AMERKS CONTINUE TO WEATHER THE STORM WITH ‘NEXT MAN UP’ MENTALITY
Rochester entering final week of January with 182-man games lost
Jan 27, 2026By Andrew Mossbrooks | @ Mossbrooks48
While folks around the Greater Rochester Area are grabbing their shovels to dig themselves free from snow, the players comprising this year’s Rochester Americans haven’t noticed a difference in the weather.
That’s because the 70th season of Amerks hockey has been in a year-long storm. The harsh winds have whipped away players to Buffalo while the never-ending torrential downpour has flooded the team with injuries. Through 40 games played this season, the Amerks have lost 182-man games due to injuries or call-ups.
Yet, they continue to find themselves in playoff positioning as they navigate the conditions.
“You’ve just got to play,” said Amerks head coach Mike Leone ahead of the team’s six-game homestand that began on Friday. “I don’t like spending time worrying about it. It is what it is. Everybody goes through injuries and call-ups. It’s how you go through it and manage it. No excuses. Our guys have done an incredible job of that.”
The Amerks have played through roughly 55 percent of their 72-game slate. Over that time, eight different players have been recalled to the Sabres and have been hindered by injuries.
Defense has taken the biggest hit as the Amerks opened their homestand against Utica over the weekend missing five blueliners from the team’s opening night roster. This weekend’s defense core included Mason Geertsen, whose natural position is forward, Aidan Fulp, who had spent all of his season with ECHL-Jacksonville prior to one week ago, and Peter Tischke, who was summoned to play his first AHL game in nearly three years.
The end result: a 3-0 shutout win over the Comets.
“A lot of the guys stepped up,” said goaltender Devon Levi after blanking Utica with 23 saves. “That’s kind of what you need. You need guys who can lock it down and they (the defense) did that. The systems we use here are great. It seems like everyone’s on the same page.”
And regardless of who has been in the lineup, the systems have worked. No, the Amerks haven’t won every game. Nobody has or could , though Grand Rapids certainly tried.
But Rochester has been in every game. Of their 40 games played, they have lost by more than three goals just once. Even in those multi-goal defeats, there are several instances where the Amerks were still outplaying their opponent.
“That next man up mentality is something we pride ourselves on here,” said Jagger Joshua, who had the an assist in the team’s 2-1 loss to Cleveland on Saturday. “We have a lot of good players up with the Sabres right now, but with the way we play, if you play hard, you’re going to get rewarded.”
“How many teams have played this many games and been in every one of those games,” questioned Leone. “Probably not many. We believe in the group. When the puck drops, you’ve just got to play.”
While the defense has been highlighted, the Amerks are playing with a forward group that misses alternate captain Josh Dunne, along with second-year prospects Noah Östlund and Konsta Helenius. Earlier in the season, the team had to play without its leading goal scorer Isak Rosén as well. All players who you’d find on a power-play unit, and despite the absences on and off throughout the 2025-26 campaign, Rochester yields the best man-advantage in the Eastern Conference, clicking at a 24% clip. An astounding 14 different players have scored power-play goals in an Amerks jersey this season.
Even goaltending has been handicapped this year. Topias Leinonen, a first-year player in North America that was expected to be the backup to Levi throughout the season, has been on the shelf since early December with no clear timetable for a return. The Amerks recalled 20-year-old Scott Ratzlaff to make his AHL debut at the end of December in Cleveland, where the rookie shined with 24 saves in front of over 13,000 fans to help Rochester end 2025 with an overtime win.
Then, there’s Levi, of course. Through adversity with a challenging first half of the season, Levi has stayed the course as a workhorse for the team, playing in a league high-28 games, 1653:10 minutes, and making more saves than any other goaltender (723).
This is the story of the 2025-26 Rochester Americans. While the ground outside is sure to be visible again in the coming days across the Flower City, there doesn’t appear to be an end in sight for the weather this Amerks team has been forced to endure.
But it’s these kinds of stories, this type of adversity, and those types of tests that can lead to the perfect storm come playoff time.