GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS, MARLIES CLOSE OUT SEASON SERIES THIS AFTERNOON
Mar 12, 2023TODAY'S GAME OVERVIEW
The Rochester Americans (27-23-4-1) wrap up their three-game weekend today to close out their season series with the Toronto Marlies (39-16-2-1)at The Blue Cross Arena. The contest gets underway at 3:05 p.m. and will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV. The contest can also be viewed locally on CW Rochester.
The Amerks, who are playing their third of a dozen games over a 22-day stretch, come into tonight's matchup showing 4-4-2-0 mark in their last 10 games and are 3-0-1-0 over their previous four home games dating back to their 6-2 win over the Toronto Marlies on Feb. 17.
LAST TIME OUT
The Amerks scored twice on the power-play but were doubled up by Syracuse Crunch as they dropped a 4-2 decision Saturday at Upstate Medical University Arena.
Forwards Brandon Biro and Lukas Rousek each notched a pair of assists for a multi-point game while Brett Murray and Mason Jobst both scored in the first and third periods, respectively. Biro (5+11) and Rousek (3+10) have combined for eight goals and 21 assists since Feb. 24.
Goaltender Malcolm Subban (14-13-1), who earned his sixth start in the last seven games, stopped 35 of the 39 shots he faced. The Toronto, Ontario, native has topped the 30-save mark eight times in his last 23 starts dating back to Dec. 16.
HEAD-TO-HEAD SERIES SNAPSHOT
The Amerks come into today having recorded points in six of the last nine games between the two teams. The Amerks have earned wins in six of the last 11 affairs in Rochester dating back to last season.
Lukas Rousek (3+3) and Michael Mersch (1+5) are averaging nearly a point per game in the season series against the Marlies with Mersch recording all five of his points in his last four games.
Rochester has used four different goaltenders in Michael Houser, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Malcolm Subban and Eric Comrie with each earning a win.
SUBBAN SHOULDERING THE WORKLOAD
After suffering a defeat in his season-debut on Nov. 18, Subban has gone 14-12-1 since over his last 27 starts, including seven straight wins between Dec. 10 to Jan. 14. The seven-game win streak was the longest of his pro career and the third-longest streak among all AHL goaltenders behind Toronto's Joseph Woll and Calgary's Dustin Wolf.
He was the first Amerks goaltender to post seven straight wins since Jonas Johansson won nine consecutive contests during the 2019-20 campaign.
Subban had arguably his best performance of the season during a 75-save weekend in Rochester’s two-game sweep over the Charlotte Checkers in mid-December. A night after stopping a regular-season career-high 45 saves, Subban was flawless in a 30-save shutout on Dec. 17, his first in the AHL since April 8, 2017, with the Providence Bruins.
Subban has topped the 30-save mark eight times in his last 23 starts dating back to Dec. 16. His 14 wins are tied for 16th-most amongst all netminders.
BIRO PILING UP THE POINTS
Despite missing six games due to injury, third-year forward Brandon Biro has blazed his way atop the team's scoring lead following a productive December in which he led the team with 16 points (6+10) in 10 games. He recorded multi-point efforts in seven of his 10 appearances, including six straight between Dec. 9 and Dec. 30 before closing out the month with an assist in the 3-2 win in Toronto.
Biro, who made his NHL debut with the Buffalo Sabres last season, has totaled seven points (1+6) through his first two games of the weekend, including a career-high five-point effort Friday against Hartford. With a team-high 47 points in 45 games, he remains one of only two Amerks this season to reach the 40-point mark, joining Lukas Rousek.
In 108 career games with the Amerks, Biro has totaled 93 points on 28 goals and 65 assists, never going more than seven games without a point over the last three years. He shows 16 points (5+11) over his last eight games.
PROWESS ON THE BLUELINE
Entering the Jan. 19 game against Laval, Ethan Prow was the only Amerks defenseman to appear in every game this season. Overall, he has skated in 120 of the 126 games dating back to the start of the 2021-22 campaign.
In 51 games this season, Prow, who had his first career four-point outing this past Friday night, is tied for 15th in scoring amongst all AHL defensemen with 33 points while his 27 assists are currently tied for 13th-most at his position. This season marks the fourth straight in which the veteran defenseman has reached the 20-assist mark and the fifth consecutive year with 20 or more points, which includes an abbreviated campaign overseas in 2020-21.
The seventh-year pro has posted 21 points (4+17) in his last 26 outings dating back to Dec. 28 and comes into tonight with two goals and 12 assists over his last 16 games.
He's second among all Amerks defensemen with at least five multi-point outings, including a two-goal effort in the 4-3 win at Syracuse back on Jan. 7, and has never gone more than five games all season without a point.
EARNING THEIR STARS AND STRIPES
With nine points (4+5) over his last nine games, Linus Weissbach is eight points back from the team-lead with 37 points (17+20) through 52 games. By scoring his team-leading 17th goal of the season last week against Belleville, he surpassed his previous career-high of 16 as a rookie and has already set a new personal-best of four game-winning goals.
Brett Murray, one of seven Amerks with at least 33 points on the season, has also a new career-high in goals (16) from the 2021-22 season. The fourth-year pro comes into tonight with seven points (3+4) in his last 11 games and has recorded at least one shot in all but five games during that span dating back to Nov. 23.
With five points (2+3) over his last 10 games, Sean Malone reached the 20-point mark in back-to-back campaigns for the first time in his career. Through 36 contests in his fifth season with the Amerks, Malone has 11 goals and 13 assists.
Amerks captain Michael Mersch shows 26 points (12+14) over his last 30 games dating back to Dec. 17. More impressively, with 35 points in 44 games, he's well on his way of reaching the 40-point mark for the sixth time in his nine-year pro career. The former Calder Cup winner is also a five-time 20-goal scorer, reaching the mark four times in his first five seasons and again last season when he scored a career-high 26 goals.
Through 49 games, defenseman Jeremy Davies established a career-high with 10 goals, reaching the mark for the first time in his pro career while also becoming the first Amerks defenseman this season to do so. Over his last 11 games, Davies has collected four goals and six assists for 10 points.
Rookie Isak Rosen has posted 13 points (6+7) in 20 games since Jan. 21. In the 7-1 victory over Springfield, Rosen, the Sabres’ first-round selection (14th overall) in the 2021 NHL Draft, notched his first-career three-point game as well as his first-ever two-goal outing. Overall, four of his nine goals on the season have come while on the power-play. Rosen is one of only two rookies this season to reach the 20-point mark.
Mitch Eliot tied his previous career-high in goals (3) at Providence on Feb. 26, reaching the mark in 24 fewer games than the 2021-22 campaign.
JOBST HAVING A CAREER YEAR
Mason Jobst has made the most of his second opportunity with the Amerks as the fourth-year pro is in the process of assembling a career-year.
Through 44 games this season, the Speedway, Indiana, native has already established career-highs in all offensive categories, including goals (12), assists (14) and points (26).
With an assist in the 5-4 overtime win in Belleville on Feb. 4, Jobst reached the 20-point mark for the first time in his pro career, becoming then the ninth different Amerk to eclipse the mark.
Since the turn of the New Year, Jobst has amassed nine goals and 12 points over his previous 18 games, including his first career hat trick in the 7-5 loss to the first-place Toronto Marlies back on Jan. 14. He comes into tonight with five goals and six points over his previous six games, a stretch highlighted by a career-best three-game goal-scoring streak.
Jobst has totaled 39 points (16+23) over 70 career games with the Amerks dating back to last season.
WORKING OVERTIME
The 4-3 overtime loss last Friday against Laval was Rochester’s 12th game this season -- and just the fourth in 2023 -- that went beyond regulation for the Amerks.
The Amerks are 6-4 in overtime and show an even 1-1 mark in shootouts.
Rochester has played in the 12th-fewest overtime games in the AHL this season.
Rochester tied an AHL record with 29 overtime games in 2017-18.
CLOSING OUT FEBRUARY ON A HIGH NOTE
The Amerks had arguably their best weekend of the season to close out the month of February, winning three straight games in as many days while outscoring the opposition 20-6 to begin a stretch of six games over a nine-day span.
After opening the weekend with an 8-4 win over Laval on Friday, Rochester scored seven straight unanswered goals, including three on the power-play, on their way to a dominating 7-1 win over Springfield on Saturday. The Amerks then put the finishing touches on the 20-goal weekend by scoring four first-period goals and never looking back on their way to a decisive 5-1 win at Providence on Sunday.
Of the 23 different skaters to appear in at least one game last weekend, 18 had one point or more, 15 tallied at least one assist and 12 scored one or more goal. Five skaters registered a multi-assist game while three posted a multi-goal game.
Forwards Jiri Kulich (3+3), Lukas Rousek (1+5), Brandon Biro (1+4), Linus Weissbach (3+2), Anders Bjork (0+4) all paced the club last weekend.
Goaltenders Malcolm Subban (2-0-0) and Michael Houser (1-0-0) manned the pipes for Rochester, combining for a .943 save percentage and a 2.00 goals against average in the three games.
SCOUTING THE MARLIES
Toronto comes into the matchup sitting in first place in the AHL's North Division standings with a 39-16-2-1 overall record and have a 6-4-0-0 mark in its last 10 contests.
Captain Logan Shaw (18+40) and Alex Steeves (17+28) currently lead all Marlies skaters with 58 and 45 points, respectively. The duo (Shaw 6th, Steeves T-35th) are inside the top 35 scorers in the AHL in scoring, respectively. In 55 games in his first season with Toronto, Shaw has already set career-highs in both assists (40) and points (58).
Goaltenders Joseph Woll (16-1-0), Keith Petruzzelli (12-7-0) and Erik Källgren (8-6-2) have split the goaltending duties this season for the Marlies. Woll, who began the campaign with a 12-0-0 record, has also posted a 2-1-0 mark in three contests with the Maple Leafs during a recent NHL recall. Petruzzelli's 12 victories are 10th-most in the AHL amongst all first-year goaltenders while his 2.89 goals-against average rank 15th. Källgren has faced Rochester four times this season and shows an 0-2-1 record.
SERIES NOTABLES
With Austin Strand making his Amerks debut Friday night, he became the 39th overall player to appear in one game with the Amerks in 2022-23 and the 15th defenseman. He was also be the 19th different player to don the red, white and blue colors for the first time in their career.
In 24 of the last 35 meetings between the two teams dating back to the 2016-17 season, the team that scored first has gone on to come away with the victory. Additionally, in 23 of the last 27 meetings, the winning team has scored at least four goals dating back to the 2017-18 season.
Over the last 24 games, Rochester has scored at least one goal in the first period 18 times, which includes a four-goal outing in the series-opener on Oct. 23, 2021. Toronto, on the other hand, has scored 20 times in the final 20 minutes of regulation, which includes a five-goal mark on Jan. 14, 2023.