GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS BATTLE MONSTERS AGAIN TONIGHT AT BLUE CROSS ARENA
Apr 14, 2021TONIGHT'S GAME OVERVIEW
The Rochester Americans (8-6-2-1) resume their three-game series against the Cleveland Monsters (9-5-1-0) tonight at The Blue Cross Arena.
The 6:05 p.m. contest will be the fourth of six scheduled meetings between the two teams this season as Rochester opened the season-series with a 7-3 victory while Cleveland has since countered with two straight wins.
The matchup will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM ESPN Rochester and AHLTV.
WATCH: TONIGHT'S GAME PREVIEW
LAST TIME OUT
Cleveland scored three times in each period and scored converted on power-play opportunities to come away with a 9-2 win in the series opener on Saturday in Rochester.
The loss snapped a three-game point streak (2-0-1-0) for the Amerks, who were held to a season-low 14 shots on goal and were outcored 6-0 over the final two periods. The Amerks, however, boast a 30-9-4-4 record against the Monsters since the start of the 2011-12 season and claimed at least one point in all seven meetings with Cleveland during the 2019-20 campaign.
Rookie defenseman Griffin Luce opened the scoring with his second goal of the campaign just 1:37 into the first period while team captain Steven Fogarty, who was reassigned earlier in the day from the Buffalo Sabres, chipped in his sixth marker of the slate. Despite playing in his first game with Rochester since Mar. 10, Fogarty now shares the team lead in goals.
First-year goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (7-5-2) made his sixth consecutive start in the crease for Rochester and 11th in the last 12 games. The rookie netminder finished with 22 saves and ranks eighth in the AHL in wins. The Finland native has made 25 or more saves in nine of his last 13 appearances dating back to a career-best 43-save performance at Cleveland on Feb. 12.
WATCH: SETH APPERT AFTER MORNING SKATE
POWER UP
Now 17 games into the campaign, Rochester’s power-play has gone 20-for-69 with a 29.0% conversion rate that is currently second in the AHL. The Amerks’ 20 goals on the man-advantage are most among all North Division teams and only one off the AHL lead behind only the San Diego Gulls and Chicago Wolves, who have played in 12 and three more games than Rochester, respectively, coming into tonight.
The Amerks have scored at least one power-play goal in 13 of their 17 games this season and have registered multiple power-play tallies in three of their last 10 outings overall, including three against Syracuse on April 3.
FINN-ISHING TOUCH
After leaving Finland in January as Liiga’s top point-getter, forward Arttu Ruotsalainen has taken his first season in North America by storm with a team-leading 13 points (5+8) through his first 13 games. The Oulu, Finland, native began the slate by recording a point in each of his first four games and and now shows nine points (4+5) over his last seven outings, including goals in back-to-back games twice over that span.
After becoming the 12th different Amerks player this season to earn a recall last week, Ruotsalainen was the second to make his NHL debut when he took the ice against Washington on April 9. He later went on to score his first NHL goal two days later in Buffalo’s 5-3 win Sunday over Philadelphia.
WATCH: JACK QUINN AFTER MORNING SKATE
YOUTH MOVEMENT
Rochester’s roster features 13 incoming rookies ready to make a splash in their first season in the American Hockey League, most of whom are products of the NCAA in forwards Brandon Biro (Penn State), Dawson DiPietro (Western Michigan), Dominic Franco (Army West Point) and Patrick Polino (R.P.I.); defensemen Ryan Jones (Nebraska-Omaha), Nick Welsh (St. Mary’s) Griffin Luce (Michigan) and Mattias Samuelsson (Western Michigan)..
Jack Quinn, Buffalo’s eighth overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, rounds out Rochester’s rookie class this season. The highly touted 19-year-old is coming off an explosive 52-goal season for the Ottawa 67’s in 2019-20, during which he became just the eighth player since 2000-01 to reach the 50-goal mark in his NHL Draft Year. He finished the season second in the Ontario Hockey League in goals and tied for fifth with 15 power-play tallies while also adding 37 assists.
Quinn made his professional debut with Rochester back on Feb. 18 against Utica, recording an assist on the game-tying third-period goal before scoring the shootout-clinching goal on a dazzling effort in the second round. Through his first 13 games, the Ottawa, Ontario, native ranks second among Amerks rookies with seven points (2+5), including three points over his last four games. Quinn is the third eighth overall pick of the Sabres in the last five years to spend time in Rochester, joining Alexander Nylander (2016) and Casey Mittelstadt (2017), and the second to make his pro debut with the Amerks following Nylander, who spent parts of three seasons in Rochester.
STAND AND DEA-LIVER
After leading the Amerks in points (39) and holding a share of the team-lead in goals (15) during the 2019-20 season, his first in Rochester, forward Jean-Sebastien Dea is again among the team’s top point-getters this season. By posting a season-high three points on a goal and two assists on March 6 against Syracuse, he became the first Amerks skater this season to reach double digits in points with 12 (4+8) through 10 games.
Dea, who has notched at least one point in eight of his first 11 games this season, has already recorded four multi-point games after posting six in 57 contests last season. Currently on recall with the Buffalo Sabres, he also paces all Rochester skaters with an on-ice rating of plus-seven.
THE BEST OFFENSE IS A GOOD DEFENSE
Rochester comes into the weekend owning three of the AHL’s top scoring rookie defensemen in Oskari Laaksonen, Mattias Samuelsson and Ryan Jones, all of whom have combined for 25 points (5+20) with just one game all season being missed between the three blueliners.
Among all AHL rookie defensemen, Laaksonen and Samuelsson are tied for third and 10th in assists and tied for fourth and 13th in points, respectively. Samuelsson has six points (1+5) in his last 10 games, while Laaksonen has five points (2+3) over his last six outings, including back-to-back multi-point efforts over that span for the first time all season.
SCOUTING THE MONSTERS
Cleveland comes into the matchup on the heels of a 9-2 win over the Amerks last Saturday night. The Monsters are also 8-2-0-0 in their last 10 games, the second-best mark in the league over that span, and presently riding a four-game win streak, during which they have outscored the oppositon 23-7.
Forward Tyler Sikura currently leads all Cleveland skaters with seven goals and 14 points as well as a team-high 30 shots through 15 games this season.
SERIES NOTABLES
Amerks forward Andrew Oglevie scored his first career hat trick back on Nov. 30, 2019 against Cleveland, single-handedly outscoring the Monsters to lead the Amerks to a 3-2 win.
Rochester holds a record of 30-9-4-4 over Cleveland since the start of the 2011-12 campaign and earned a point in eight of the last 10 games, which includes all seven meetings last season.
Last season in the head-to-head series, all seven games were decided by one goal, including five that went beyond regulation.
Monsters forward and assistant captain Nathan Gerbe spent five seasons in the Buffalo Sabres organization from 2008-13 and was named the AHL’s Rookie of the Year in 2008-09 after leading all first-year players with 56 points (30+26) in 57 games for the Portland Pirates. In 108 career games with the Monsters, Gerbe has recorded 85 points 26 goals and 59 assists since joining Cleveland for the 2017-18 season.