AMERKS TOP FIVE FACTS FROM THE MONTH OF APRIL
May 3, 2022By Suzie Cool
If we had to pick one word to describe the month of April for the Rochester Americans, we’d “dramatic” would most likely be the best choice. While the Amerks managed to clinch the final playoff spot in the North Division, it didn’t come easy or without many milestones along the way. Here’s a closer look at the Amerks five fast facts from the last month of the 2021-22 regular season.
1. AMERKS PUNCH PLAYOFF TICKET
The Amerks are back in the Calder Cup Playoffs for the first time since the 2018-19 season, the last year the playoffs were even held due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the road to get back into the playoffs wasn’t an easy one for Rochester.
While the AHL is requiring all teams in the league to play 72 games next season across the board, this year’s teams played a different number of games. Some stuck with a 76-game schedule, some 68 and you can’t count out the cancellations or postponements thanks to COVID.
This, in turn, made the league go by points-percentage this year rather than points, which made for a very dramatic entrance for the Amerks to clinch that final playoff spot in the North Division.
Going into the final week, Rochester was sitting in sixth place in the North with just one game left on its 2021-22 regular season schedule. It came down to Rochester having to win Friday’s contest against the Utica Comets and the Toronto Marlies getting no more than three points in their three games that were still left on their schedule.
The Marlies played back-to-back nights against the Laval Rocket, picking up three points along the way. Rochester then notched its final two points of the season on the strength of an absolute thumping in a must-win situation Friday against the AHL’s top team, but still had to wait it out until Toronto took on the Belleville Senators the next day. With Belleville’s 5-2 regulation win on Saturday over the Marlies, the Amerks punched their way to the playoffs for the third straight year dating back to 2018 and the 47th time overall in franchise history.
2. ALL-STAR ROOKIES ON THE ALL-ROOKIE TEAM
Rookie forwards JJ Peterka and Jack Quinn were among the three forwards named to the six-player 2021-22 AHL All-Rookie Team. They became the first set of Amerks rookies to earn the honors in the same season since former goaltender Mika Noronen and defenseman Dmitri Kalinin in 1999-2000. It’s also the first time in team history two forwards were selected to the same All-Rookie Team.
This season marks the first time in nearly 30 years the Amerks have had multiple rookies record more than 50 points in the same season since 1992-93 when the club had five: Todd Simon (93), Scott Thomas (59), Doug MacDonald (58), Jozef Cierny (54) and Mike McLaughin (54).
In Rochester’s regular season finale against the Comets on Friday, the duo became the first pair of rookies in franchise history to record 60 or more points in the same season, a feat accomplished with Quinn’s 26th goal of the season just 6:30 into the first frame.
3. QUINN NAMED AHL'S TOP ROOKIE
If being named to the AHL All-Rookie Team wasn’t enough, Quinn was selected as the winner of the Dudley (Red) Garrett Memorial Award as the AHL’s outstanding rookie for the 2021-22 season.
The award was voted on by coaches, players and members of the media in each of the league’s 31 cities.
After his 2020-21 season was cut short by injury, Quinn emerged as one of the top young prospects in the AHL in 2021-22. In 45 games with Rochester, Quinn has registered 26 goals and 35 assists, ranking first among rookies and third in the league overall averaging 1.36 points per game while not going more than two consecutive games without a point all season. He earned AHL Rookie of the Month honors in October, and compiled 18 multiple-point games, including a four-goal performance on Jan. 15 vs. Belleville.
This award, which was first presented by the AHL in 1947, honors the late Dudley (Red) Garrett, a promising young player who lost his life during World War II while serving in the Royal Canadian Navy. Garrett split his only pro season, 1942-43, between the AHL’s Providence Reds and the NHL’s New York Rangers. Quinn is the seventh member of the Amerks ever to win the Red Garrett Award, joining Bill Hicke (1959), Mike Walton (1966), Ron Ward (1969), Claude Verret (1984), Donald Audette (1990) and Mika Noronen (2000).
4. MALONE MADE UP FOR LOST TIME
After an injury-riddled season that limited him to just 39 games, forward Sean Malone certainly made up for lost time in the back half of the 2021-22 regular season with the Amerks.
In just the short amount of time Malone was back in the lineup, Malone shattered his offensive total from the 2019-20 season with Rochester. The fifth-year forward recorded 20 goals and 37 points, both career-highs, while his 17 assists were just one away from equaling his season’s best.
He scored his 20th goal of the year in the season-ending win over Utica, reaching the mark for the first time in his pro career while also becoming the fourth Amerk this season to do so.
More impressively, Malone surpassed the 30-point mark in 30 fewer games from 2019-20 and tallied 20 goals for the first time in his pro career.
Back on April 9 against the Belleville Senators, Malone appeared in his 200th game as an Amerk and reached the century mark for points with his third-period goal against the Springfield Thunderbirds on April 19. Malone is the 59th forward in team history to skate in 200 or more games. In 208 career games, Malone has registered 48 goals and 54 assists for 102 points since the start of the 2017-18 season in Rochester.
5. THE ROAD AHEAD STARTS WITH BELLEVILLE
The Amerks will face the Belleville Senators in the play-in qualifying round of the 2022 Calder Cup Playoffs. Rochester will host Game 1 of the best-of-three opening round on Wednesday, May 4 before the series shifts north of the border for Games 2 and, if necessary, 3 on Friday, May 6 and Sunday, May 8 at CAA Arena.
The opening round series will mark the first-ever meeting in the postseason between the two teams.