GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS HOST ROCKET ON HALL OF FAME NIGHT
Rochester four points back of Laval for first place
Apr 10, 2025
By Andrew Mossbrooks | @ Mossbrooks48
With four games remaining in the regular season, the Rochester Americans (41-20-4-3) continue their pursuit of first place in the AHL and North Division as they host the league leading-Laval Rocket (44-18-3-2) Friday night at Blue Cross Arena.
It’s the eighth and final time the Amerks and Rocket meet during the regular season. Laval is the only divisional adversary the Amerks cannot win the season series against as Rochester shows a 2-4-1-0 record.
Both teams have secured home-ice advantage through the North Division Semifinals, but the race for first continues as the Amerks hold 89 standings points, ranking four back of Laval at 93.
LAST TIME OUT
It was a gut punch-like loss for the Amerks Wednesday night at Blue Cross Arena, as the team carried a 2-0 lead into the third period but surrendered four unanswered in a 4-2 loss to the Belleville Senators. The game was tied until the final minute when the Sens went ahead 3-2 with 55 seconds to play. This marked just the fourth time all season the Amerks lost a game in regulation after leading through two periods.
Riley Fiddler-Schultz and Brett Murray scored for Rochester, with Fiddler-Schultz netting power-play goals in back-to-back games for the first time in his young career, while Murray tacked on his 99th career goal as an Amerk. Devon Levi was fantastic through 40 minutes, but had the bounces go against him in the third to finish the night with 33 saves.
Laval was idle Wednesday following a long trip to Abbotsford over the weekend where the Rocket secured just one point in a pair of losses to the Canucks. Like Rochester, the Rocket had a 2-0 lead in the third period Saturday night, but allowed the Canucks to tie it up before going on to win in a shootout.
The next day, Montreal’s AHL affiliate couldn’t keep pace, dropping a 4-3 final in regulation. Connor Hughes made 24 saves in goal for the loss Sunday, while Saturday night saw Cayden Primeau drop just his fourth game of the season via a shootout.
MILLER TIME
Friday night has been a date circled on the calendar for months as goaltender Ryan Miller takes his place in the Rochester Americans Hall of Fame as the team’s 2025 inductee.
Miller appeared in 172 career games over parts of four seasons (2002-06) with the Amerks, posting a 92-61-16 record with a 2.34 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage. The two-time AHL All-Star selection also finished with 15 shutouts, tying for second-most in franchise history behind only fellow Amerks Hall of Famer Bobby Perreault, while his 2.34 goals-against average remains the 10th-best all-time in team history. His 92 career wins are fourth all-time.
Miller, who becomes just the seventh netminder to be enshrined in the Amerks Hall of Fame, reached the 20-win mark and led Rochester to the postseason in each of his first three seasons with the Amerks. In 26 career playoff appearances, he boasted a 13-13 record with a 2.37 goals-against average, .916 save percentage and two shutouts. He also saw time in 18 contests with the Buffalo Sabres, the team that selected him in the fifth round (138th overall) in the 1999 NHL Draft, including 15 during his rookie season.
His best season as an Amerk came during the 2004-05 campaign when he backstopped the Amerks to an AHL-best 51-19-4-6 record, helping Rochester claim the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as regular-season champions and earning him his second straight AHL All-Star selection. He was also named the recipient of the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award as the top AHL’s top goaltender and Amerks MVP.
That same season he would also go on to set the single-season franchise record for most shutouts in a season with eight while posting a 41-17-4 record to go along with a 2.45 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage. Miller came just seven wins shy of tying Gerry Cheevers’ mark for wins in a season with 48 while leading the AHL in wins.
THE NEXT GREAT GOALIE
Devon Levi has posted numbers as an Amerk not seen since the days of Miller. On a night where one of the all-time greats in goal takes his place in the Hall of Fame, the next Sabres’ prodigy is expected to make his 40th start of the season wearing the red, white, and blue.
Levi, 23, leads the Eastern Conference in wins with 24 and is the overall league leader in shutouts with seven, putting him one back of Miller’s single-season franchise record set 20 year prior.
Miller’s eighth and record-setting shutout with the Amerks came March 20, 2005 against Cleveland, exactly 7,327 days ago. Levi was three years old at the time.
Levi ranks sixth in the AHL with a 2.19 goals-against average and fifth with a .920 save percentage. He is 3-3-0 lifetime against Laval.
PREVENTING LIFT OFF
The Amerks remain capable of securing the North Division title, though they need a little bit of help, and that starts with helping themselves Friday night.
Laval is on the cusp of clinching the North Division title. A regulation win for the Rocket Friday will secure the team’s spot atop the division heading into the Calder Cup Playoffs. Rochester must secure at least one point in order to prevent Laval from Clinching. If the Amerks were to win in regulation they would place sit just two points shy of the Rocket for that coveted top spot.
Mason Jobst led the way in last year’s season series and is one of four Amerks with three or more points against Laval this season. Lukas Rousek is the overall scoring leader in the season series with four points (1+3), including the game-winning-goal in overtime Nov. 20.
Alex Barre-Boulet has led for Laval with six points (4+2) in as many games against Rochester this season after the talented forward made his way over from Syracuse in the offseason. The Rocket have won all three meetings in Rochester against the Amerks this season.