GAME PREVIEW: HOME-AND-HOME SERIES SHIFTS TO SYRACUSE TONIGHT
Mar 9, 2024TONIGHT'S GAME OVERVIEW
The Rochester Americans (25-20-6-2) and Syracuse Crunch (32-17-4-2) meet again tonight as the home-and-home series shifts to downtown Syracuse for a 7:00 p.m. rematch at Upstate Medical University Arena. The North Division showdown will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV.
The Amerks have recorded at least one point in 14 of their last 20 games dating back to Jan. 17. Last night was Rochester’s 19th contest this season decided beyond regulation, which is most in the AHL.
After last night’s overtime loss to Rochester, the Crunch come into the matchup with points in five straight games, going 4-0-1-0 over that span. Rochester. Syracuse sits in second place in the North Divisin standings.
SEASON SERIES SNAPSHOT
The season series has favored the visiting team as seven of the first nine meetings thus far has been won by the road team and five of the nine have been one-goal decisions.
The Amerks have scored at least one power-play goal in 27 of their 45 games (37-for-160) against Syracuse since Seth Appert took over as head coach prior to the 2020-21 season.
Rochester’s overtime win last night snapped a six-game home skid to the Crunch. Veteran netminder Dustin Tokarski has posted back-to-back road wins against his former team while Devon Levi picked up his first win in five starts against Syracuse last night.
LAST TIME OUT
Brett Murray scored a pair of goals prior to Zach Metsa capping a 4-3 win in the first minute of overtime to help the Amerks prevail in the first of back-to-back meetings against the Crunch Friday at The Blue Cross Arena.
Isak Rosen tallied two assists, including the lone helper on the game-winner, for his third multi-assist game of the season while Graham Slaggert logged his third goal of the campaign.
Goaltender Devon Levi (8-5-3), who’s started four straight and 14 of the last 17 games since being reassigned to Rochester on Jan. 20, made 20 saves in the win, his first against the Crunch. Levi has faced 20 or more shots in each of his last 12 appearances and 14 of his 16 appearances overall.
THE BEST OFFENSE IS A GOOD DEFENSE
Jeremy Davies and Kale Clague are among the AHL’s top scoring defensemen, having combined for 11 goals and 45 points this season.
Davies, who had points in three straight games for the second time this season since closing out the month of October on a five-game point streak, scored his eighth goal of the year in Rochester’s 2-1 overtime win at Toronto last month. He enters tonight tied for 10th in goals by a defenseman and remains on pace to match the career-high 11 he scored last season. He’s never gone more than four straight games without a point.
Currently on recall with the Buffalo Sabres, Clague is tied for 29th among all blueliners with 20 assists. With two assists at Utica back on Feb. 14, he has reached the 20-assist mark for the second time in his career and has eclipsed the 20-point mark for the third time since his rookie campaign.
ROUSEK RACKING UP THE POINTS
Lukas Rousek has been one of the team’s most consistent point-getters since the turn of 2024, having recorded points in 16 of 24 games in that stretch while also producing 22 points over his last 30 games since Dec. 20.
Rousek, a sixth-round selection (160th overall) by the Sabres in the 2019 NHL Draft, currently leads the team with 28 assists and 38 points while his 10 goals are tied for sixth. Among all Amerks who have appeared in at least 30 games, he is tops in points per game (0.79).
Also on recall with the big club, the AHL All-Star saw his career-long point streak come to an end on Jan. 26, stopping at 13 games. He totaled 14 points between Dec. 20 and Jan. 20, the second-longest point streak in the league behind only Toronto’s Alex Steeves, who had a point in 16 straight games.
Rousek’s point streak was the longest by an Amerk in 24 years since Hall of Famer Domenic Pittis had points in 14 straight contests from Jan. 22 to March 4 during the 1999-2000 campaign.
NEW YEAR, NEW NEUCHEV
After producing just five points in his first 23 games, rookie foward Viktor Neuchev has unsurprisingly emerged as Rochester’s top scoring rookie through the start of March.
Dating back to Dec. 29 and the turn of the New Year, Neuchev has erupted for 13 points on five goals and eight assists over his previous 18 games.
Neuchev has recorded at least one point in eight games over that span, including a season-long six-game point streak from Dec. 29 to Jan. 20 which saw him score three goals and record eight points.
Buffalo’s third-round selection (74th overall) in 2022, Neuchev’s most impressive performance of the season came back on Jan. 27, finding the back of the net for the third time in four games with the game-winning goal while also adding two assists in the 7-4 win over Laval. Since Jan. 5, Neuchev has recorded four multi-point games, which includes a pair of three-point efforts.
Of Neuchev’s seven goals this season, five have been scored on home ice and three have come against Laval. Neuchev, who had a 40-goal season while playing for Russia’s junior league during the 2021-22 campaign, currently leads all Amerks rookies with 19 points (7+12) and 58 shots in 40 games.
WORKING OVERTIME
The 4-3 overtime win against Syracuse last night was the fourth game over the last eight for Rochester that went beyond regulation, with three of the four producing a 2-1 score. Overall, the Amerks have gone to extra time on 19 different occasions, the most by any team this season, including each of the first three games of the campaign.
Five of the last nine games against Syracuse have required extra time to determine a winner, including each of the three which saw the Crunch overcome a pair of 2-0 deficits before defeating Rochester in overtime on back-to-back nights.
Four of Jiri Kulich’s team-high five game-winning goals this season have come by way of overtime while Isak Rosen, Brandon Biro, Jeremy Davies, and Zach Metsa have each netted the clinching goal during the extra frame.
Never before in the near 68-year history of the franchise have the Amerks opened a season with three consecutive overtime contests.
Of Rochester’s 12 games in February, five were decided past regulation. The club was 1-3 in overtime in the month and showed an 0-1 record in the shootout.
Dating back to Jan. 20 of last season, 29 of Rochester’s previous 92 regular-season games have required overtime to determine a winner. Of the Amerks 42 wins during that same span, 16 have come came following the end of regulation.
The Amerks show a 8-6 record in overtime this season and are 3-2 in the shootout. Rochester tied an AHL record with 29 overtime games in 2017-18, showing a 9-11 record in overtime and 3-6 in the shootout.
LEANING ON LEVI
Devon Levi has earned the start in 14 of the last 17 games since being reassigned to Rochester on Jan. 20, including five straight to open the month of February. He enters the weekend having won five of his last nine and seven of his last 12.
Levi, who boasts a 8-5-3 record in 16 appearances with the Amerks, totaled 130 saves on 136 shots he faced over his recent three-game win streak, boasting an impressive 1.95 goals-against average and a .956 save percentage over that span.
His career-high 52 saves in the Amerks overtime win at Toronto on Feb. 19 were the most by an Amerks goaltender since Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had 54 in a 2-1 win at Syracuse on Feb. 25, 2022.
Levi, who ranks 12th among rookie netminders with a 2.55 goals-against average, has held the opposition to three or fewer goals in 12 of his 16 starts. He’s 8-1-3 this season in those games.
Levi won the Mike Richter Award, given annually to the top goaltender in men’s college hockey, for the second straight year following the 2022-23 season.
The only two-time winner in the award’s history, Levi led the nation again with a .933 save percentage, and tied for third in both shutouts (6) and saves (1,183).
TOKARSKI ON THE MOVE
Veteran goaltender Dustin Tokarski, who missed the first eight games of the season due to an injury he sustained in training camp, made his season debut back on Nov. 3 against Utica.
In doing so, the two-time Calder Cup winner and AHL All-Star became just the 18th goaltender in league history to play in 400 career games, a list that also includes former Amerks Bobby Perreault (512), Michael Leighton (507), Drew MacIntyre (440) and Ed Chadwick (417).
Tokarski, who’s in his second stint with the Amerks and 10th different AHL franchise, went 1-1-0 during a brief two-game stint with Rochester as part of the COVID-shortnened 2020-21 campaign. He went 12-20-7 in 42 appearances with the Buffalo Sabres from 2021-23.
Currently in his 15th season, he joins Marcel Paille and Michael Leighton as the only goaltenders all-time to play at least 15 seasons in the AHL.
Tokarski, who’s 7-7-3 in his first 18 appearances, surpassed the 10,000-save mark for his AHL career following a 31-save effort against Utica on Nov. 10. He also reached the 12,000-save mark for his pro career the week prior when he made his season debut against the Comets.
Entering tonight, the 34-year-old Tokarski is only six wins away from tying Red Almas for 11th all-time in career wins (218). He’s also two games away from tying Neil Little for 15th all-time (419) and will tie Yann Danis for eighth all-time on his next shutout.
A (JOB)ST WELL DONE
Amerks forward Mason Jobst enters tonight with 20 points (9+11) over his last 22 games, the most by an Amerk since the turn of the new year. Jobst, who appeared in his 200th professional game at Utica on Feb. 14, recorded a career-best three-assist outing on Feb. 16 against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and followed that up by scoring goals in three straight games, including his career-high 16th goal of the season against Belleville on Feb. 23.
After closing out the 2022-23 campaign with career-highs in all offensive categories, the fifth-year forward has already surpassed his goal total in 18 fewer games this season. Jobst, who is the second Amerk this season to reach the 30-point mark, is second on the team in goals (16) and points (35) while his 19 assists are fourth-most amongst all Rochester forwards.
In 207 career games, all in the American Hockey League with Rochester, San Jose, Bridgeport, and Binghamton, the Ohio State product has notched 45 goals and 66 assists for 111 points.