GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS FIGHT CRUNCH FOR TOP SPOT IN NORTH DIVISION
Amerks looking to bounce back after five-game win streak was snapped
Nov 5, 2025By Andrew Mossbrooks | @ Mossbrooks48
The Rochester Americans (7-3-0-0) begin the home portion of their busy month of November against the all-too-familiar Syracuse Crunch (7-2-0-0) Wednesday night at Blue Cross Arena.
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Here are five things to know before the top two North Division teams face-off.
DEADLY DOZEN
November sees Rochester play 12 games, which ties January for the most scheduled contests in a single month for the red, white, and blue this season. Things got off to a less-than-ideal start Saturday in Laval, with the Rocket snapping a five-game win streak for the Amerks via a 5-2 score.
Viktor Neuchev and Noah Östlund scored for the Amerks in their first loss since Oct. 18 (at Syracuse), while goaltender Aleksandar Georgiev stopped 29 shots in his second start as an Amerk.
As the month rolls on, Rochester will see a variety of competition, including its first taste of action outside the North Division following Wednesday. Tonight’s matchup with Syracuse is Rochester’s 11th game of the season, all of which coming within the division. Following this, six of the next 10 games will be played against Atlantic Division adversaries.
The Amerks split their 12-game slate evenly between being home and away. The only teams they face more than once in November are Bridgeport and Syracuse. Tonight is game three of 12 against their intrastate foe.
CALLING ON CARSON?
Forward Carson Meyer is getting closer to making his Amerks debut. The former Columbus Blue Jackets 2017 draft pick suffered a season-ending injury in February with San Diego, keeping him sidelined up to this point. Meyer, 28, had posted nine goals and 21 points through 29 games with the Gulls.
A Powell, Ohio, native, Meyer has spent the bulk of his playing career with Cleveland, skating multiple seasons with Sabres forward Josh Dunne. Meyer has also appeared in 41 NHL games with the Blue Jackets, scoring two goals and four assists.
Before turning pro, Meyer played four seasons of college hockey in the Buckeye State, splitting them evenly between Miami University and Ohio State, where he won the B1G Conference Regular Season title in the 2018-19 campaign.
Through 201 career AHL games, Meyer has produced an impressive 131 points (65+66).
BLACK AND BLUE LINE
After three straight seasons finishing in the bottom six of the league for penalty minutes, the Amerks enter this week leading the Eastern Conference with 165 through 10 games. A pair of defensemen are accountable for nearly a third of those PIM, with Nikita Novikov (26) and Vsevolod Komarov (25) dealing out punishment.
Komarov displayed a similar style his rookie year, leading Rochester with 85 PIM, finishing third across all first-year blueliners in the AHL.
Novikov is more often cited for his plus/minus game, which finished fourth-best in the league at +28 in 2024-25. The third-year Amerk is off to a strong start in that category again, ranking +5 with a goal and an assist.
As a collective, Rochester’s defense has accrued 85 of the 165 team PIM.
THE STORY WITH SYRACUSE
The Amerks’ 4-0 shutout defeat back on Oct. 18 in Syracuse was the Amerks’ first against the Crunch since Feb. 15, 2019, a span of 75 regular season contests between the intrastate rivals. The Amerks answered back the following week, scoring a pair of power-play tallies and a shorthanded marker, topping the Crunch, 4-2.
Over their last 14 meetings dating back to the start of the 2024-25 season, the Amerks' man-advantage have potted 10 goals on 54 chances.
Since the 2016-17 season, when the Amerks score three or more goals against the Crunch, the club shows an impressive 43-11-5-1 mark.
Forward Isak Rosén (9+12), who is currently on NHL recall with the parent Buffalo Sabres, leads all Amerks in scoring against the Crunch dating back to 2023-24 season, having appeared in 24 games in that span. In 48 career games versus Syracuse, Rosén has tallied 31 points (13+18), his most against any other AHL team.
CAPTAIN CRUNCH
Following the departure of longtime Crunch forward Daniel Walcott, the Tampa Bay Lightning affiliate appointed defenseman Steven Santini to captain the Crunch for the 2025-26 season.
The 30-year-old is in year two with Syracuse and season 10 as a pro after first hopping on the scene with the New Jersey Devils in 2016. The Bronxville, New York, native has appeared in over 100 NHL contests in that span, along with 368 AHL games across seven different franchises.
In his AHL career, Santini has posted 21 goals and 90 points, coupled with 188 PIM. He is a +61 rating for his career.