STAGE SET FOR AMERKS’ OUTDOOR SEQUEL
Jan 10, 2024
By Andrew Mossbrooks | @Mossbrooks48
On Saturday, Jan. 13, the Rochester Americans will play their 33rd game of the team’s 68th season in the American Hockey League. Typically, this would be viewed as just another outing in a long-winding schedule that runs 72 games deep. The team has played over 5,000 regular season contests since 1956. Odds are few of those games draw much recollection from the players that played them.
This game, however, is a different story. For just the second time in franchise history, the Amerks are heading outdoors. Yes, they will play on a standard sized sheet of AHL ice, but the location of said ice resides from left to right center field at Truist Park in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Amerks will face-off with the Charlotte Checkers in the 2024 Queen City Outdoor Classic.
“It’s where you fall in love with the game,” said Amerks head coach Seth Appert. “Outdoor hockey brings back your best memories as a hockey player. I grew up on an island off the Mississippi River and me and my brothers would be out there in the back channels of the Mississippi skating. On the right years in Minnesota, it wouldn’t snow a ton but it would be very cold so there was ice you could skate on for miles.”
“It’s exciting,” said 31-year-old Ethan Prow, who will play in his first outdoor game at any level of hockey. “It’s pretty special. You want to take in the moment and know that it is a special moment and something you may not be able to do again. Growing up, that’s where you played hockey. We were on the pond playing shinny hockey. That’s kind of where it began for a lot of us. To be able to do this in an actual game that matters is truly special. It’s cool to see the game get brought back to its roots a little bit and it adds an extra edge of fun.”
The Amerks will be the visiting team for the first time in an outdoor game. The last time the franchise took place in what’s become an almost annual marquee event on the AHL calendar came on Dec. 13, 2013, where in front of over 11,000 fans down the street at the home of the Rochester Red Wings, Matt Ellis scored the game-winning shootout goal to lift Rochester to an electrifying 5-4 win over the Lake Erie Monsters in what was dubbed the Frozen Frontier.
“For me, unique events like these bring the game back to its purest form,” said Ellis, the Amerks captain at that time a decade ago.
Now current captain Michael Mersch prepares to lead his team into the outfield. The 11th-year pro will skate in his third outdoor game, having played once in college with the University of Wisconsin, and again with Ontario in the AHL’s 2017 Outdoor Classic in Bakersfield, California.
“There’s something exciting about playing outdoors,” said Mersch. “It should be a really cool event for us and also our fans and families that will be there. They’re events. These are events you mark on your calendars. It hasn’t really hit me yet that we’re playing an outdoor game yet. I hope it’s a great experience. You never know when you’re going to get in one of these.”
Mersch prefaced his comments with optimism for the weather: something that can play a critical factor in these games.
Last season, the Cleveland Monsters hosted the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the Outdoor Classic. The game initially slated for the afternoon got changed into an evening start time after both teams had already taken to the ice for pregame warm-ups.
Rochester has a player from each side of last year’s game on its team now. Veteran goaltender Dustin Tokarski recorded 28 saves in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Monsters that included a goal off the stick of Justin Richards, who netted the first for Cleveland late in the second period.
“I’ve given him some dirt on that one,” laughed Richards. “We’ve talked about that a little bit.”
“The sun was a big factor on the bright ice, but we had a ton of fun even though we got delayed. I already looked at the forecast and it looks like it’s going to be fine this time.”
Tokarski will enter his fourth outdoor game as a pro. Before last season’s, he backed up Buffalo in the 2022 Heritage Classic in Hamilton, Ontario, before serving as the backup for Lehigh Valley in the 2018 Outdoor Classic that took place in Hershey.
“It’s fun,” said Tokarski. “A lot of us played outdoor games growing up. It’s something I’ve been pretty fortunate to be a part of. It’s as old school as it gets when it comes to hockey. It’s cool to experience it. Everyone’s hyped up for it.”
There are those like Tokarski and Richards who have been there and experienced it recently. There are those such as Mersch, who will be reunited with the outdoor conditions after going seven years between games. Then there are those such as Ethan Prow and Seth Appert, two individuals with extensive experience in the game, but none of which brought them under the lights of a stadium.
Saturday will be a special moment. Whether it’s these players, Appert, or anybody else from the Amerks that will get to skate on Truist Field; memories like this are hard enough to create and incredibly difficult to duplicate. This could be the fourth outdoor game for Tokarski and the first for Prow, but it could be the last for each of them.
Hockey is returning to its roots on Saturday. The Amerks are ready and hope to have the same successful outcome as their 2013 predecessor.
FAN FEST IN CHARLOTTE
The Checkers, in partnership with the Charlotte Knights, are hosting Fan Fest ahead of the Queen City Outdoor Classic, presented by Pepsi, on Saturday, Jan. 13.
The free event is open to the public and will feature a variety of vendor booths, five food trucks (Tin Kitchen, Blasian Asian Way, Endless Soulfood & Catering, Draper's Funnel Cakes and Detour Coffeebar), a DJ performance and yard games. Additionally, the Checkers will make their arrival at the Queen City Outdoor Classic by walking through Fan Fest at approximately 4 p.m.
Fan Fest – which will be held on S Mint St. between 3rd St. and W Martin Luther King Blvd. – kicks off at 3 p.m. and will run until 6 p.m., with the Truist Field gates opening at 5:30 p.m. and the Queen City Outdoor Classic beginning at 7:04 p.m.
The Amerks will arrive for the pregame event for a special walk-through beginning at 4:15 p.m. Players will be available for autographs and pictures and meet with fans.