GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS OPEN FOUR-GAME CANADIAN ROAD SWING TODAY IN TORONTO
Oct 23, 2021TODAY'S GAME OVERVIEW
For the first time since the 2019-20 season, the Amerks head north of the border as they begin a four-game Canadian road swing this afternoon against the Toronto Marlies at Coca-Cola Coliseum. The 4:00 p.m. matchup will be the first contest between the two teams since Feb. 8, 2020 and will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM ESPN Rochester as well as AHLTV.
The Amerks and the Marlies will meet a total of six times during the 2021-22 campaign, with tonight’s matchup representing the first of three in Toronto. Following today’s matchup, the teams are idle until the Marlies make their first trip to Rochester on Nov. 3.
HEAD-TO-HEAD RESULTS AGAINST TORONTO
After starting the season-series with a 1-3-0-0 record against the Marlies in 2017-18 , Rochester has gone 9-3-1-0 in the last 13 meetings since, which includes a near-perfect 5-1-0-0 mark in 2018-19.
The Amerks have scored a power-play goal in 10 of their last 28 games against Marlies dating back to the 2016-17 season, going 15-for-90 (16.7%) with the man-advantage over that span. Conversely, Rochester’s penalty kill unit has successfully cleared 79 of the 92 opportunities (85.6%).
Since the start of the 2016-17 season, Rochester has outscored Toronto 88-84, while the Marlies have outshot the Amerks 865-854. There have been five shutouts since 2016-17 with four of the five coming in Toronto.
Over the last 28 games in the head-to-head series with the Marlies, the Ameks have scored two or more goals in 22 contests, which includes nine games where they have produced five or more tallies.
Rochester’s last win in Canada against Toronto was on March 24, 2019 as the club erased a 4-1 deficit early in the third period before earning a 5-4 overtime win. The Amerks scored the game-tying goal with the goaltender pulled for an extra-attacker as there was 27 seconds left in regulation beore claiming the come-from-behind victory just 17 seconds into overtime.
ROCHESTER'S HOME OPENER
Rookie forwards Jack Quinn and JJ Peterka each scored once and added two assists to lift the Amerks to a 5-3 victory over the Syracuse Crunch in the team’s 2021-22 Home Opener Friday at The Blue Cross Arena.
With the win, Rochester has collected at least one point in 22 of the last 34 games against Syracuse dating back to the start of the 2018-19 campaign, going 18-12-3-1 over that span. Additionally, last night’s contest was the seventh time the Crunch have served as Rochester’s home-opening opponent, including three times in the last five years. The Amerks improved to 6-1-0-0 all-time in home-opening matchups against Syracuse.
While both Quinn and Peterka each tallied their first multi-point efforts of the campaign, Sean Malone and defensemen Ethan Prow and Josh Teves all rounded out the scoring for Rochester. Prow and Teves’ markers were their first points as Amerks while Linus Weissbach picked up his first pro point with an assist on Rochester’s first goal of the game.
Goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen earned his second start in the net and he made 21 saves to even his record on the season to 1-1-0 while also picking up an assist for his first career AHL point.
APPERT YEAR TWO
Seth Appert is in his second season as head coach of the Amerks in 2021-22 after being named to the position on August 18, 2020.
In his first campaign behind the Amerks bench, he guided the team to an 11-15-2-1 record over a condensed 29-game season in 2020-21. Despite the shortened season, however, player development was still very much a priority for Appert and his staff as evidenced by more than a dozen players earning recalls to the parent Buffalo Sabres, including Appert himself at one point. Excluding Andrew Oglevie and Casey Fitzgerald, who were recalled to the team’s taxi squad but never saw any game action, nine made their Sabres debuts and five made their National Hockey League debuts.
Rochester also had five different goaltenders dress during the 2020-21 season, the most since the club used seven in 2014-15. All three goaltenders to play with both Rochester and Buffalo earned a win with each club, with both Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Michael Houser picking up their first NHL victories, respectively.
PECA RETURNS TO THE SABRES ORGANIZATION
Michael Peca enters his first season as an assistant coach with the Amerks after being named to the position on August 3, 2021.
As a player, Peca’s professional playing career spanned 14 seasons and 864 games in the National Hockey League with the Vancouver Canucks, Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders, Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets. A four-time 20-goal scorer, he recorded 465 points (176+289) and added 34 points (15+19) in 97 playoff contests while twice guiding his team to the Stanley Cup Final, including in 1999 as captain of the Sabres.
The Toronto, Ontario, native is also a two-time winner of the Frank J. Selke Trophy, given annually “to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.” He was first awarded the honor following the 1996-97 season, becoming the first Sabres forward since Craig Ramsay in 1984-85 to win the award. He was the recipient again just five years later in 2001-02 as a member of the Islanders.
HEAD OF THE (DRAFT) CLASS
The Amerks currently own two of the AHL’s top scoring rookies in Jack Quinn and JJ Peterka, who have combined for seven points (3+4) through their first two games of the season.
Quinn, Buffalo’s eighth overall pick in 2020, comes into the weekend tied for the league lead in goals (2) and tied for third in points (4) among all AHL rookies. His four points also place him inside the league’s top 10 point-getters overall. Coming off goals in back-to-back games to open the season, the Ottawa, Ontario, native and has totaled seven points (2+5) in his last five games dating back to last season. He is the third eighth overall pick of the Sabres in the last five years to spend time in Rochester, joining Alexander Nylander (2016) and Casey Mittelstadt (2017), and the second to make his pro debut with the Amerks following Nylander.
Peterka, meanwhile, is tied for seventh among all first-year players with two assists while his three points are ninth-most. Buffalo’s second-round (34th overall) in 2020, Peterka combined for 36 points (16+20) in 42 games last season with Salzburg and Munich. and represented Germany at the 2021 IIHF World Championship.
SERIES NOTABLES
n 17 of the last 22 meetings dating back to the 2016-17 season, the team that scored first has gone on to come away with the victory. Additionally, in 13 of the last 14 meetings, the winning team has scored at least four goals dating back to the 2017-18 season.
Casey Fitzgerald and Sean Malone are the only two Amerks that were on Rochester’s roster during the last meeting with the Marlies. Richard Clune, Joseph Woll, Teemu Kivihalme, Mac Hollowell, Joseph Duszak and Kristiāns Rubīns are the lone players from Toronto’s.
In 16 combined games all-time against Toronto, Malone (8-games, 1+4) and Fitzgerald (2-games, 1+1) have posted seven points (2+5).
After allowing four goals in his personal debut against Rochester on Dec. 4, 2019, goaltender Joseph Woll earned his second shutout of the season as he blanked the Amerks 4-0 on Feb. 8, 2020.
Toronto Marlies vs Rochester Americans: Head To Head Stats
Summary
|
Description |
Result |
|
| Head to Head Record 2021-22 Regular Season | Toronto 0-0-0-0 | Rochester 0-0-0-0 |
| Head to Head Record 2020-21 Regular Season | Toronto 0-0-0-0 | Rochester 0-0-0-0 |
| Last 5 Years record between teams | Toronto 8-7-2-1 | Rochester 10-7-1-0 |
| Toronto vs. Rochester Last 5 Years record at Toronto | Toronto 3-5-1-0 | Rochester 6-3-0-0 |
| Toronto vs. Rochester Last 5 Years record at Rochester | Toronto 5-2-1-1 | Rochester 4-4-1-0 |
How the 2 teams match up
|
Rochester |
Toronto |
|
| Team Record | 1-1-0-0 -- 2 points | 1-1-0-0 -- 2 points |
| Division Ranking | 4th North | 6th North |
| Conference Ranking | 10th Eastern | 12th Eastern |
| League Ranking | 21st | 23rd |
| Past 10 Games | 1-1-0-0 | 1-1-0-0 |
| Streak | 1-0-0-0 | 0-1-0-0 |
| Last Game | 5-3 W vs Syracuse (Oct 22 2021) Final | 5-0 L vs Manitoba (Oct 17 2021) Final |
| Home Record | 1-0-0-0 | 1-1-0-0 |
| Away Record | 0-1-0-0 | 0-0-0-0 |
| GF | 7 | 5 |
| GA | 9 | 6 |
| PP (Overall) | (0/8) 0.0% | (1/5) 20.0% |
| PP (Home) | (0/3) 0.0% | (1/5) 20.0% |
| PP (Away) | (0/5) 0.0% | (0/0) % |
| PK (Overall) | (2/9) 77.8% | (1/11) 90.9% |
| PK (Home) | (1/6) 83.3% | (1/11) 90.9% |
| PK (Away) | (1/3) 66.7% | (0/0) % |
| PP vs. Opp. | (0/0) 0% | (0/0) 0% |
| PK vs. Opp. | (0/0) 0% | (0/0) 0% |
| Leading Rookie | Quinn (2-2-4) | Der-Arguchintsev (0-1-1) |
| Most PIM | MacInnis - 12 | Douglas - 6 |
| Team PIM/GM | 23.0/Game | 13.0/Game |
| Leading Scorers | Quinn (2-2-4) | Semyonov (0-3-3) |
| Malone (1-2-3) | Ho-Sang (2-0-2) | |
| Peterka (1-2-3) | Seney (2-0-2) | |
| Fitzgerald (1-0-1) | Duszak (0-2-2) | |
| Prow (1-0-1) | Robertson (0-2-2) | |
| Last 5 Games | 5-3 W vs Syracuse (Oct 22 2021) Final | 5-0 L vs Manitoba (Oct 17 2021) Final |
| 6-2 L @ Utica (Oct 17 2021) Final | 5-1 W vs Manitoba (Oct 16 2021) Final | |
| Leading After 1st | 0-0-0-0 | 1-0-0-0 |
| Leading After 2nd | 1-0-0-0 | 1-0-0-0 |
| Tied After 1st | 1-0-0-0 | 0-0-0-0 |
| Tied After 2nd | 0-0-0-0 | 0-0-0-0 |
| Trailing After 1st | 0-1-0-0 | 0-1-0-0 |
| Trailing After 2nd | 0-1-0-0 | 0-1-0-0 |
| Out Shooting Opponents | 0-1-0-0 | 0-0-0-0 |
| Out Shot by Opponents | 1-0-0-0 | 1-1-0-0 |
| 1-Goal Games | 0-0-0-0 | 0-0-0-0 |
| 2-Goal Games | 1-0-0-0 | 0-0-0-0 |
| 3-Goal Games | 0-0-0-0 | 0-0-0-0 |