GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS FACE ROCKET FOR FIRST TIME SINCE PLAYOFFS
Five things to know as Rochester hosts defending regular season champs tonight
Oct 24, 2025By Andrew Mossbrooks | @ Mossbrooks48
It’s a playoff rematch from the 2025 North Division Finals as the Rochester Americans (3-2-0-0) face-off against the Laval Rocket (3-2-0-0) Friday night at Blue Cross Arena.
| GAME NOTES | ROSTER SHEET | MEDIA KIT | GET TICKETS! |
Here are five things to know before tonight’s game.
DID IT FOUR HISTORY
On Wednesday, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 21 saves in his brief one-game conditioning stint and first game as an Amerk since Nov. 9, 2022, as Rochester bounced back from Saturday night, topping the Crunch by a 4-2 final in their rematch, subsequently handing Syracuse its first loss of the season.
Josh Dunne was reassigned from the Sabres earlier in the day, immediately making an impact by scoring 2:01 into the contest. Special teams carried the load on offense the rest of the way, with Viktor Neuchev and Trevor Kuntar each scoring on the power play, while Jagger Joshua hustled down the ice shorthanded for a breakaway goal.
Luukkonen handled his part in the crease, including a breakaway save on Max Groshev early into the second, followed by an odd-man rush stop on Conor Geekie’s shot in front.
Luukkonen joined Alexander Georgiev, Topias Leinonen, and Devon Levi as the fourth different goaltender to start a game for the Amerks this season. It marks the first time in the 70-year history of the franchise that the Amerks have had four different starters through the first five games of the season. The closest the team had ever come to doing so prior was at the start of the 2000-01 campaign, when Tom Askey, Martin Biron, Kirk Daubenspeck, and Mika Noronen each drew at least one start through the first six games of the season.
NOW YOU’VE GONE AND DUNNE IT
Dunne’s emergence in Rochester comes after the sixth-year pro was recalled to the Sabres the day of the Amerks’ home opener two weeks ago. Since then, the O’Fallon, Missouri, native appeared in two contests for the Sabres and is up to 18 games overall for his NHL career.
Dunne, 26, signed a two-year contract with Buffalo ahead of the 2024-25 season, going on to spend the bulk of last year in the Flower City. As an Amerk, Dunne amassed 10 goals and 29 points through 68 games. He then continued to showcase the same postseason production he had from the year prior in Cleveland, as the veteran center posted seven points (3+4) in eight playoff games for the Amerks.
With their season on the line in Game 4 of the North Division Finals against Laval, Dunne put on the best performance of his professional career, torching the Rocket for two goals and four points to help guide the Amerks to a 5-1 win back on May 23, 2025.
Over the course of his 200+ game AHL career, Dunne has posted more points (15) against Laval than any other team he has faced.
ROSÉN’S 200TH
Following in Brendan Warren’s footsteps from Wednesday night, Amerks forward and Sabres prospect Isak Rosén will join the 200 club, playing in his 200th game as an Amerk and becoming the 64th forward in franchise history to do so.
After being drafted 14th overall in the 2021 NHL Draft, the Sabres designated Rosén to Rochester to begin his development in North America at the start of the 2022-23 season. Since then, the Stockholm, Sweden, native has been a two-time AHL All-Star, leading Rochester in scoring each of the past two seasons.
In 199 games wearing the red, white, and blue, Rosén has produced 149 points (65+84), and is off to another strong start this season with three goals and seven points through the first five games of the new slate. Six of his points have come on the power play and the 22-year-old is fourth in league scoring to start the year, leading the North Division in the process.
TALE OF THE TAPE
Laval’s eighth season in franchise history was also its first in which the team posted a winning record against the Amerks, who went 2-5-1-0 against the Montreal Canadiens’ AHL affiliate. Despite that, Rochester is 29-16-3-0 all-time against Laval in the regular season, which included an 8-7-1-0 mark over the last two seasons. Since entering the league to start the 2017-18 season, the Amerks have posted a 15-8-1-0 mark at Blue Cross Arena versus Laval, including all four meetings during the 2023-24 season.
The Amerks have outshot the Rocket nine times over the last 16 regular season games since the start of the 2023-24 campaign, which included the first five meetings last season.
Goaltender and Quebec native Devon Levi has made seven career regular season starts against Laval, earning a win in three appearances. In his first three contests versus the Rocket, Levi allowed just three combined goals and went 3-0-0 before allowing 14 tallies over his last four starts.
BELZ IS BACK
It’s a reunion between the Laval Rocket and forward Alex Belzile, who signed a one-year contract with Montreal over the offseason. The multi-time All-Star previously served as captain for the Rocket in 2022-23, his fifth season with the team, before spending the last two years in Hartford.
Belzile, 34, can still produce at an elite level, with the St. Éloi, Quebec, native posting a career-best 56 points (19+37) in his 10th AHL season last year. It marked the third time the veteran forward has amassed over 50 points in a single season, with Belzile posting 304 points (121+183) over 451 AHL games.
In 23 career games against Rochester, Belzile has scored five goals and 16 points, with two of those performances being multi-goal games.