GAMEDAY NOTES AND QUOTES: AMERKS BACK HOME TO HOST PHANTOMS
Jan 17, 2024
By Andrew Mossbrooks | @Mossbrooks48
The Rochester Americans (16-13-3-1) return home and go back indoors after participating in the 2024 Queen City Outdoor Classic to host the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (16-13-5-1) at Blue Cross Arena Wednesday night.
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Tonight is the second and final meeting of the season with Lehigh Valley as the Amerks look to settle for a split on the season following the Phantoms’ 5-4 win over Rochester back in late November.
“They got a really good team,” said Amerks head coach Seth Appert. “They are one of the best forechecking teams in the league and play a very demanding style. We gave ourselves a really good chance to win that game (in November) and we blew it late, which was disappointing. We’re going to need a strong, competitive effort across the board tonight to give ourselves a chance to win.”
KULICH BACK ON BCA ICE
For the first time since Dec. 20, All-Star bound forward Jiri Kulich will return to Blue Cross Arena and play in a home game for the Amerks. The 19-year-old Czechia native departed North America late in 2023 to head to Sweden where he would represent his native country at the World Junior Championship, capturing a bronze medal while becoming the all-time points leader by anybody to have played in the tournament for Czechia.
“It was a lot of fun with the guys,” said Kulich. “I just tried to enjoy the moment. Those are memories you keep for life. I grew up playing with all of them. I was so grateful to be captain. I’ve seen how (Michael) Mersch is a captain here and I tried to be like him and help everybody as a leader on and off the ice.”
“His growing maturity as a player is completely different from a year ago,” said Appert. “He talked about how he didn’t like his first couple of games coming back from World Juniors last year and that he didn’t touch the puck in his mind for the first four or five games. I thought he was very dangerous throughout those two games last weekend. He’s more mature in the way he looks at things and how his approach is. Last year at this point we were hiding him at times. We were trying to hide him for harder minutes. Now he’s playing the big minutes and being put in hard positions. His game has grown immensely.”
COMRIE STARTS
Following morning skate, Appert confirmed Eric Comrie will get a second consecutive start in goal for the Amerks after the ninth-year pro took the crease in the Outdoor Classic Saturday night.
Through two starts with Rochester, Comrie has posted a 1-1 record, complimented by a .929 save percentage and a 2.52 goals-against-average.
“We have a real luxury of three goalies who are all capable of being number one goalies in the American Hockey League. It’s hard for them to balance that given there’s three of them right now, but it’s a luxury to have. Comrie has been a really good, calming presence in the short time that he’s been with us.
THREE’S COMPANY
The Amerks are back to having three games on their schedule this week after having back-to-back weeks with only two games.
“This is a huge week for us,” said defenseman Jeremy Davies. “We’re playing well but this is a big week with three games. We have a ton of speed and skill in our locker room and we’re trying to use that on the ice. If we keep doing that, we’ll be successful. The boys are ready to go.”
“I think it’s been good to have two weeks of quality practice time after coming out of a chaotic December,” said Appert. “I think we’ve been very productive and getting a lot out of what we’ve been wanting to accomplish in practice. It will be nice now to get into a three-week set where two of the three upcoming weeks have three games.”
Perhaps the biggest advantage in having more games is the opportunity to spread the wealth, giving playing time to those who haven’t had as much of it lately as a health resurgence has gifted the Amerks with an ample amount of talented bodies to deploy in the lineup.
“It’s just something you have to manage. It is what it is. The best way to manage it is honesty. Sometimes the players don’t like what they’re hearing, but at least they know it’s coming from a place of honesty, so they’re not guessing about what’s going on. We practice in a manner that players should get better in practice if they approach it the right way, and for the guys not getting a lot of minutes and not playing right now, that’s what they’ve got to do.”
NOT BACKING DOWN
Lehigh Valley skates into Wednesday as the second-most penalized team in the AHL, having accumulated 610 penalty minutes, which leads the Atlantic Division and trumps Rochester’s total by a whopping 215 minutes.
“That’s the Flyers’ organization. That’s the way the Flyers are building. A lot of their draft picks are bigger. That’s just their philosophy. It’s not right or wrong. It’s just how they’re building their franchise. You can’t back down. We’ve become a more physical team. You can’t win in playoffs unless you’re willing to have some push back from a physical perspective.”
“We’re expecting a physical game tonight,” said Davies, who logged an assist and four penalty minutes in the meeting against Lehigh Valley back in November. “You want to stay out of the box as much as you can, but you don’t want to back down either. We know that they’re a heavy team and we want to match that. The last thing you want to do is get bullied out there.”