GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS VISIT CRUNCH TONIGHT
Jan 7, 2023TONIGHT'S GAME OVERVIEW
The Rochester Americans (17-11-1-1) look to get back to their winning ways tonight when they take on the intrastate rival Syracuse Crunch (13-11-2-3). All of the action from Upstate Medical University Arena will be carried on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV.
Tonight's matchup is the sixth between the two teams this season and the first of 2023 between the North Division opponents. After tonight, the cross-town foes will remain idle until the two clubs resume their season-series in Rochester on Feb. 11 in Syracuse. The Amerks will play the Crunch a total of six times over their final 42 games.
HEAD-TO-HEAD SERIES SNAPSHOT
The Amerks have claimed three of the first five meetings against the Crunch this season, including two get-togethers in Rochester. The Amerks have outscored Syracuse 12-10 on home ice highlighted by a 7-2 win back on Nov. 9.
The Amerks have scored a power-play goal in 21 of their last 38 games against Syracuse, going 33-for-134 (26.6%) with the man-advantage over that span.
After scoring six points (1+5) in 11 games against the Crunch during the 2021-22 campaign, second-year forward Linus Weissbach currently leads all Rochester skaters with six points (3+3) in five games this season.
LAST TIME OUT
The Amerks took a 1-0 lead into the final 20 minutes of regulation against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms but suffered a 3-2 setback Friday night at The Blue Cross Arena.
Despite the loss, Rochester, whose last back-to-back regulation home losses came on Dec. 7 and Dec. 9, is tied for second in the North Division with 36 points, six points behind the Toronto Marlies.
Lukas Rousek pushed his point streak (3+3) to a career-best five games as he opened the scoring with his 10th goal of the season. Anders Bjork netted his fifth goal of the season while Brett Murray, Linus Weissbach, and Ethan Prow all logged an assist. Prow appeared in his 100th career game as an Amerk and recorded with his four helper in the last five contests.
Goaltender Eric Comrie (1-2-0) made his third straight start of his conditioning stint from the parent Buffalo Sabres. Despite stopping 21 shots, he dropped his second straight in regulation.
A DECEMBER TO REMEMBER FOR SUBBAN
After suffering a defeat in his season-debut, Subban has gone 7-1-0 since, including five straight wins dating back to a 4-3 shootout victory against the first-place Marlies on Dec. 10.
Subban had his arguably best performance of the season during a 75-save weekend in Rochester’s two-game sweep over the Charlotte Checkers. A night after stopping a regular-season career-high 45 saves, Subban was flawless in a 30-save shutout on Dec. 17, his first in the AHL since April 8, 2017, with the Providence Bruins.
Last week, Subban picked up his 100th career win in the 5-4 overtime win over Utica on Dec, 28.
WELL BALANCED OFFENSE
With six goals in his last nine games, Lukas Rousek enters the weekend tied for second on the team with 24 points (10+14) while being one of four Amerks to appear in all 30 games. He accounted for half of his nine goals in December and has been one of the team's most consistent point-getters. He is riding a career-best five-game point streak (3+3) enterint tonight.
With 13 points (6+7) over his last 15 games, including five in the last four games (2+3), Linus Weissbach is four points back from the team-lead with 24 points (12+12) through 30 games. He remains on pace to match his career-high of 16 goals from last season and has already established a new personal-best of three game-winning goals.
Brett Murray, one of four Amerks with at least 23 points on the season, is on pace to surpass the career-high 15 goals he scored in 2021-22 after recording his team-leading 12th of the season last Friday against Belleville. The fourth-year pro comes into tonight with nine points (4+5) in his last nine games and seven goals over his last 14 dating back to a two-goal effort against Providence on Nov. 23. He needs just one more point to reach 100 as an Amerk.
The 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship wrapped up on Thursday with Jiri Kulich and the Czech Republic winning the silver medal. Kulich finished the tournament tied for second with a team-high seven goals, including a hat trick in a 9-0 win over Austria, and added two assists in seven games. Isak Rosen helped Sweden to a fourth-place finish with six points (2+4) in and a plus-seven on-ice rating in seven games.
BIRO PILING UP THE POINTS
Despite missing six games due to injury, Biro has blazed his way atop the team's scoring lead following a productive December in which he led the team with 16 points (6+10) in 10 games. He recorded multi-point efforts in seven of his 10 appearances, including six straight between Dec. 9 and Dec. 30 before closing out the month with an assist in the 3-2 win in Toronto.
He currently paces the Amerks in assists (19) and points (28) through 24 games and saw his career-best seven-game point streak, the third-longest streak in the AHL, come to an end on Wednesday.
Dating back to last season, Biro has totaled 31 points on 11 goals and 20 assists over his last 27 games and hasn't gone more than two games without a point over that span. Since the start of the 2022 calendar year, Biro has posted 19 multi-point outings in 52 games, totaling 57 points on 18 goals and 39 assists.
SCOUTING THE CRUNCH
Tonight's contest marks the second game of a three-in-three weekend for Syracuse. The team will have four over the course of its final 43 games of the season. Overall, Syracuse is in a three-way tie for fourth place in the North Division, five points back of the Amerks and two ahead of Cleveland despite having at least one game in hand on every team in the division.
A 13-year pro, Gabriel Dumont is in his second stint with Syracuse and fourth season overall. He has appeared in 645 career games in the AHL, recording 172 goals and 222 assists for 394 points, including career-highs of 30 goals, 32 assists and 62 points in 2021-22. Dumont was originally a 2009 draft pick by Montreal and played his first six seasons in the Canadiens organization, serving as their AHL team captain in Hamilton (2014-15) and St. John’s (2015-16). He will be appearing in his second AHL All-Star Classic.
SERIES NOTABLES
o far this season, the Amerks have used 13 different defensemen, which is third-most in the AHL behind Belleville, San Diego, San Jose, Toronto and Cleveland. Twelve of the 13 have recorded at least one point while seven have scored. Ethan Prow is the only defenseman to appear in all 29 games this season and has skated in 100 of the 106 games dating back to the start of the 2021-22 campaign.
Amerks defenseman Chase Priskie spent part of the 2020-21 season with the Crunch, notching seven points (3+4) in 15 games. In five games against Rochester that year, Priskie recorded three assists.
Rochester assistant coach Michael Peca spent the majority of the 1994-95 season with the Crunch, where he produced 34 points on 10 goals and 24 assists in just 35 games. It marked Peca’s one of two brief stops in his AHL career, the other being a nine-game stint with the Hamilton Canucks.
Darren Raddysh (9+27) and Alex Barré-Boulet (8+26) currently lead all Crunch skaters with 36 and 34 points, respectively. The duo are sixth and eighth in the AHL in scoring, respectively, while Raddysh is second among all defensemen in goals (9) and points (36).