GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS CLOSE OUT FEBRUARY TONIGHT AGAINST CRUNCH
Feb 28, 2024TONIGHT'S GAME OVERVIEW
The Rochester Americans (24-18-6-2) bring the month of February to a close tonight when they welcome back the Syracuse Crunch (28-17-3-2) to The Blue Cross Arena. The North Division showdown will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV.
The Amerks, who have points in 11 of their last 16 games, currently sit in a fourth-place tie with the Toronto Marlies, five points back of the second-place Crunch. The club has one game in hand on Belleville, which enters the week having won three straight and sit one point ahead of Rochester.
Syracuse has earned at least one point in 11 of its previous 14 games before Valentine’s Day but have lost three of its last five games coming into the final week of February.
HEAD-TO-HEAD RESULTS AGAINST SYRACUSE
The season series has favored the visiting team as six of the first seven meetings thus far has been won by the road team and five of the seven have been one-goal decisions.
The Amerks have scored at least one power-play goal in 26 of their 43 games (36-for-153) against Syracuse since Seth Appert took over as head coach prior to the 2020-21 season.
Lukas Rousek (3+3) and Brandon Biro (2+4) both have six points opposite the Crunch. Veteran netminder Dustin Tokarski posted back-to-back road wins against his former team while Devon Levi remains in pursuit of his first win against Syracuse having dropped his first three appearances.
LAST TIME OUT
Isak Rosen scored the Amerks’ lone goal in a 2-1 overtime loss to the league-leading Hershey Bears this past Saturday at Giant Center in what was the 466th all-time meeting between the league’s two oldest teams.
While Rosen scored his 12th goal of the season and second on the power-play, Mason Jobst and Brett Murray both added an assist each. Jobst found the scoresheet for the fourth straight game and added his 11th point (6+5) of February to move within two points of the team’s scoring lead.
Goaltender Devon Levi (6-3-3) made his 10th start in the last 13 games since being reassigned to Rochester on Jan. 20, finishing with 37 saves. The rookie netminder is 3-1-1 over his last five contests.
THE BEST OFFENSE IS A GOOD DEFENSE
Jeremy Davies and Kale Clague are among the AHL’s top scoring defensemen, having combined for 11 goals and 45 points this season.
Davies, who had points in three straight games for the second time this season since closing out the month of October on a five-game point streak, scored his eighth goal of the year in last Monday’s 2-1 overtime win at Toronto. He enters tonight tied for 10th in goals by a defenseman and remains on pace to match the career-high 11 he scored last season. He’s never gone more than four straight games without a point.
Back from a three-game stint with the Buffalo Sabres, Clague is tied for 23rd among all blueliners with 20 assists. With two assists at Utica back on Feb. 14, he has reached the 20-assist mark for the second time in his career and has eclipsed the 20-point mark for the third time since his rookie campaign.
ROUSEK RACKING UP THE POINTS
Lukas Rousek has been one of the team’s most consistent point-getters since the turn of 2024, having recorded points in 15 of 21 games in that stretch while also producing 21 points over his last 27 games since Dec. 20.
Rousek, a sixth-round selection (160th overall) by the Sabres in the 2019 NHL Draft, currently leads the team with 28 assists and 37 points while his nine goals are tied for seventh. Among all Amerks who have appeared in at least 30 games, he is tops in points per game (0.82).
The third-year pro and AHL All-Star saw his career-long point streak come to an end on Jan. 26, stopping at 13 games. He totaled 14 points between Dec. 20 and Jan. 20, the second-longest point streak in the league behind only Toronto’s Alex Steeves, who had a point in 16 straight games.
Rousek’s point streak was the longest by an Amerk in 24 years since Hall of Famer Domenic Pittis had points in 14 straight contests from Jan. 22 to March 4 during the 1999-2000 campaign.
NEW YEAR. NEW NEUCHEV
After producing just five points in his first 23 games, rookie foward Viktor Neuchev has unsurprisingly emerged as Rochester’s top scoring rookie through the middle of February.
Dating back to Dec. 29 and the turn of the New Year, Neuchev has erupted for 13 points on five goals and eight assists over his previous 15 games.
Neuchev has recorded at least one point in seven games over that span, including a season-long six-game point streak from Dec. 29 to Jan. 20 which saw him score three goals and record eight points.
Buffalo’s third-round selection (74th overall) in 2022, Neuchev’s most impressive performance of the season came back on Jan. 27, finding the back of the net for the third time in four games with the game-winning goal while also adding two assists in the 7-4 win over Laval. Since Jan. 5, Neuchev has recorded four multi-point games, which includes a pair of three-point efforts.
Of Neuchev’s seven goals this season, five have been scored on home ice and three have come against Laval. Neuchev, who had a 40-goal season while playing for Russia’s junior league during the 2021-22 campaign, currently leads all Amerks rookies with 19 points (7+12) and 57 shots in 37 games.
WORKING OVERTIME
Saturday’s 2-1 overtime loss in Hershey was the third game over the last five for Rochester that went beyond regulation, all of which finished in a 2-1 score. Overall, the Amerks have gone to extra time on 18 different occasions, the most by any team this season, including each of the first three games of the campaign.
Four of the last six games against Syracuse have required extra time to determine a winner, including each of the last two which saw the Crunch overcome a pair of 2-0 deficits before defeating Rochester in overtime on back-to-back nights.
Four of Jiri Kulich’s team-high five game-winning goals this season have come by way of overtime while Isak Rosen, Brandon Biro and Jeremy Davies have each netted the clinching goal during the extra frame.
Never before in the near 68-year history of the franchise have the Amerks opened a season with three consecutive overtime contests.
Of Rochester’s 11 games thus far in February, five have been decided past regulation. The club is 1-3 in overtime in the month and show an 0-1 record in the shootout.
Dating back to Jan. 20 of last season, 28 of Rochester’s previous 88 regular-season games have required overtime to determine a winner. Of the Amerks 40 wins during that same span, 14 have come came following the end of regulation.
The Amerks show a 7-6 record in overtime this season and are 3-2 in the shootout. Rochester tied an AHL record with 29 overtime games in 2017-18, showing a 9-11 record in overtime and 3-6 in the shootout.
LEANING ON LEVI
Devon Levi has earned the start in 10 of the last 13 games since being reassigned to Rochester on Jan. 20, including five straight to open the month of February. He enters the week having won three of his last five and five of his last eight.
Levi, who boasts a 6-3-3 record in 12 appearances with the Amerks, totaled 130 saves on 136 shots he faced over his recent three-game win streak, boasting an impressive 1.95 goals-against average and a .956 save percentage over that span.
His career-high 52 saves in last Monday’s overtime win at Toronto were the most by an Amerks goaltender since Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had 54 in a 2-1 win at Syracuse on Feb. 25, 2022.
Levi, who ranks 12th among rookie netminders with a 2.48 goals-against average, has held the opposition to three or fewer goals in 10 of his 12 starts. He’s 6-1-3 this season in those games.
Levi won the Mike Richter Award, given annually to the top goaltender in men’s college hockey, for the second straight year following the 2022-23 season.
The only two-time winner in the award’s history, Levi led the nation again with a .933 save percentage, and tied for third in both shutouts (6) and saves (1,183).
TOKARSKI ON THE MOVE
Veteran goaltender Dustin Tokarski, who missed the first eight games of the season due to an injury he sustained in training camp, made his season debut back on Nov. 3 against Utica.
In doing so, the two-time Calder Cup winner and AHL All-Star became just the 18th goaltender in league history to play in 400 career games, a list that also includes former Amerks Bobby Perreault (512), Michael Leighton (507), Drew MacIntyre (440) and Ed Chadwick (417).
Tokarski, who’s in his second stint with the Amerks and 10th different AHL franchise, went 1-1-0 during a brief two-game stint with Rochester as part of the COVID-shortnened 2020-21 campaign. He went 12-20-7 in 42 appearances with the Buffalo Sabres from 2021-23.
Currently in his 15th season, he joins Marcel Paille and Michael Leighton as the only goaltenders all-time to play at least 15 seasons in the AHL.
Tokarski, who’s 7-7-3 in his first 18 appearances, surpassed the 10,000-save mark for his AHL career following a 31-save effort against Utica on Nov. 10. He also reached the 12,000-save mark for his pro career the week prior when he made his season debut against the Comets.
Entering tonight, the 34-year-old Tokarski is six wins away from tying Red Almas for 11th all-time in career wins (218). He’s also two games away from tying Neil Little for 15th all-time (419) and will tie Yann Danis for eighth all-time on his next shutout.
A (JOB)ST WELL DONE
Amerks forward Mason Jobst enters tonight with 20 points (9+11) over his last 21 games, the most by an Amerk since the turn of the new year. Jobst, who appeared in his 200th professional game at Utica on Feb. 14, recorded a career-best three-assist outing on Feb. 16 against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and followed that up by scoring goals in three straight games, including his career-high 16th goal of the season last Friday night against Belleville.
After closing out the 2022-23 campaign with career-highs in all offensive categories, the fifth-year forward has already surpassed his goal total in 18 fewer games this season. Jobst, who is the second Amerk this season to reach the 30-point mark, is second on the team in goals (16) and points (35) while his 19 assists are second-most amongst all Rochester forwards.
In 206 career games, all in the American Hockey League with Rochester, San Jose, Bridgeport, and Binghamton, the Ohio State product has notched 45 goals and 66 assists for 111 points.
SERIES NOTABLES
Amerks goaltender Dustin Tokarski spent the 2012-13 season with the Crunch, going 18-8-4 with a 2.46 goals-against average over 33 contests.
Rochester defenseman Riley Stillman recorded three assists in five games for Syracuse during the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign.
Crunch defenseman Devante Stephens, who was originally a fifth-round selection (122nd overall) of the Buffalo Sabres in the 2015 NHL Draft, played seven games with the Amerks over parts of two seasons (2017-19).
Six of the first seven meetings thus far this season have been won by the visiting team with the only exception coming back on Feb. 10.
Both Rochester and Syracuse come into the matchup with winning records when leading after the second period. The Crunch boast a 17-2-1-0 mark this season when carrying a lead into the third period while the Amerks are a near-perfect 14-0-0-1 in that regard.