GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS OPEN TWO-GAME SET WITH B-SENS TONIGHT
Feb 21, 2024TONIGHT'S GAME OVERVIEW
The Rochester Americans (24-17-5-1) play their fifth game in seven nights tonight when they host the Belleville Senators (23-20-2-3) in the first of back-to-back meetings at The Blue Cross Arena. The North Division showdown will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV.
Three points is all that seprates the two teams in the all-too-close North Division standings. The Amerks, who have points in 10 of their last 13 games, currently sit in the third place, five points back of the second-place Syracuse Crunch and three ahead of the fifth-place Senators.
Rochester, however, has a game in hand on Belleville, which has dropped two of its last three coming into tonight.
HEAD-TO-HEAD RESULTS AGAINST BELLEVILLE
Dating back to the 2021-22 season, forward Michael Mersch has recorded 16 points (7+9) in 14 career games against Belleville. The Amerks captain has notched at least one point and one shot in 12 of his 14 games versus the Senators.
Since Belleville entered the league ahead of the 2017-18 season, Rochester has an all-time record of 16-18-2 against the Senators. The Amerks have posted a .500 winning percentage or better in four of the first five seasons in the head-to-head series.
Both teams have outscored the opposition in the first period this season while being outscored in the second and third periods.
LAST TIME OUT
Jeremy Davies scored in the final seconds of overtime and rookie goaltender Devon Levi turned in a brilliant 52-save performance as the Amerks prevailed with a thrilling 2-1 win over the Toronto Marlies Monday afternoon at Scotiabank Arena.
Mason Jobst scored his 14th goal, which matched a career-high, in the second period before Davies sealed the win with his eighth. Lukas Rousek and Brandon Biro each added an assist to conclude the scoring.
After finishing with a then career-high 41-save effort on Feb. 16, Levi stole the show again as he had 52 saves on Monday afternoon in his 10th appearance of the campaign. Levi has back-to-back 40-save performances.
THE BEST OFFENSE IS A GOOD DEFENSE
Jeremy Davies and Kale Clague are among the AHL’s top scoring defensemen, having combined for 11 goals and 44 points this season.
Davies, who has points in three straight games for the second time this season since closing out the month of October on a five-game point streak, scored his eighth goal of the year Monday at Toronto. He enters the week tied for 10th in goals by a defenseman and remains on pace to match the career-high 11 he scored last season. He’s never gone more than four straight games without a point.
Currently on recall with the Buffalo Sabres, Clague is tied for 20th among all blueliners with 20 assists. With two assists last Wednesday at Utica, he has reached the 20-assist mark for the second time in his career and has eclipsed the 20-point mark for the third time since his rookie campaign.
ROUSEK RACKING UP THE POINTS
Lukas Rousek has been one of the team’s most consistent point-getters since the turn of 2024, having recorded points in 14 of his 18 games in that stretch.
Rousek, a sixth-round selection (160th overall) by the Sabres in the 2019 NHL Draft, currently leads the team with 27 assists and 36 points while his nine goals are tied for seventh. Among all Amerks who have appeared in at least 30 games, he is tops in points per game (0.86).
The third-year pro and AHL All-Star saw his career-long point streak come to an end on Jan. 26, stopping at 13 games. He totaled 14 points between Dec. 20 and Jan. 20, the second-longest point streak in the league behind only Toronto’s Alex Steeves, who had a point in 16 straight games.
Rousek’s point streak was the longest by an Amerk in 24 years since Hall of Famer Domenic Pittis had points in 14 straight contests from Jan. 22 to March 4 during the 1999-2000 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 middle of February.
Dating back to Dec. 29 and the turn of the New Year, Neuchev has erupted for 14 points on five goals and nine assists over his previous 14 games.
Neuchev has recorded at least one point in eight 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. 6, Neuchev has recorded four multi-point games, which includes a pair of three-point efforts.
Of Neuchev’s seven goals this season, five 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 19 points (7+12) and 54 shots in 35 games.
APPERT REACHES CENTURY MARK
The 3-2 win at Charlotte on Jan. 12 was a milestone win for Seth Appert, who became just the seventh head coach in the 68-year history of the franchise to reach 100 career victories with Rochester. He joins an impressive list that includes the likes of Amerks Hall of Famers Randy Cunneyworth, John Van Boxmeer, Joe Crozier, Mike Keenan, Chris Taylor and Brian McCutcheon.
On Dec. 16 against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Appert also became the seventh head coach in team history to be behind Rochester’s bench for 200 games.
Since the 2020-21 season, Appert has guided the Amerks to a 107-89-20-8 record as well as two straight playoff appearances, which included a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2023.
It was the team’s deepest playoff run in nearly 20 years and their first to the Conference Finals since the 2004 Calder Cup Playoffs.
LEANING ON LEVI
Devon Levi has earned the start in nine of the last 11 games since being reassigned to Rochester on Jan. 20, including five straight to start February. He enters the week having won three straight and four of his last six.
Levi, who boasts a 6-2-2 record in 10 appearances with the Amerks, joins, has totaled 130 saves om 136 shots he’s faced over his current three-game win streak, boasting an impressive 1.95 goals-against avergage and a .956 save percentage over that span.
His 52 saves on Monday were the most by an Amerks golatender since Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had 54 in a 2-1 win at Syracuse on Feb. 25, 2022.
Levi, who ranks 10th among rookie netminders with a 2.38 goals-against average, has held the opposition to three or fewer goals in nine of his 10 starts, including each of the last seven. He’s 6-1-2 this season in those games and has back-to-back 40-save performances.
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 the nation 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.
Currently in his 15th season, he joins Marcel Paille and Michael Leighton as the only goaltenders all-time to play at least 15 seasons in the AHL.
Tokarski, who’s 7-7-2 in his first 17 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 six wins away from tying Red Almas for 11th all-time in career wins (218). He’s also one game away from tying Ed Chadwick for 16th all-time (417) and will tie Yann Danis for eighth all-time on his next shutout.
A (JOB)ST WELL DONE
Amerks forward Mason Jobst enters tonight with 17 points (7+10) over his last 18 games, the most by an Amerk since the turn of the new year. Last Wednesday in Utica, Jobst appeared in his 200th professional game only to follow up with a career-best three-assist outing this past Friday against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. During Monday’s 2-1 overtime win, he opened the scoring for Rochester with a power-play goal in the second period.
After finishing with a career-best 14 goals, 24 assists and 38 points in 61 games last season with Rochester, Jobst has already matched his goal total in 19 fewer games in 2023-24. Jobst, who is the second Amerk this season to reach the 30-point mark, is second on the team in goals (14) and points (32) while his 18 assists are third.
In 203 career games, all in the American Hockey League with Rochester, San Jose, Bridgeport, and Binghamton, the Ohio State product has notched 43 goals and 65 assists for 108 points.
SERIES NOTABLES
Devon Levi earned his first win as an Amerk in his American Hockey League debut at Belleville back on Dec. 1. The rookie netminder stopped 40 of 42 through regulation and overtime before turning aside all four Senators shooters in the skills competition.
Both Rochester (11-4-1-2) and Belleville (8-3-2-1) come into the matchup sporting winning records when leading after the first period. The Senators are 13-2-1-1 this season when carrying a lead into the second period while the Amerks remain a perfect 14-0-0-0 in that regard.
Including both games earlier this season in Belleville, Rochester has scored nine first-period goals dating back to start the 2022-23 campaign. The Amerks have scored in six of the last 10 first periods during that span. Belleville (13) has scored in all but two first periods over that same stretch.
In 32 of the last 36 meetings between the two teams dating back to the 2017-18 season, the Amerks have scored two or more goals while Belleville has found the back of the net in all but two games during the stretch.
There has been just one shutout over the previous 36 games with Rochester coming up on the wrong side of a 2-0 score on Feb. 7, 2018.
13 contests have been decided beyond regulation, which includes a 3-2 shootout win for the Amerks in the first meeting this season.