TACO BELL WRAP-UP: AMERKS NAB THREE POINTS OVER BUSY WEEKEND
Amerks complete first three-game weekend of the 2024-25 season
Jan 21, 2025
By Andrew Mossbrooks | @ Mossbrooks48
The Rochester Americans (23-11-3-1) played three games in three cities over a three-day span for the first time this season. After splitting a pair of games with Lehigh Valley, the Amerks dropped a 5-4 final in Hershey Sunday evening, but still finished the weekend with three out of a possible six points as their stretch of Atlantic Division action continues.
As Rochester crossed the midway point of the season, the team still finds itself atop the North Division with 50 points, though four of the other six teams have games in hand.
THREE-IN-THREE, YIPPEE
Rochester is done with the first of its four scheduled three-game weekends, going 1-1-0-1. After beginning Friday at home with a 3-2 shootout loss to the Phantoms, the Amerks returned the favor 24 hours later, topping Lehigh Valley on its home ice by a 3-2 margin. The next night, a 5-4 final favored Hershey in a game that saw five goals scored in the final frame of regulation.
Josh Dunne saw his six-game point streak end against the Bears, though the power forward has gone even or better with his +/- in nine of his last 11 games.
Isak Rosén registered multiple power-play goals in the same game for the first time in his career, striking for two of Rochester’s three-man advantage conversions Saturday night in Lehigh Valley. Anton Wahlberg scored the other power-play goal and has scored on special teams over back-to-back weekends.
Brett Murray tacked a goal and an assist onto his career totals over the weekend. The sixth-year Amerks is 10 goals away from 100 with the team, along with four assists back of reaching triple digits. Additionally, Murray needs three more games played to reach 300 as an Amerk.
Fellow veteran Mason Jobst collected three assists over the two road games and now has nine points (5+4) over his last eight contests, with four of those being multi-point performances.
The Amerks’ next three-in-three comes Feb. 14-16, though on that weekend Rochester will host two games instead of being on the road for a pair.
FIRST FOR KOMY
After 36 games in the red, white, and blue, rookie defenseman Vsevolod Komarov scored his first professional goal Sunday afternoon against the Hershey Bears. Komarov raced to the front of the net to direct a puck fluttered to him from fellow blueliner Kale Clague through the goaltender and in for his first in the AHL.
The 20-year-old was plucked in the fifth round of the 2022 NHL Draft by Buffalo and has since gone on to dominate at the junior level. Komarov won a Memorial Cup with the Quebec Remparts in 2023, then posted 69 points between Quebec and Drummondville during the 2023-24 QMJHL season. He was named the league’s defenseman of the year in addition to receiving the Guy Lafleur Trophy as the QMJHL playoffs’ most valuable player.
In 36 games as an Amerk, the Chelyabinsk, Russia, native has nine points (1+8). While the goal Sunday counts as his first, Komarov does own a shootout game-winning-goal from his conversion back on Nov. 2 against Utica.
FELIX THE FANTASTIC
While much of the hype in Rochester has surrounded All-Star goaltender Devon Levi, the Amerks have had another stellar netminder doing his thing in-between the pipes. Felix Sandström has won four straight starts dating back to Dec. 14, allowing more than two goals in just one of those appearances. On Saturday, the Gavle, Sweden, native returned to his first home in North America, as Sandström got the start in Lehigh Valley to face-off against the Phantoms, the team he played parts of the last six seasons for.
Sandström recorded the win with 25 saves, celebrating not only his victory against his former team, but also his 100th AHL game. With Rochester, the 28-year-old has gone 7-4-1 on the season with a 2.88 goals-against-average and an .897 save percentage.
Sandström has also won seven of his last 10 starts with Rochester and is 6-1-1 on the road this season.
COMING UP NEXT
The Amerks are amid a four-game road trip that takes them through half of the Atlantic Division. After their tour through the Keystone State, Rochester now embarks on their New England trip, where the Providence Bruins and Hartford Wolf Pack will be waiting.
The action resumes Friday in Providence as the Amerks take on a Bruins team that is second only to Hershey in the Atlantic Division. The Bruins have also won three straight and have 46 points (21-13-3-1).
Following that, the Amerks head to Hartford against a Wolf Pack squad that has won back-to-back games, but are towards the bottom of their division with a barely over .500 record (18-17-2-1). The game in Hartford marks the final road game in January for the red, white, and blue.