GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS OPEN APRIL WITH REMATCH AGAINST MONSTERS
Apr 3, 2024TONIGHT'S GAME OVERVIEW
The Rochester Americans (33-22-6-3) carry a three-game win streak into the final month of the regular season tonight as the home-and-home series shifts back to Rochester for a rematch with the Cleveland Monsters (35-22-4-3) at Blue Cross Arena. The matchup will be carried live on 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV.
The Amerks, who have points in 22 of their last 30 games dating back to Jan. 17, currently sit in third-place in AHL's North Division standings with just eight games remaining in the season. Rochester is two points back of the second-place Monsters, who also have eight contests remaining.
Cleveland, which comes into the matchup looking to snap its season-long five-game winless skid, shows a 2-6-1-0 in its last nine games.
SEASON SERIES SNAPSHOT
Rochester boasts a 41-21-7-4 record against Cleveland over the last 10 years dating back to the start of the 2011-12 campaign and has earned at least one point in 31 of the last 47 games overall.
The Amerks have scored at least one power-play goal in 15 of the 28 games (19-for-94) against Cleveland since Seth Appert took over as head coach prior to the 2020-21 season.
Isak Rosen recorded a career-high four points (2+2) to help the Amerks earn a win over Cleveland at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse back on Nov. 18.
Brandon Biro (4+4), Isak Rosen (3+4) have totaled eight and seven points, respectively to lead all Amerks in the season-series with Cleveland.
LAST TIME OUT
Facing a 3-1 deficit early in the third period, the Amerks rattled off three straight unanswered goals, including Jeremy Davies’ (1+1) game-winner just 21 seconds into overtime to cap a wild 4-3 come-from-behind win over the Monsters Saturday at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Linus Weissbach scored twice while Brandon Biro (0+2) and Davies also registered multi-point efforts with two points each. Jiri Kulich netted his team-leading 21st goal of the season and second in as many games for the Amerks before Davies sealed the overtime win with his 11th marker of the campaign, which equals a career-high. Isak Rosén and Viktor Neuchev both capped off the scoring with an assist.
Goaltender Dustin Tokarski (10-9-3) stopped 15 of the 18 shots he faced to earn his third straight win. With victory, Tokarski has recorded double figures in wins for the 10th time in his American Hockey League career.
WAHLBERG ASSIGNED TO ROCHESTER
The Buffalo Sabres reassigned forward Anton Wahlberg to the Amerks last the weekend for the team's final 10 games of the 2023-24 regular season.
A second-round pick (39th overall) by the Sabres in the 2023 NHL Draft, the 18-year-old forward spent this season with Malmo of the Swedish Hockey League, where he tallied 10 points (5+5) in 43 games.
The 6-foot-3 forward also represented Sweden at the IIHF World Junior Championship, where he had three points (1+2) in seven games and won a silver medal. On Saturday in Cleveland, he became the 42nd player to appear in a game this season for Rochester.
RACE TO 20
After seeing three players reach the 20-goal mark last season, the Amerks could potentially have the same or more by the season's end.
With goals in four of his last seven games, Jiri Kulich recorded his second straight 20-goal season last Wednesday night in Syracuse. Kulich, whose 21 goals lead all Rochester skaters, became the first Amerks player to score 20 or more goals in back-to-back seasons since Cole Schneider and Justin Bailey each did so in 2015-16 and 2016-17.
Mason Jobst, the team's leading point-getter with a career-high 44 points in 56 games this season, needs just two more goals to reach the mark for the first time in his pro career. He, too, has goals in two of his last seven games and last week had a season-long six-game point streak (2+6) end.
Brett Murray (17) remains on pace for his second straight 20-goal season while Isak Rosen is also within reach after scoring his career-high 16th goal of the season last Sunday, reaching the mark in 10 fewer games compared to his rookie campaign.
NEW YEAR, NEW NEUCHEV
After producing just five points in his first 23 games, rookie foward Viktor Neuchev has unsurprisingly emerged as Rochester’s top scoring rookie through the final month of the regular season.
Dating back to Dec. 29 and the turn of the New Year, Neuchev has erupted for 22 points on eight goals and 14 assists over his previous 27 games.
Neuchev has recorded at least one point in 14 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 four games with the game-winning goal while also adding two assists in the 7-4 win over Laval. Since Jan. 5, Neuchev has recorded six multi-point games, which includes a pair of three-point efforts.
Of Neuchev’s 10 goals this season, seven 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 27 points (10+17) and 72 shots in 49 games.
WORKING OVERTIME
The 4-3 overtime win against Cleveland last Friday was the sixth game over the last 18 for Rochester that went beyond regulation, with three of the four producing a 2-1 score. Overall, the Amerks have gone to extra time on 21 different occasions, the second-most by any team this season (Cleveland), including each of the first three games of the campaign.
The previous two meetings between the Monsters and Amerks was decided beyond regulation, the only games this season in the season-series requiring overtime.
Four of Jiri Kulich’s team-high five game-winning goals this season have come by way of overtime while Isak Rosen, Brandon Biro, and Zach Metsa have each netted the clinching goal during the extra frame.
Dating back to the start of the 2021-22 season, of Jeremy Davies’ five game-winning goals, four have come in overtime while all five have come on the road.
Never before in the near 68-year history of the franchise have the Amerks opened a season with three consecutive overtime contests.
Dating back to Jan. 20 of last season, 31 of Rochester’s previous 101 regular-season games have required overtime to determine a winner. Of the Amerks 49 wins during that same span, 17 have come came following the end of regulation.
The Amerks show a 9-6 record in overtime this season and are 3-3 in the shootout.
Rochester tied an AHL record with 29 overtime games in 2017-18, showing a 9-11 record in overtime and 3-6 in the shootout.
LEANING ON LEVI
Devon Levi has earned the start in 17 of the last 26 games since being reassigned to Rochester on Jan. 20, including five straight to open the month of February. Back with the Amerks following his latest recall to Buffalo, he enters the week having won four straight and five of his last six since.
Levi, who boasts an 11-5-3 record in 19 appearances with the Amerks, totaled 130 saves on 136 shots he faced over a three-game win streak in February, boasting an impressive 1.95 goals-against average and a .956 save percentage over that span.
His career-high 52 saves in the Amerks overtime win at Toronto on Feb. 19 were the most by an Amerks goaltender since Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had 54 in a 2-1 win at Syracuse on Feb. 25, 2022.
Levi, who ranks 12th among all rookie netminders with a 2.52 goals-against average, has held the opposition to three or fewer goals in 16 of his 19 starts. He’s 11-2-3 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, and tied for third in both shutouts (6) and saves (1,183).
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.
Last Wednesday, he earned his second straight start and appeared in his 500th pro game. He has played in 80 NHL contests and 420 AHL games.
Tokarski, who’s 10-9-3 in his first 23 appearances, 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 tonight, the 34-year-old Tokarski is only three wins away from tying Red Almas for 11th all-time in career wins (218). He’s also 18 games away from tying Drew MacIntyre for 13rd all-time (440) and will tie Yann Danis for eighth all-time on his next shutout.
JOBST HAVING A CAREER YEAR
Forward Mason Jobst enters the contest with 29 points (11+18) over his last 32 games, the most by an Amerk since the turn of the new year. Jobst, who hasn't gone more than two games without a point over that span, recorded a career-best three-assist outing on Feb. 16 against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and followed that up by scoring goals in three straight games, including his career-high 16th goal of the season against Belleville on Feb. 23.
Since then, the fifth-year forward has already surpassed his goal total in 18 fewer games this season and successfully reached the 40-point mark for the first time in his career with another three-assist effort back on March 13 in Syracuse to take over the team's scoring lead.
Jobst has totaled 95 points (36+59) in 143 career games as an Amerk and has amassed 120 points (47+73) over 216 career American Hockey League games with Rochester, San Jose, Bridgeport, and Binghamton.
SERIES NOTABLES
Amerks forward Justin Richards spent the 2022-23 campaign with the Monsters, recording 39 points (10+29) in 61 games. He also made his NHL debut with the Columbus Blue Jackets, recording one assist in two games.
Acquired by Columbus at the NHL trade deadline, Cleveland goaltender Malcolm Subban posted a 20-14-5 and two shutouts in a career-high 39 games with the Amerks last season. His 20 wins marked a new personal-best and were tied for 12th-most among goaltenders. He also recorded multiple shutouts for the first time since the 2014-15 campaign. The Toronto native went 8-6 while starting all 14 playoff appearances as he backstopped the Amerks to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Last Saturday's contest was another milestone for Seth Appert, who became just the fourth head coach in the 68-year history of the franchise to man the Rochester bench for 241 career games. He joined an impressive list that includes the likes of Amerks Hall of Famers Randy Cunneyworth, John Van Boxmeer, and Joe Crozier. Additionally, with the win, Appert, who has guided the Amerks to a 117-93-21-10 record and two straight playoff appearances, surpassed Mike Keenan and Chris Taylor for fifth all-time in coaching victories. He's one of just seven head coaches all-time to win 100 games with the Amerks.