AHL Rochester Americans

Rochester Americans Game Preview: Friday, April 8 at Laval

Published on April 8, 2022 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Rochester Americans News Release


Rochester's power-play has gone 54-for-236 with a 22.9% conversion rate that is currently fifth-best in the AHL. The Amerks' 54 goals on the man- advantage are most among all North Division teams and are eight shy of the AHL lead behind Ontario.

The Amerks have scored at least one power-play goal in 35 of their first 66 games this season and have registered multiple power-play tallies in 13 overall, including a season-high four goals in the 7-3 win over Hershey back on Nov. 26.

Rookie forwards JJ Peterka and Jack Quinn continue to find the scoresheet on almost a nightly basis as the duo rank first and second among all Amerks in points with 58 and 50, respectively.

With six points last weekend in Cleveland, which included five goals, Peterka became the third different Amerk this season and seventh first-year player in the league to reach the 20-goal mark.

Meanwhile, Quinn, who has six points (2+4) in his last five games, became the second Rochester skater and only the fourth AHL rookie to reach the 50-point plateau.

This season marks the first time in nearly 30 years the Amerks have had multiple rookies record more than 50 points in the same season since 1992-93 when the club had five: Todd Simon (93), Scott Thomas (59), Doug MacDonald (58), Jozef Cierny (54) and Mike McLaughin (54).

Rochester is a perfect 6-0-0-0 this season when both players record multi- point outings in the same contest. The Amerks are 13-1-1-0 when Quinn produces at least two points and show a 12-3-0-0 record when Peterka has more than one point.

Tonight's contest is the seventh of eight meetings between the North Division rivals and the second of a two-game set after Laval took a 6-2 on Wednesday night. The loss was Rochester's third straight this season against the Rocket after the Amerks claimed the first three meetings of the season series.

Rochester enters tonight showing a 16-6-0 all-time record against Laval.

Prior to suffering three consecutive losses against the Rocket, the Amerks had won eight straight and 12 of the previous 13 games against the Laval dating back to the start of the 2017-18 campaign.

The Amerks have won four of the last five and are 9-2-0-0 in their previous 11 visits to Laval dating back to the start of 2017-18 season.

HEAD-TO-HEAD SERIES SNAPSHOT

The Rochester Americans (32-26-5-3) continue their five-game road swing tonight as they wrap up their two-game set against the Laval Rocket (32- 23-3-2) at 7:00 p.m. All the action from Place Bell will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV.

With two wins in their last four games, the Amerks have earned points in eight of their last 11 and are 4-3-2-1 over their last 10 games. The Rocket, meanwhile, enter tonight with points in 24 of their first 31 games on home ice and boast a 6-2-0-2 record in their previous 10 games overall.

By way of a 6-5 overtime victory over the Cleveland Monsters on March 19, Seth Appert became the sixth straight head coach to reach the 30-win mark in his first full season behind the bench.

Should the Amerks win eight of their remaining 10 games this season, Appert will become the first bench boss to lead his team to 40 wins in his first full season at the helm since Hall of Famer Randy Cunneyworth, who in nine seasons went on to become the winningest coach in franchise history.

Appert is 43-41-11 in 95 career games leading the Amerks dating back to the start of the 2020-21 season.

PETERKA FLOURISHING IN SECOND HALF

Coming off his three-goal outing against Cleveland this past Friday, forward JJ Peterka became the third Amerk this season and just the seventh AHL rookie to reach the 20-goal mark.

After scoring just four times through the first three months of the season, Peterka has notched 38 points (18+20) in 37 games to begin 2022, including goals in back-to-back games on five different occasions over that span.

Peterka, who was taken 34th overall in the 2020 NHL Draft by the Sabres, leads all AHL rookies and is fifth in the AHL with 193 shots on goal. He's only gone two games all season without recording at least one shot on goal.

Peterka made his highly anticipated NHL debut on Dec. 28 as Buffalo hosted New Jersey before visiting the New York Islanders the very next day.

Following his return to the Amerks, he totaled five points on two goals and three assists in two games before being honored as the AHL's Rookie of the Month of the Week for the period ending Jan. 2, 2022.

Peterka has been held scoreless just 13 times since Dec. 19 and hasn't gone more than two games without recording a point during that same span.

More impressively, the Amerks are 12-3-0-0 this season when Peterka registers a multi-point game, including 6-0-0-0 on home ice.

With a team-high 58 points (22+36) through 60 games, Peterka needs two points to become first Amerks rookie to reach the 60-point mark since Thomas Vanek had 68 points (42+26) in 74 games during the 2004-05 season. Peterka also leads the team and is ninth in the AHL with 36 assists.

Coming into the week, he's one of only five AHL rookies currently leading his respective team in scoring.

HEAD-TO-HEAD BREAKDOWN

After the cancellation of the remainder of the 2019-20 season and a truncated 2020-21 campaign failed to produce a 20-goal scorer for just the fourth time in franchise history, the Amerks could potentially have several by season's end with eight players currently with 10 or more goals.

Michael Mersch and Quinn, who both returned to the lineup on March 18 against Cleveland, both reached the mark in their first game back, despite Quinn appearing in 20 fewer games than Mersch. Peterka joined the group last Friday night against Cleveland while Arttu Ruotsalainen (17), Brett Murray (15) and Sean Malone (15) are closing in on the milestone as well.

The Amerks currently own four of the AHL's top scoring rookies in JJ Peterka, Jack Quinn, Brandon Biro and Linus Weissbach, all of whom have combined for 178 points (67+111) through Rochester's first 66 games this season.

Peterka's torrid start to the second half of the year has him leading all rookies in points (58), third in assists (36) and fourth in goals (22) and assists (36) in 60 games this season.

Quinn, the Buffalo Sabres' eighth overall pick in 2020, is second among all first-year players with 23 goals and ranks fourth in points (50) despite only appearing in 35 games.

Quinn became the 101st AHL player this season to make his NHL debut when he took the ice against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Jan. 11. He finished with team-highs in shots (3) and shot attempts (6) while earning 16:30 of total ice time. He then returned to the Sabres a day after scoring his 18th goal of the season for Rochester and was rewarded with his first two NHL points, including a goal against Vezina Trophy winner and Stanley Cup champion Braden Holtby in the Sabres' 5-4 loss to the Dallas Stars on Jan 20.

Despite missing the last 17 games due to injury, Biro is still tied for 14th in scoring amongst all rookies with 36 points (9+27) in 40 games.

Weissbach has notched 14 points (4+10) in his last 23 games. He finished February with 11 points (1+10) in 13 contests, including a season-high three- assist effort on Feb. 27 at Toronto to bring the month to a close.

Peterka and Quinn are the first pair of Amerks rookies taken from the same Draft class (2020) to record 50 or more points in the same season since Scott Thomas and Doug MacDonald (1989) did so in 1992-93.

FANTASTIC FOUR

Rochester has two of the league's top point-producing defensemen in Ethan Prow (9+32) and Oskari Laaksonen (5+26), who enter the weekend fifth and tied for 19th in scoring amongst all blueliners, respectively.

Prow, who reached the 40-point mark for the second time in his AHL career, is also fourth with 32 assists, which are six more than Laaksonen. His nine goals are tied for ninth-most by a defenseman this season and only three off the league lead. With an assist on Wednesday against Laval, Prow has recorded 23 points (5+18) over his last 30 games. Additionally, he has totaled 122 points (36+86) over his last 176 AHL contests dating back to the 2018-19 campaign.

Laaksonen, who shows five points (1+4) over his last 10 games coming into tonight, also ranks fourth among defensemen with 20 power-play assists, as all but six of his 26 assists this season have come on the man-advantage.

Equally as impressive, 24 of his 31 points have come on the power-play.

His best performance of the season came back on Jan. 12 when he recorded a career-high four assists in the 7-6 win over Utica, including three in the first period and three of which came on the power-play. He finished two assists shy of tying the franchise record for most in a single game.

THE BEST OFFENSE IS A GOOD DEFENSE

Of the 16 different defensemen the Amerks have used this season, 15 have notched at least one point while 11 have recorded at least one goal. Additionally, of the 26 different forwards to appear in one game for Rochester, 19 have scored a goal and 22 have produced a point.

Over his last 41 games since the turn of the New Year, Amerks forward Arttu Ruotsalainen has tallied 42 points on 17 goals and 25 assists, a stretch which began with a three-point effort versus Hartford on Jan. 2.

Ruotsalainen has also turned in a multi-point effort in 11 games over that same span, an impressive run highlighted by three consecutive two-goal games for the first time in his AHL career. He's recorded at least one point in 14 of his last 17 outings since Feb. 27.

He was named the AHL's Player of the Month for March after totaling 18 points (10+8) in 13 games for Rochester.

Rochester is the only team in the Eastern Conference this season with five players who have 40 or more points. Additionally, the Amerks are the only team to have three different rookies with at least 10 goals, 20 assists and 30 points in Peterka, Quinn and Weissbach.

THE ROAD TO BUFFALO LEADS THROUGH ROCHESTER

Players that have appeared in at least one game this season for both Rochester and Buffalo:

FORWARDS (8)

Brandon Biro*

Mark Jankowski

Peyton Krebs

Ryan MacInnis

Brett Murray

JJ Peterka*

Jack Quinn*

Arttu Ruotsalainen

DEFENSEMEN (3)

Casey Fitzgerald*

Ethan Prow*

Mattias Samuelsson

GOALTENDERS (3)

Aaron Dell

Michael Houser

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

* = Made NHL debut

Rochester's 6-5 overtime loss to Bridgeport on March 27th was the 16th game this season - and ninth since Feb. 11 - that went beyond regulation for the Amerks.

The Amerks are 6-5 in overtime but show just a 2-3 mark in shootouts.

Only 10 more teams have played more overtime games than the Amerks.

Rochester tied an AHL record with 29 overtime games in 2017-18.

Check out the Rochester Americans Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from April 8, 2022


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