Rochester Americans Game Preview: Wednesday, March 4, 2020 vs. Utica Comets
Published on March 4, 2020 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Rochester Americans News Release
TONIGHT'S GAME OVERVIEW
- The Rochester Americans (31-18-4-5) open the month of March tonight against the Utica Comets (31-21-3-2) at The Blue Cross Arena. It will be the second game in seven days and third between the two clubs since Feb. 16. Game time is slated for a 7:05 p.m. start and will be carried live on The Sports Leader AM 950/95.7 FM ESPN Rochester as well as AHLTV.
LAST TIME OUT
- The Syracuse Crunch scored twice in the third period, including an empty-netter with 26 seconds remaining, to end the Amerks seven-game point streak with a 4-2 win Saturday night at Upstate Medical University Arena.
- Andrew Oglevie opened the scoring for Rochester with his 14th goal of the campaign while Rasmus Asplund registered his third. Casey Mittelstadt finished the month of February with 12 points (3+9) in 14 games as he set up Asplund's third-period power-play goal. Netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (3-4-3) suffered the loss while making 16 saves.
AMERKS AT A GLANCE
- The Amerks come into the week eight points back of the Belleville Senators for the top spot in the AHL's North Division standings with a game in hand on the Senators. Rochester also has a four-point lead on third-place Utica, but the Comets do have a game in hand on Rochester coming into tonight's North Division showdown.
ROAD AHEAD FOR ROCHESTER
- Following tonight's matchup, the Amerks hit the road for a pair of contests against the North Division-leading Belleville Senators on Friday, Mar. 6 and Saturday, Mar. 7. Both games start at 7:00 p.m. from CAA Arena and will be carried live on The Sports Leader AM 950/95.7 FM ESPN Rochester as well as AHLTV.
HOME COOKING
- On the strength of a 16-5-3-5 home record, Rochester is tied with Milwaukee for the second-fewest regulation losses in the AHL and have the fifth-most points on home ice (40). Only the Hartford Wolf Pack have fewer regulation losses at home this season.
MITTELSTADT QUICKLY MAKING HIS MARK
- Casey Mittelstadt has quickly evolved into one of Rochester's most consistent point-getters with 23 points (9+14) in 32 games for Rochester since being reassigned to the Amerks in December from the Buffalo Sabres. Mittelstadt has totaled 21 points (9+12) since the turn of the New Year and led all Amerks with 12 points (3+9) in 14 games during the month of February. Over his last nine games, the second-year pro has eight points on one goal and seven assists.
TEAM AND LEAGUE LEADERS
- Jean-Sebastien Dea, who remains the only Amerk forward this season to reach the 30-point plateau, continues to pace the team in goals (15) and points (37) through 53 games. Dea, who is also second among all Amerks forwards with 103 shots on goal, has 16 points (5+11) in his last 23 games since the turn of the New Year, including five points (1+4) over his last seven games. He's now reached the 15-goal mark in each of the last five seasons dating back to the 2015-16 campaign when he scored a career-high 20 for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
SHARING THE CREASE
- Anchored by the goaltending tandem of veteran Andrew Hammond and third-year pro Jonas Johansson, who is currently on recall with the parent Buffalo Sabres, the Amerks own one of the top defenses in AHL having allowed only 160 goals through 58 games this season, the ninth-fewest in the AHL coming into the week. The duo has also combined for six shutouts and rank among the AHL's leaders with 15 and 13 wins this season, respectively.
- Hammond, who is 15-11-2 on the season, is tied for third among all netminders in shutouts after notching his fourth of the year back on Dec. 14 in a 5-0 win over Laval, a new career-high. With four shutouts through 31 games this season, he remains on pace to tie the franchise record for most shutouts in a season (8) set by Ryan Miller during the 2004-05 campaign.
- Johansson, who earned his first NHL win in Buffalo's 2-1 victory over Winnipeg on Feb. 23, owns a career-best 13-3-3 record with two shutouts this season. Despite being on recall, he's tied for the fifth-best goal-against average in the league (2.19) and ranks fifth among all netminders with a .925 save percentage in 20 games. Dating back to Nov. 13, he boasts an impressive 11-1-1 record with two shutouts, a 2.11 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage while allowing just two goals or less in eight starts over that span.
THE BEST OFFENSE IS A GOOD DEFENSE
- Rochester owns three of the AHL's top point-producing defensemen in Zach Redmond, Casey Nelson and Lawrence Pilut, all of whom have been mainstays on Rochester's blueline this season.
- The 2019-20 season is just a different chapter in the same story for the 31-year-old Redmond, who hasn't gone more than five games without a point all season. The two-time AHL All-Star and reigning Eddie Shore Award winner is presently tied for 15th in scoring amongst all defensemen with 30 points and is also tied for 13th with a team-high 25 assists, 10 of which have come on the power-play.
- Pilut, who's back with big club on his fifth recall of the season, has 17 points (5+12) over his last 27 AHL games dating back to Nov. 15. Having already set a new AHL career-high in goals (6), the former SHL Defenseman of the Year is also on pace to set a new mark in points.
- Nelson is tied for eighth among all blueliners with a team-best plus-19 on-ice rating through 44 games this season.
SERIES NOTABLES
- Jacob Bryson is seventh among all first-year defensemen with a plus-11 on-ice rating. Bryson, whose first two professional goals came in back-to-back games on Feb. 19 and 21, is also tied for ninth among all rookie blueliners with 21 points (2+19) in 57 games while his 19 assists are ninth-most.
- Rochester has collected at least one point in 19 of the last 25 games against Utica dating back to the start of the 2017-18 campaign, going 13-6-2-3 over that span.
- Utica owns two of the AHL's top 10 point-getters in forwards Reid Boucher and Nikolay Goldobin, who's currently on recall with Vancouver. Boucher has averaged more than a point-per-game for the better part of the season and currently ranks second in the league in scoring with 63 points (31+32) in just 49 games this season. He's also second in the AHL in goals and tied for eighth in assists. He comes into the week with seven points in his last three games, including a five-point effort (3+2) this past Saturday against Toronto.
- Amerk Justin Bailey remains at a close second behind Boucher with a career-high 27 goals in 49 games for the Comets. Bailey, who recently returned from a two-game stint with Vancouver, has been one of Utica's most dominant goal-scorers since the turn of the New Year, scoring 15 goals in his last 14 games, a stretch that also featured a season-long eight-game point streak. The Buffalo native scored three hat tricks in a four-game span in that stretch, including in back-to-back games against Hartford. He's now reached the 20-goal mark three times in his pro career having previously reached the mark in consecutive seasons with Rochester in 2015-16 and 2016-17.
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