GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS, ROCKET MEET AGAIN TONIGHT IN ROCHESTER
Oct 27, 2023
Amerks PR | @AmerksPR
TONIGHT'S GAME OVERVIEW
The Rochester Americans (3-1-1-0) continue their busy stretch as they welcome the Laval Rocket (1-3-1-0) to The Blue Cross Arena tonight for a 7:05 p.m. contest. The North Division showdown will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV.
The Amerks and Rocket, who enter their seventh season in the AHL and third under head coach Jean-François Houle, will meet eight times during the 2023-24 regular season, with tonight being the first of four in Rochester
Tonight’s matchup is the first of 11 straight against North Division opponents for the Amerks and the third in four games between these two teams.
HEAD-TO-HEAD RESULTS AGAINST LAVAL
Dating back to last season against Laval, Amerks forward Jiri Kulich has recorded seven goals and three assists in 10 career contests against the Rocket. Including Kulich, who scored his first career hat trick last Wednesday in Laval, Rochester returns seven of its top seven point getters versus against the Rocket from 2022-23.
Rochester has picked up at least one point in 14 of its first 19 road games in Laval, going 12-5-2-0 over that span. Conversely, since the start of the 2017-18 campaign, the Amerks have posted a near-perfect 11-3-0-0 mark at The Blue Cross Arena versus Laval.
Rochester has never had a losing season versus the Rocket and have gone 4-3-1-0 each of the last two seasons.
LAST TIME OUT
The Amerks pulled off yet another incredible early-season comeback, this time scoring three goals over a span of 2:42 in the closing minutes of the third period to erase a 3-1 deficit and come away with a 4-3 win over the Charlotte Checkers Wednesday night on home ice.
Isak Rosen (1+1) extended his point streak to an AHL-best five games as he tallied two points for his third multi-point game of the season while linemates Jiri Kulich (1+1) and Matt Savoie (0+1) combined for a goal and two assists. Michael Mersch opened the scoring with his first of the campaign while Aleksandr Kisakov logged his third. Lukas Rousek, Tyson Kozak, Nikita Novikov and Brett Murray all were credited with an assist.
Goaltender Devin Cooley (2-1-0) made 16 saves in his third start of the year while also earning his first win inside The Blue Cross Arena.
KEEPING IT KULICH
Jiri Kulich returns for his second season in Rochester after putting up one of the most impressive and productive seasons as teenager in the history of the American Hockey League during the 2022-23 campaign.
Through the first five games of the season, Kulich is tied for fourth in overall scoring with eight points while his five goals are tied for first. Additionally, he is one of six skaters in the league with a pair of game-winning goals. He shows six goals and nine points over his last seven games dating back to the 2023 Calder Cup Playoffs.
In 67 career AHL games, the Buffalo Sabres’ first-round selection (28th overall) in 2022 has totaled 29 goals and 25 assists for 54 points. Of his 54 points, Kulich has produced 22 career points (10+12) on the power-play.
APPERT YEAR FOUR
Seth Appert is in his fourth season as head coach of the Amerks in 2023-24 after being named to the position on August 18, 2020.
Appert is 87-72-16-7 through his first 182 regular season games 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 last season when they reached the Eastern Conference Finals. After losing three straight to close out the month of January, the resilient Amerks closed out the 2022-23 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.
YOUTH MOVEMENT CONTINUES IN ROCHESTER
Of the 28 players on Rochester’s current roster, half are Buffalo Sabres draft picks, including four 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 began 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 this past spring.
Matt Savoie (1st round, 2022) 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.
ANOTHER FIRST-ROUNDER IN ROCHESTER
Earlier this week, the Buffalo Sabres loaned rookie forward Matt Savoie to Rochester on a conditioning assignment. Savoie made his regular season debut on Wednesday after starting the campaign on the injured reserved.
Prior to joining the Amerks in Games 2 and 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals against Hershey this past May, the highly touted 19-year-old totaled 192 points (73+119) in 149 career games with the WHL’s Winnipeg Ice from 2019-23. He was named a WHL East First All-Star Team selection in 2022.
Savoie is the second member of Buffalo’s 2022 Draft class to appear in one game with the Amerks, joining Kulich, and the sixth first-rounder since the start of 2016 (Alexander Nylander, Casey Mittelstadt, Ryan Johnson, Jack Quinn, Isak Rosen, Jiri Kulich). With the exception of Nylander and Mittelstadt, all players began their professional careers in Rochester.
WORKING OVERTIME
Rochester’s overtime win against Laval back on Oct. 18 was the third straight game that went beyond regulation for Rochester. Never before in the near-68-year history of the franchise have the Amerks began a season with three consecutive overtime contests.
Dating back to last season, 11 of Rochester’s previous 17 regular-season games have required overtime to determine a winner.
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.
SERIES NOTABLES
Kulich (5+3) and Rosen (3+5) lead the Amerks with eight points each through their first five games this season. Entering the weekend, Nikita Novikov and Ryan Johnson’s three assists are tied for most in the AHL amongst all rookie defenseman.
Rocket forward Joel Armia spent parts of two seasons (2013-15) with the Amerks, recording 52 points (17+35) in 87 career games. Armia was formerly a first-round pick (16th overall) of the Buffalo Sabres in 2011.
Laval goaltender Strauss Mann was credited with a goal in the previous meeting between the two teams last Friday, an 8-4 win for the Rocket.
Rocket forward Joshua Roy currently leads the AHL in scoring with 11 points (5+6) through his first five games. Roy, who also paces all rookies in scoring, is coming off a five-point performance last week against the Amerks, including a natural hat trick.