GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS RETURN TO NORTH DIVISION PLAY AT UTICA
Five things to know as Rochester aims to get back in win column
Nov 22, 2025By Andrew Mossbrooks | @ Mossbrooks48
A lot of home hockey awaits the Rochester Americans (10-8-0-0), but before next week, the team ventures out to Adirondack Bank Center where they face-off with the Utica Comets (2-9-2-1) Saturday night.
Here’s five things to know as the Amerks return to North Division play.
LEFT ON AN ISLAND
Friday was a heartbreaker in Rochester. Despite leading 3-0 at one point in the second period, the Amerks were unable to thwart Bridgeport’s rally, culminating in the Islanders scoring a go-ahead goal with 37 seconds remaining to escape the Flower City with a 5-4 win.
Carson Meyer, Olivier Nadeau, Riley Fiddler-Schultz, and Graham Slaggert each scored for Rochester. Topias Leinonen made his first start on home ice this season, recording 23 saves in his sixth appearance of the season.
The loss is Rochester’s second in a row and sixth over its last nine games. Despite the result, the Amerks enter Saturday only two points out of first place in the North Division.
On the other side of the puck, Utica skates back home following a 2-0 shutout loss to the Springfield Thunderbirds. The Comets have dropped five consecutive games and are last not only in the AHL’s North Division, but the league as a whole.
KICKING IN TO FULL GEER
After clearing waivers and subsequently being assigned to Rochester yesterday, veteran forward Mason Geertsen is expected to make his Amerks debut in a familiar city against the Comets on Saturday.
Geertsen, 30, has appeared in five games for the Sabres this season and 30 NHL games overall, with the previous 25 with the New Jersey Devils (Utica’s NHL parent club) during the 2021-22 campaign. The Drayton Valley, Alberta, native then played for the Comets the following year, finishing seventh in the AHL with 136 penalty minutes.
Over the course of his 11-year playing career, Geertsen has amassed 961 PIM, mostly in the AHL, where he has played 447 games. The 2013 Colorado Avalanche Draft Pick has dropped the gloves an astounding 63 times over his pro career, with a career-high nine fights in 2019-20.
UNDEVFEATED
All signs point to goaltender Devon Levi drawing the start in goal against Utica. The 23-year-old is prepared to make his 11th start of the season, yielding a 7-3-0 record.
In his last outing, Levi turned away 18 shots in the Amerks’ 4-2 loss at Lehigh Valley Wednesday night. The Amerks’ All-Star from a season ago has been stupendous against Utica over the course of his three years in the red, white, and blue, posting a perfect 9-0-0 mark against the New Jersey Devils’ AHL affiliate. Levi owns a 2.65 goals-against average, coupled with a .921 save percentage when facing Utica.
The Dollard-des Ormeaux, Quebec, native faced Utica earlier this season in Rochester’s lone game against the Comets to date, making 26 saves on 30 shots in a 7-4 win for the Amerks.
CRUSHING THE COMETS
The Amerks have dominated the Comets over the last four seasons, thwarting Utica with a 26-7-1-1 mark, which includes a 15-2-0-1 record on the road since the start of the 2022-23 season. Rochester has outscored Utica 125-97 over that same span, and after the second period alone, the Amerks have dismantled the Comets by a 57-38 margin.
The Amerks have won 15 of the last 17 games on the road against the Comets, with the only regulation loss being a 6-0 defeat on Nov. 11, 2023 and a 3-2 shootout loss Feb. 28, 2025. Since the regulation defeat, the Amerks boast a 10-0-0-1 coming into tonight's second meeting of the slate between the two clubs this season. Rochester faces Utica 10 times on the year, including two additional meetings before flipping the calendar to 2026.
Seven different goal-scorers helped the Amerks erase a 2-0 deficit in the opening period as they scored seven straight unanswered goals in a 7-4 victory over the Comets back on Oct. 17 at Adirondack Bank Center.
Blueliner Vsevolod Komarov contributed a goal and an assist, while Jack Rathbone, Ryan Johnson, and Zac Jones all tacked on a pair of helpers. Viktor Neuchev, Konsta Helenius, Brendan Warren, and Fiddler-Schultz each scored a goal.
BOTTOM OF THE BARREL
Unlike last year, the Comets managed to win within their first 13 games of the season. The bad news: Utica remains a struggling team that rank last in several categories across the 32-team AHL landscape.
With a 2-9-2-1 record, the Comets sit at seven points, good for last in the league, as are their 23 goals scored through 14 games, averaging a league-low 1.62 goals-per-game average. Over the last two years, Utica’s record through the first two months of the season (October and November) is 7-19-3-3.
Utica’s power-play is operating at 10.6%, sitting 30th in the league.
Xavier Parent leads Utica in points with only seven (3+4) through 14 games.