GAMEDAY NOTES AND QUOTES: AMERKS HOST CLEVELAND IN FIRST GAME OF 2024
Jan 5, 2024
By Andrew Mossbrooks | @Mossbrooks48
The 2023-24 AHL season continues into the New Year as the Rochester Americans (14-12-2-1) welcome the Cleveland Monsters (22-8-1-0) back to Blue Cross Arena Friday night.
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Tonight is the fourth of eight encounters between the teams, with Cleveland holding a 2-1 advantage in the season series after their recent 5-3 win over the Amerks back on Dec. 20.
“They’re playing great,” said Amerks head coach Seth Appert. “I said at the beginning of the year that I thought they were the best team in the division, and it’s proved right. They’ve been able to maintain that as some guys have gone up (called-up to Columbus). They still have a pretty dynamic group of weapons in their group right now.”
PROW RETURNS
For the first time since Nov. 25, defenseman and alternate captain Ethan Prow will return to the lineup after being out with injury.
“I’ve been back in full practice this week,” said Prow following Wednesday’s skate. “It’s felt pretty good. There haven’t been any setbacks in practice. Once you’re close to getting back you get that itch and you’ve got a little bit more zip in your game. I’m feeling good.”
“He’s been a leader for this team,” said fellow defenseman, Jeremy Davies. “He has a certain mature presence on the back end for us. He’s a good player with a great shot from the point. We’re happy he’s back and good to go.”
Prow is in his third season with Rochester and has six points (1+5) over 16 games this season. Prow has posted 40-plus points in three of his six AHL seasons where the Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, native has appeared in 60 games.
“He’s been an assistant captain for us for three years,” said Appert. “We found ways to get through a lot of tough situations and adversity over the last few years and guys (like Prow) help us as a staff and players as we navigate those waters. On ice, let’s not underestimate the fact that the last two years he’s been in the top-five in American League scoring by a defenseman.”
COMRIE STARTS
Veteran goaltender Eric Comrie returns to AHL action after spending the first half of his season in Buffalo. The 28-year-old is in his ninth professional season. Comrie went 1-5 in seven games with the Sabres this season, but has over 100 professional wins, including 91 in the AHL.
“I think he’s an awesome teammate and a great person,” said Appert. “That makes him a pleasure to be around for his teammates and his staff. He’s an elite goaltender. He’s proven that at the AHL level and the NHL level. It’s great to be in the NHL, but it’s not great when you’re getting scratched a lot. We all started playing hockey because we love it and it’s fun. It becomes not fun when you aren’t playing a lot, so it’s good for him to come down here and get more minutes and play more.”
“I’m just gonna do what I can as a human being,” said Comrie. “I want to be happy and be joyful and compete to work to be the best person I can be every single day. You always want to play games. For myself, it’s about getting back into a rhythm and giving this team the best chance I can to win.”
Comrie’s arrival means the Amerks will carry three goaltenders for the third time this season.
“There’s one net,” said Appert. “We have three very good goalies. We just have to do the best we can. To manage it in practice is easier in the American League than it is in the NHL, especially the way we practice because it’s a high volume of work for our goaltenders. We’re in a strange stretch where we don’t play a lot of Wednesday games over the next few weeks. We have a lot of just Friday and Saturday games in January, so it makes it a lot more demanding to handle.”
MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
Since Rochester beat Cleveland in a 7-5 goal-scoring showcase on Nov. 18, the Monsters haven’t looked back. Cleveland has gone 15-3 in the 18 games since then to noy only maintain positioning atop the North Division, but break apart from the rest of the pack, as the Monsters skate into Friday with 45 points, seated nine points in front of second place-Syracuse and 14 points ahead of the Amerks.
“They just play really hard,” said forward Brandon Biro. “They’ve had a lot of their players called-up to the Blue Jackets all season and the guys that are still in the lineup are guys that just keep it simple and play the right way and the results have shown that. If they get one or two (goals) on special teams, it can be hard to beat them five-on-five. We have to be ready for their compete level.”
“They’re deep with a lot of good players,” said Davies. “There are players up front that we need to take time and space away from and make the game hard on them. It’s two good teams going at it. It’s going to come down to who executes better. It should be a fun home-and-home for us and a good test.”
“I think that an underrated component of their team this year has been (goaltender) Jet Greaves,” said Appert. “He’s got a .914 save percentage. They’re not a sit-back and just-play-simple defense kind of team. They play aggressive, so that number isn’t inflated. That’s a heck of a save percentage. When you’re getting .914 goaltending, you’re going to win a lot of hockey games.”