GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS STRIVE FOR FIVE IN A ROW TONIGHT AGAINST LAVAL
Dec 10, 2021TONIGHT'S GAME OVERVIEW
The Rochester Americans (12-6-0-0) seek their fifth straight win tonight when they host the Laval Rocket (10-9-2-0) in a North Division showdown at The Blue Cross Arena. The 7:05 p.m. contest will be the third of eight scheduled meetings between the two teams this season and will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV.
Tonight’s matchup is first time the Amerks have hosted the Rocket in the Flower City since Rochester completed a four-game season sweep by way of a 4-2 win on Feb. 28, 2020.
HEAD-TO-HEAD SERIES SNAPSHOT
The Amerks have won four straight and five of their last six games to move into sole possession of second place in the AHL’s North Division standings. The Rocket, meanwhile, are currently riding a three-game win streak while while also earning points in four straight to begin the month of December.
Rochester enters tonight showing a 15-3-0 all-time record against Laval and have won 11 of the last 12 games dating back to the 2017-18 campaign.
The Amerks are 7-0-0-0 in their last seven games with Laval, 9-1-0-0 since the start of the 2018-19 season and have outscored the Rocket 34-19.
WATCH: TONIGHT'S FACE-OFF FIRST LOOK
VIEW FROM ROCHESTER
With five players currently performing at or more than a point-per-game pace, the Amerks have the AHL’s top offense and are one of only two teams averaging more than four goals per game. Collectively, Rochester’s 73 goals this season are most in the American Hockey League.
The Amerks enter the weekend with three of the league’s top 13 point-getters in Jack Quinn, JJ Peterka and Michael Mersch. Quinn led all AHL rookies in scoring for the second straight month and is currently tied for second in the league in goals (11) and points (24) through 17 games.
Peterka enters tonight with 14 points (3+11) over his last 13 games dating back to Oct. 30. With 19 points (4+15) on the season, he currently leads the team in assists (15) and ranks second in overall scoring.
Coming off his third-period goal Wednesday night, Mersch has totaled 18 points (11+7) and five multi-point outings over his last 16 games. The Amerks captain began that stretch with a five-game goal-scoring streak, the longest of his career and the longest in the AHL this season, while his five-game point marked his longest since posting a career-best seven-game point streak from Mar. 27 to April 10, 2015.
Sean Malone has been one of Rochester’s most consistent point-getters as of late. Malone, who returned for his second stint with the Amerks in 2021-22, has produced eight points (5+3) over his last four games, including three power-play tallies over that span. More impressively, the fifth-year pro has recorded multi-point showings in three of his last four games.
Rochester’s power-play is currently tops in the AHL after scoring 20 times on 69 opportunities for a league-best 29.0% conversion rate. In just the last three games alone, the Amerks have gone 9-for-16 on the man-advantage, including a season-high four man-up goals in the 7-3 win over Hershey on Nov 26. Mersch, Malone and Quinn share the team lead with four power-play goals each, which is tied for third-most in the AHL.
WATCH: MICHAEL PECA FOLLOWING MORNING SKATE
QUINN-TISSENTIAL QUALITIES
Jack Quinn was named the AHL’s Rookie of the Month for October after leading all first-year players with 10 points (5+5) through the first month of the regular season. In just six games to begin the season, Quinn already surpassed his offensive output from his truncated 2020-21 campaign, and became the first AHL player to reach the 10-point mark this season.
Quinn continued his torrid start to the season by scoring his team-leading 11th goal of the year along with an assist in the 4-2 win at Syracuse on Nov. 27. The rookie sensation is just three points off the AHL scoring lead, trailing only Chicago’s Andrew Poturalski, a 2019 Calder Cup winner, in points.
Quinn has been held scoreless just three times through his first 17 games and comes into tonight having recorded eight multi-point performances this year. More impressively, the Amerks are a perfect 8-0-0-0 this season when Quinn registers a multi-point game, including 4-0-0-0 on home ice.
On Nov. 12, Quinn became the first AHL rookie since Frank Vatrano in 2015-16 to score eight goals through his first 10 games of the season.
FANTASTIC FOUR
The Amerks currently own four of the AHL’s top scoring rookies in Jack Quinn, JJ Peterka, Peyton Krebs and Linus Weissbach who have combined for 66 points (21+45) through the team’s 18 games this season.
Buffalo’s eighth overall pick in 2020, Quinn comes into the weekend leading all AHL rookies in goals (11) and tied for first among all scorers with 24 points. He is one of only eight players in the AHL this season to reach the 20-point mark and the only Amerk to accomplish the feat.
Peterka, meanwhile, is tied for second amongst all first-year players with a team-high 15 assists while his 19 points are fourth-most. He and Quinn, taken just 26 picks apart from one another by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2020 NHL Draft, currently make up one of only two rookie duos across the entire AHL to rank first and second on their team in scoring.
With his overtime game-winner on Wednesday against Utica, Krebs has amassed 15 points on two goals and 13 assists in 13 games this season, tying for seventh among all AHL rookie skaters.
Despite missing the previous four games, Weissbach comes into the contest with three points (1+2) over his last four games. Weissbach, who was Buffalo’s seventh-round selection (192nd overall) in the 2017 NHL Draft, has totaled eight points through his first 14 games.
THE BEST OFFENSE IS A GOOD DEFENSE
With an assist on Sean Malone’s power-play goal against Utica, Oskari Laaksonen has recorded a helper in each of his last six games, which is a career-best. The second-year blueliner leads the league with a team-high 11 power-play assists as all but one of his 12 assists this season have come on the power-play.
Amerks defenseman Mattias Samulesson netted his first goal of the season Wednesday only to follow it up with the primary assist on Mersch’s goal to complete his second two-point effort of the campaign. Samuelsson ranks fourth among all Amerks rookies with nine points and is tied for fifth in the AHL among all first-year blueliners with eight assists. Dating back to Nov. 10, he has notched eight points (1+7) over his last nine outings and is already within four points of matching his offensive output from 2020-21.
SERIES NOTABLES
Laval forward Jean-Sebastien Dea spent the previous two seasons with the Amerks. In 72 games from 2019-21, Dea produced 21 goals and 33 assists for 54 points.
Rocket goaltender Cayden Primeau is the nephew of former Amerk Wayne Primeau, who was a member of the 1996 Calder Cup-winning team. Primeau comes into the matchup tied for 10th among netminders with seven wins.
Prior to the first meeting with the Rocket back on Oct. 29, Casey Fitzgerald and Sean Malone were the only two Amerks that were on Rochester’s roster during the last meeting with the Laval.
In 20 combined games all-time against the Rocket, Malone (17 games, 4+4) and Fitzgerald (3 games, 1+1) have posted 10 points.
Over the last 18 games in the head-to-head series with the Rocket, the Amerks have scored three or more goals 14 times, which includes nine of the last 10 games in Laval.
Both Rochester and Laval enter tonight with 8-0-0-0 records this season when leading after two periods.
Laval Rocket vs Rochester Americans: Head To Head Stats
Summary
|
Description |
Result |
|
| Head to Head Record 2021-22 Regular Season | Laval 0-1-1-0 | Rochester 2-0-0-0 |
| Head to Head Record 2020-21 Regular Season | Laval 0-0-0-0 | Rochester 0-0-0-0 |
| Last 5 Years record between teams | Laval 3-11-3-1 | Rochester 15-3-0-0 |
| Laval vs. Rochester Last 5 Years record at Laval | Laval 1-6-2-1 | Rochester 9-1-0-0 |
| Laval vs. Rochester Last 5 Years record at Rochester | Laval 2-5-1-0 | Rochester 6-2-0-0 |
| Previous Meetings This Season | Rochester 6 @ Laval 5 (Oct 30 2021) Final OT Rochester 4 @ Laval 3 (Oct 29 2021) Final |
How the 2 teams match up
|
Rochester |
Laval |
|
| Team Record | 12-6-0-0 -- 24 points | 10-9-2-0 -- 22 points |
| Division Ranking | 2nd North | 5th North |
| Conference Ranking | 4th Eastern | 10th Eastern |
| League Ranking | 7th | 19th |
| Past 10 Games | 7-3-0-0 | 5-4-1-0 |
| Streak | 4-0-0-0 | 3-0-1-0 |
| Last Game | 4-3 W vs Utica (Dec 8 2021) Final OT | 3-2 W vs Manitoba (Dec 8 2021) Final |
| Home Record | 6-3-0-0 | 7-3-2-0 |
| Away Record | 6-3-0-0 | 3-6-0-0 |
| GF | 73 | 71 |
| GA | 61 | 74 |
| PP (Overall) | (20/69) 29.0% | (13/84) 15.5% |
| PP (Home) | (10/35) 28.6% | (9/47) 19.1% |
| PP (Away) | (10/34) 29.4% | (4/37) 10.8% |
| PK (Overall) | (14/67) 79.1% | (15/87) 82.8% |
| PK (Home) | (7/39) 82.1% | (10/50) 80.0% |
| PK (Away) | (7/28) 75.0% | (5/37) 86.5% |
| PP vs. Opp. | (2/5) 40% | (2/6) 33.3% |
| PK vs. Opp. | (2/6) 66.7% | (2/5) 60% |
| Leading Rookie | Quinn (11-13-24) | Fairbrother (1-5-6) |
| Most PIM | Pekar - 37 | Belpedio - 43 |
| Team PIM/GM | 15.2/Game | 15.5/Game |
| Leading Scorers | Quinn (11-13-24) | Dauphin (11-5-16) |
| Peterka (4-15-19) | Ylönen (4-10-14) | |
| Mersch (11-7-18) | Dea (8-4-12) | |
| Malone (7-11-18) | Ouellet (3-8-11) | |
| Krebs (2-13-15) | Paquette-Bisson (1-10-11) | |
| Last 5 Games | 4-3 W vs Utica (Dec 8 2021) Final OT | 3-2 W vs Manitoba (Dec 8 2021) Final |
| 4-2 W @ Syracuse (Nov 27 2021) Final | 5-1 W @ Toronto (Dec 5 2021) Final | |
| 7-3 W vs Hershey (Nov 26 2021) Final | 4-3 W vs Texas (Dec 3 2021) Final OT | |
| 4-2 W @ Utica (Nov 24 2021) Final | 4-3 L vs Texas (Dec 1 2021) Final OT | |
| 5-3 L @ Utica (Nov 20 2021) Final | 7-3 L @ Belleville (Nov 27 2021) Final | |
| Leading After 1st | 9-1-0-0 | 5-0-0-0 |
| Leading After 2nd | 8-0-0-0 | 8-0-0-0 |
| Tied After 1st | 1-0-0-0 | 2-5-1-0 |
| Tied After 2nd | 1-1-0-0 | 0-1-1-0 |
| Trailing After 1st | 2-5-0-0 | 3-4-1-0 |
| Trailing After 2nd | 3-5-0-0 | 2-8-1-0 |
| Out Shooting Opponents | 1-5-0-0 | 4-5-2-0 |
| Out Shot by Opponents | 11-1-0-0 | 5-4-0-0 |
| 1-Goal Games | 5-2-0-0 | 5-1-2-0 |
| 2-Goal Games | 3-1-0-0 | 0-2-0-0 |
| 3-Goal Games | 0-1-0-0 | 1-3-0-0 |
Laval Rocket
| # | Player | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41 | X Ryan Poehling | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | -1 |
| 10 | Jean-Sébastien Dea | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| 26 | X Jesse Ylönen | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | -1 |
| 43 | Xavier Ouellet | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 21 | Terrance Amorosa | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 22 | Alex Belzile | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 11 | Rafaël Harvey-Pinard | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| 23 | X Michael Pezzetta | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 6 | X Corey Schueneman | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 7 | Louie Belpedio | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 17 | 0 |
| 20 | Gabriel Bourque | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 27 | X Laurent Dauphin | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | -1 |
| 31 | Cayden Primeau | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 12 | Lukas Vejdemo | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 34 | Brandon Baddock | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 |
| 17 | Jean-Christophe Beaudin | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 |
| 2 | Gianni Fairbrother | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 |
| 19 | Alexandre Fortin | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 |
| 37 | Brandon Gignac | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 |
| 18 | Danick Martel | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 40 | Michael McNiven | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 36 | Carl Neill | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 |
| 4 | Tobie Paquette-Bisson | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 |
| 15 | Kevin Roy | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 |
| # | Player | GP | W | L | OT | MIN | GA | GAA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 | Cayden Primeau | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 58:23 | 4 | 4.11 | 0.818 |
| 40 | Michael McNiven | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 63:12 | 6 | 5.70 | 0.769 |
Rochester Americans
| # | Player | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 | Michael Mersch | 2 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 22 | Jack Quinn | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| 2 | Oskari Laaksonen | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| 88 | Brandon Davidson | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 5 | Casey Fitzgerald | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 13 | Linus Weissbach | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | -1 |
| 72 | Ryan MacInnis | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 77 | JJ Peterka | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | Ethan Prow | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 12 | Matej Pekar | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 4 | Jimmy Schuldt | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| 10 | Brandon Biro | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 26 | Mason Jobst | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 17 | Sean Malone | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 23 | X Lukas Craggs | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -1 |
| 80 | X Aaron Dell | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 | X Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 91 | Ryan Scarfo | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -1 |
| 44 | Josh Teves | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | -1 |
| 45 | Brendan Warren | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 |
| # | Player | GP | W | L | OT | MIN | GA | GAA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | X Aaron Dell | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 59:31 | 3 | 3.02 | 0.914 |
| 1 | X Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 63:45 | 5 | 4.71 | 0.848 |