GAME PREVIEW: ROAD TRIP CONTIUNES AS AMERKS ENTER LAVAL
Rochester plays game three of season long five-game road trip
Dec 10, 2024
By Andrew Mossbrooks | @ Mossbrooks48
The Rochester Americans (12-8-3-0) continue their season-long five-game road trip in the Great White North, as they face-off against the North Division-leading Laval Rocket (15-6-1-1) Wednesday night at Place Bell.
Tonight is the fourth of eight meetings between Rochester and Laval, with the Amerks yielding a 1-1-1-0 record. In their last and only encounter north of the border, Lukas Rousek scored the game-winning-goal in overtime for the Amerks to pull out a 2-1 win.
The two teams met three times over a seven-day span in November, but Wednesday is their last game against one another until Feb. 16. Rochester owns a remarkable 15-6-2-0 record all-time at Place Bell.
LAST TIME OUT
Rochester began its road trip with a weekend split down in Charlotte. After falling 6-0 to the Checkers Friday, Devon Levi was impenetrable during Saturday’s rematch, turning aside all 30 shots faced as the Amerks flipped the script by returning the favor in a 3-0 win. Graham Slaggert scored his fifth goal of the season, serving as the game-winner, while Nikita Novikov buried his second goal of the year in the third period, before Brendan Warren put the game on ice with his empty-net conversion.
The win gave Rochester four victories over the team’s last five games and improved its road record to 8-3-1-0. At 27 points, the Amerks are tied with Toronto for third in the North Division. Each of Rochester’s eight remaining games in December come against divisional opponents.
While the Amerks picked up a shutout win Saturday, it was a high-scoring affair in Laval between the Rocket and Marlies. Laval’s Owen Beck scored the go-ahead goal with 20 seconds remaining in regulation to earn the Rocket a 5-4 win. Beck’s goal was his second of the night and extended his goal-scoring streak to three games (4+1). The rookie forward has a six-game point streak overall and leads all Laval skaters with 20 points (7+13).
Overall, Laval has strung together points in three straight, going 2-0-0-1 over that span. The Rocket remain in first place, but are now sitting in a tie with Cleveland, who also own 32 points. Laval is one of five teams to have reached 15 wins this season.
DEVON DOMINATING
With his shutout Saturday, second-year pro Devon Levi has won four straight starts, improving to 5-1-1 on the season with a 1.96 goals-against-average and a .917 save percentage. Those numbers rank fifth and 10th across the AHL, respectively.
Levi, 22, has guided the Amerks to standings points in 26 of his 33 games with Rochester, dating back to his debut with the team last December. The Montreal, Quebec, native is 2-0-0 against the Canadiens’ AHL affiliate, with both wins coming in his home province.
Saturday’s win over the Checkers marked the first time Levi faced 30 shots this season. The Sabres’ prospect faced fewer than 30 shots in his previous six starts this season, while seeing less than 30 pucks just seven times in 2023-24.
KOZAK’S BACK
Forward Tyson Kozak has been reassigned to Rochester after making his NHL debut last week for the Buffalo Sabres. The seventh-round draft pick from 2021 made his debut last Thursday against Winnipeg, scoring what was believed to be his first goal in the National Hockey League before getting waived off in heartbreaking fashion. Kozak made up for it two days later, notching his first official goal Saturday against Utah in what also turned out to be the first goal in Sabres franchise history against the NHL’s newest club.
In 14 games with the Amerks, Kozak has already tied his career-high in goals with five, doing so in 27 fewer games than last season. The Souris, Manitoba, native is in his third season playing for the red, white, and blue. In 110 games as an Amerk, Kozak has 15 goals and 28 points to go with 78 penalty minutes.
TEAM ROCKET
Laval enters Wednesday a top five team in goals for (73) and penalty minutes (333). The Rocket finished last season with the fifth-most goals in the AHL but were the only roster in the league’s top 10 scoring teams not to make the playoffs.
A dozen new players were brought in to start the 2024-25 season, along with new head coach Pascal Vincent, and the Rocket have held onto first place in the North Division for the bulk of the opening third of the season.
Both Rochester and Laval stand as the only teams in the division with eight different players already at double-digit point totals on the season. Both teams are also in the top eight for youngest rosters in the AHL, with Laval at an average age of 24.10 compared to Rochester’s 24.04.
Laval forwards Joshua Roy and Jared Davidson are two of 18 players with 10 or more goals this season. Half of Roy’s goals have been scored on the power-play. He is one of six players in a six-way tie for second-most power-play goals in the AHL, trailing Charlotte’s Kyle Criscuolo and Rochester’s Brett Murray (six).