AHL Rochester Americans

Amerks to Play Hershey, Adirondack and Portland

Published on July 7, 2009 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Rochester Americans News Release


(Rochester, NY)... The American Hockey League President and CEO David Andrews and the league's Board of Governors announced today the schedule format for the 2009-10 season.

In 2009-10, the Amerks will remain in the Western Conference's seven-team North Division, with one exception. The Syracuse Crunch have joined the Eastern Conference's East Division to make room for the arrival of the Abbotsford Heat, one of the AHL's new expansion teams. Along with the addition of Abbotsford, the division will still include Rochester, Hamilton, Manitoba, Grand Rapids, Toronto, and Lake Erie. Fans will also have a chance to watch 13 of the league's 29 teams at The Blue Cross Arena.

Rochester (29-43-0-8) finished the 2008-09 season with 66 points, which was an eight-point improvement compared to the 2007-08 campaign. Rochester finished 10 points behind the sixth-place Lake Erie Monsters (34-38-3-5, 76 points).

This season, the Rochester Americans' balanced 80-game schedule features 40 games against Western Conference opponents. The Amerks' divisional schedule includes six games against Grand Rapids, while Rochester will battle Lake Erie and Toronto on eight different occasions. The Amerks will see Hamilton 10 times this season and will take on Manitoba and Abbotsford four times each.

In addition, Rochester will take a year off against the Western Conference's West Division, which has produced four of the last eight Calder Cup winners. In the past, the Amerks have devoted 14 games of their schedule to the AHL clubs in the Midwest.

In the Eastern Conference, the Amerks play a total of 40 games, an increase of 22 games from last season, to level out the schedule. The contests are sprinkled among seven teams. The Amerks play geographical rival Binghamton 10 times and have four games each against Hershey, Albany, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Adirondack and Portland. Although Syracuse has made the jump to the Eastern Conference, Rochester will still play its longtime rival 10 times.

The 2009-10 regular season will begin on October 2nd. Rochester will opens its 54th AHL season at home on Saturday, October 3rd. The complete schedule will be announced later this summer. In operation since 1936, the AHL continues to serve as the top development league for all 30 National Hockey League teams. More than 84 percent of today's NHL players are American Hockey League graduates, and for the eighth year in a row, more than 6 million fans attended AHL games across North America in 2008-09.

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