10-3-1 | 7-10-3-0 |
| Tied After 2nd | 6-3-3-2 | 5-4-2-1 |
| Trailing After 1st | 8-14-2-1 | 8-14-3-0 |
| Trailing After 2nd | 6-19-1-0 | 3-22-4-0 |
| Out Shooting Opponents | 16-10-3-1 | 10-14-3-1 |
| Out Shot by Opponents | 20-14-3-2 | 20-16-4-0 |
| 1-Goal Games | 16-8-6-3 | 12-8-7-1 |
| 2-Goal Games | 8-7-0-0 | 6-7-0-0 |
| 3-Goal Games | 3-5-0-0 | 10-9-0-0 |
Bridgeport Islanders
| # | Player | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | Andy Andreoff | 2 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| 25 | Chris Terry | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 28 | William Dufour | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | X Samuel Bolduc | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 29 | Arnaud Durandeau | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 36 | Jeff Kubiak | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | Otto Koivula | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | -2 |
| 6 | Vincent Sevigny | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| 38 | Paul Thompson | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 21 | Cole Bardreau | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 4 | Dennis Cholowski | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 42 | Trevor Cosgrove | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 |
| 11 | X Hudson Fasching | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Seth Helgeson | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 |
| 7 | Grant Hutton | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 | Ruslan Iskhakov | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 24 | Blade Jenkins | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | Paul LaDue | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 32 | Jimmy Lambert | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Kyle MacLean | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | X Aatu Räty | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 26 | Robin Salo | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 35 | Cory Schneider | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 | Jakub Skarek | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 | Parker Wotherspoon | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| # | Player | GP | W | L | OT | MIN | GA | GAA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 35 | Cory Schneider | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 61:35 | 0 | 0.00 | 1.000 |
| 1 | Jakub Skarek | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 61:09 | 6 | 5.89 | 0.778 |
Rochester Americans
| # | Player | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | Sean Malone | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 2 |
| 81 | Brett Murray | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| 56 | Kale Clague | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 28 | Michael Mersch | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 7 | Ethan Prow | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | -1 |
| 18 | Isak Rosen | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 25 | Jiri Kulich | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -2 |
| 96 | X Anders Bjork | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 13 | Linus Weissbach | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | -3 |
| 43 | Matt Bartkowski | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Brandon Biro | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 71 | Filip Cederqvist | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 4 | Jeremy Davies | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 52 | Mitch Eliot | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 26 | Mason Jobst | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 |
| 51 | Aleksandr Kisakov | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 44 | Tyson Kozak | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 |
| 20 | Lawrence Pilut | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 27 | X Chase Priskie | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 |
| 11 | Lukas Rousek | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 |
| 47 | Malcolm Subban | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | Peter Tischke | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 |
| 45 | Brendan Warren | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 |
| # | Player | GP | W | L | OT | MIN | GA | GAA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 47 | Malcolm Subban | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 123:28 | 6 | 2.92 | 0.900 |