Welcome to the seventh part of a 15 part season series highlighting the last five games (the last segment will be six games) showing off the stats, standings, highlights, transactions and whatever else took place prior to the next five games. The goal is to post these the day of the next game of a five game set. A little different than a weekly format to give us a better snapshot of trends as the season goes.

The team finished the last five games with a record of 4-1-0-0 and are heading into the game this afternoon looking to continue to build on recent wins and full team efforts. They’re still in first place for now. Syracuse has three games in hand and will make up one of those games this week. Wins were against Cleveland, Toronto, Bridgeport, and Laval. The only loss was a close game vs Utica.

Back on the right track is the simple way to summarize the last five games. Scott Wedgewood had all four wins, the team has had balanced scoring, they continue to beat top teams, and they’re still without their captain in Kevin Porter. CJ Smith was also called up and missed the last two games and the team still won.

Podcast

We weren’t able to record a new podcast but will be back with a new one this Sunday. In case you missed it or want options to subscribe click the link below:

• Beyond The Blade: Amerks Weekly | Episode 9

Articles (that aren’t game recaps) in case you missed them:

• Recap of the Last 5 Games (Games 21-25)
• Veilleux Suspended Two Games; Glotov Called Up
• Dalton Smith is a Difference Maker in Rochester
• Sabres Recall CJ Smith from the Amerks
• Amerks Host Sound Tigers Tonight, Nylander Will Play
• Redmond and Pilut Named to 2019 AHL All-Star Roster

Wins and Losses – Games 31-35

• 3-2 W at Laval Rocket 1/4/2019 [ Recap ]
• 5-4 W vs Bridgeport Sound Tigers 1/2/2019 [ Recap ]
• 4-3 L at Utica Comets 12/29/2018 [ Recap ]
• 5-1 W vs Toronto Marlies 12/28/2018 [ Recap ]
• 4-0 W at Cleveland Monsters 12/26/2018 [ Recap ]

Leaders in just the last five:

• Victor Olofsson – 6 points (6A)
• Wayne Simpson – 5 points (3G+2A)
• Kyle Criscuolo – 5 points (2G+3A)
• Justin Bailey – 4 points (2G+2A)
• CJ Smith – 4 points (2G+2A)
• Danny O’Regan – 4 points (2G+2A)
• Zach Redmond – 4 points (1G+3A)

Even though the regulation goals haven’t been coming lately, 2 goals in his last 13 games – both in one game, for Victor Olofsson he’s still putting up points and helping goals get scored. He did score a beauty of a shootout winner against Bridgeport.

Leading the Season:

• Victor Olofsson – 30 points (10G+20A)
• Zach Redmond – 29 points (15G+14A)
• CJ Smith – 29 points (13G+16A)
• Alex Nylander – 22 points (8G+14A)
• Lawrence Pilut – 22 points (3G+19A)

With the six assists Victor Olofsson did get back into the top 20 in league leaders and currently tied for 18th.

Looking at just leaders on defense, Zach Redmond is neck and neck with TJ Brennan.

Zach Redmond finally scored a goal after a seven game drought and continues to be on pace to break the all-time single season Amerks record for goals by a defenseman. He was on pace to break that before the end of December but hit a slump of sorts. The record is 18 goals and he has 15 goals in 35 games.

More than Just Points

This was only the second five game set where the team had four wins. The first time was early in the season from games six to ten when they were 4-0-1-0. The team has had a five game winning streak and two different three game winning streaks this season. Players often say they never want to lose three in a row, something that has only happened once this season. A nice rebound from a bad stretch.

The team has 22 wins this season, 10 of those are against the three teams directly below them in the standings in the North. 3-0 vs Syracuse, 4-0 vs Cleveland, 3-2 vs Utica. Toronto is on the heals of Utica, a team the Amerks are 2-0 against. Against the Atlantic Division they’ve played six games against the current top teams, four of those are wins. The two losses were the first two games against Charlotte – a team as it turns out is tops in the league. In 15 games against teams currently out of playoff range they’re 6-7-2. Win vs the best, struggle vs the bottom. Is that really a bad thing?

CJ Smith earned a call up to the Buffalo Sabres and after two wins for the Amerks it’s almost as if he wasn’t missing. Alex Nylander moved up to the top line in his absence.

One problem that has plagued just about everyone on the team lately has been shooting the pucks high or wide. They’re still scoring goals and winning games but you have to wonder, how many more goals would the team have with second and third chances generated? Wins are wins but the goal for this unit was to be an elite playoff so expectations remain high.

Alex Nylander missed almost two full games after taking a hit. He left the game vs Toronto 12/28 early in the first period, missed the next game. In the last five games he has 1G+1A, both memorable points. A goal that was redirected against Laval and an assist with 12 seconds left in the game as he passed the puck to Rasmus Asplund. He also has a shootout game winning goal.  In his previous 12 games he only had 1G+3A. It’s easy to say he has 22 points (8G+14A) in 32 games which is a decent number but the details are in the invisible stretches. What happens when NHL players go through stretches of lacking productivity? Questions and criticism. The AHL shouldn’t be any different. He’s still better than previous seasons and expectations remain high.

Scott Wedgewood has won four of the last five games. The only loss was against Utica when Adam Wilcox played. With a quick turnaround today for an afternoon game it’ll probably be Wilcox getting the start but playing your #1 goalie in Wedgewood is proving beneficial.

When Dalton Smith plays the team is 20-6, when he doesn’t they’re 2-5-2-0. Difference maker? We’ll say so.

Six players have played all 35 games so far – Zach Redmond, Wayne Simpson, Danny O’Regan, Eric Cornel, Rasmus Asplund, and Will Borgen.

Judd Peterson tallied his first American League point with a goal vs Laval. An attempt to pass to Danny O’Regan was redirected by a Laval player. Not the most memorable first goal but maybe it is that way? He’s the third player to be given a chance on the fourth line as a center. Myles Powell and Vasily Glotov were before him and while neither seemed out of place neither offered more than the team already had. Scoring a crucial game tying goal in your first game of the season is a way to make an impression early.

Goals and Shots

It’s pretty simple, score more than the other team and win. They had been on a streak of allowing third period goals which lead to previous losses. They’ve found the scoring touch and even though two games went to shootouts they didn’t let the other team score more.

There was only one game that they were out shot in yet they still won. There really isn’t anything to analyze with the shots based on the last five games when four of those games were wins. Shoot, score, win. If you’ve made it this far in reading thanks for enjoying this incredibly in depth analysis of shots for and against.

Special Teams

Power play is currently 6th in the league at 21.5% (Previously 19th in the league at 18.6%)

Penalty kill is currently 26th in the league at 78.3% (Previously 28th in the league at 77.7%)

The power play has finally seen improvement with eight goals in the last five games. Enough to move the team from 19th up to 6th in the league. The scoring has been balanced with seven different goal scorers. CJ Smith is the only player to have two goals. The penalty kill hasn’t seen much improvement at all. Two goals against in the last five games were five on three situations.

It’s as if a successful power play results in wins.

PP and PK in games 31-35 by period:

Standings

Heading into the 36th game of the season the Amerks continue to stay in first place in the North Division based on points. There was a brief moment that Syracuse was in first place but wins have put the Amerks back in the top spot. Syracuse continues to have an advantage looking at winning percentage and still has three games in hand. Syracuse will make up two of those three games in hand this coming week.

Looking at the conference level the Amerks remain in the third spot. They recently beat Bridgeport who is number two overall in the conference. Charlotte sits at number one and chances are they’re going to stay there the rest of the way.

Highlight Goal

Two shootout wins in the last five so I have to go with the two shootout winners.

The Next Five – Games 31-35

• Saturday 01/05/2019 Rochester at Laval 3:00pm
• Friday 01/11/2019 Toronto at Rochester 7:05pm
• Saturday 01/12/2019 Rochester at Toronto 4:00pm
• Friday 01/18/2019 Rochester at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 7:05pm
• Saturday 01/19/2019 Rochester at Lehigh Valley 7:05pm

Injuries as of 01/05

• Kevin Porter – Lower body – week to week – Initiated a hit against an opposing player on 12/7 and has been out since. Expected back mid January.
• Andrew Oglevie – Concussion – indefinite – Occurred during the game on 11/30.

Transactions

• 1/2 Judd Peterson called up to Rochester from Cincinnati
• 1/2 Vasily Glotov returned to Cincinnati
• 12/31 CJ Smith called up to Buffalo
• 12/30 Jonas Johansson returned to Cincinnati
• 12/30 Scott Wedgewood returned to Rochester
• 12/29 Scott Wedgewood called up to Buffalo
• 12/28 Jonas Johansson called up to Rochester from Cincinnati
• 12/26 Vasily Glotov called up to Rochester from Cincinnati

Highlight Videos

The weekend is upon us and for the first time since the start of December the Amerks had the week days off to rest up and prepare for two big games against the defending Calder Cup champion Toronto Marlies. They’ll play Friday night in Rochester and at 4pm on Saturday in Toronto.

A big crowd is expected tonight inside the old barn. The lower bowl is almost sold out as of writing this with some upper sections sold out as well. Plan accordingly for long lines at the Civic Center garage if you’re looking to park and avoid the cold weather.

Toronto has won four of their last five games with wins against Utica, Syracuse, Binghamton, and Charlotte. They’ve been at the bottom half of the North Division standings most of the season but are slowly working their way back up into playoff contention for the second half of the season.

Rochester has won three of their last five games with wins against Laval, Bridgeport, and Toronto. The Amerks continue to stay at the top of the North Division and had some help this week with losses by Syracuse, Utica, and Cleveland.

The Amerks have won both meetings between the two teams so far this season, both times being on home ice. The first game was a 5-4 shootout win back on October 19th follow by a 5-1 win on December 28.

It’s said often, anyone can win any game in the American League on any day of the week. Previous games and stats are a starting point for any discussion but often have very little meaning. That was also the team message today as well, those games are in the past and don’t mean anything.

Score goals, make saves, and more importantly stay out of the penalty box are keys for an Amerks win. The power play has improved in recent weeks for the Amerks putting them at 6th overall in the league. The penalty kill continues to struggle and is 26th overall. The Marlies are in a similar position with a 4th overall power play and 28th overall penalty kill.

Adding players to a lineup does have meaning though and the Amerks will have two new players on their top line – Kevin Porter and Scott Wilson. Porter has missed 13 games with a lower body injury. Wilson hasn’t played a game this season, he injured his ankle in Buffalo during the preseason. They’ll be playing alongside Wayne Simpson who is tied for third on the team in goals with 12.

Wilson cleared waivers on Wednesday afternoon, immediately joined the Amerks for practice, and jumped into the top line with Porter and Wayne Simpson.

Look for the rest of the forward lines to be pretty similar to previous games. Here’s how they skated during practices this week (subject to change):

Wilson – Porter – Simpson
Olofsson – Asplund – O’Regan
Nylander – Cornel – Criscuolo
D. Smith – Malone – Bailey

CJ Smith is expected to be assigned back to the Amerks and join the team on Saturday in Toronto. He had traveled to Carolina with the Sabres.

Zach Redmond continues to chase the Amerks record for goals by a defenseman in a season. He’s currently at 16 goals and the record is 18.

For more on Scott Wilson and his outlook on the assignment to Rochester…

This weekend will mark the halfway point of the season and we’ll have a full report card on Sunday afternoon.

Less than 24 hours after being losing a disappointing game on home ice in front of a large crowd the Rochester Americans traveled to Toronto with the addition of CJ Smith and turned the weekend around with a commanding 5-1 win. It was the 10th regulation loss of the season on home ice for the Marlies.

CJ Smith was the difference maker in the Saturday afternoon game as he finished the game with three goals, one assist, and seven shots on net. One the best games of his career.

The first period was pack and forth for the first 11 minutes with both teams playing a fast paced game with no signs that they had just played each other less than 24 hours earlier.

Toronto would run into penalty trouble throughout the game, something Amerks fans think only their team does, and would end up giving up three power play goals throughout the game.

As Kevin Porter was about to leave the ice after dumping the puck he was hit by Pierre Engvall and the refs called Engvall for interference.

Rochester didn’t have the best power play setup for the majority of the two minutes but with 23 seconds left they finally setup a play and CJ Smith was ready for a one timer from close to the blue line to put the Amerks up 1-0. Zach Redmond was down low, passed the puck up top to Kevin Porter, and Porter saw CJ Smith with his stick raised ready to fire a shot.

It only took five minutes into the second period for CJ Smith to score his second goal of the game and give the Amerks a 2-0 lead. Wayne Simpson fed the puck to Zach Redmond cruising down low into the face off circle, Redmond picked his head up and spotted CJ Smith cross ice who scored as he put one knee down to the ice.

After that goal the same line took the face off and less than a minute later CJ Smith had a fast rush down the right side and almost completed the hat trick but Michael Garteig was able to put a pad on the shot.

Rochester was able to kill off two penalties in the second period against a Toronto power play unit that is at the top of the league.

Trevor Moore was able to get Toronto within a goal at 2:43 of the third period and make it a close game, something that doesn’t sound likely given the eventual outcome. Matt Tennyson attempted to clear the puck with a lead pass out of the zone but it was intercepted by Dmytro Timashov. A quick turn and pass to Moore who beat Wedgewood high blocker side.

Brendan Guhle made a text book sliding save to break up an odd man rush shortly after the goal at a time the game could’ve easily been tied up.

The turning point of the game was when Michael Carcone was given a five minute cross checking major and a game misconduct. Will Borgen was playing the puck along the boards when Carcone went in for the hit but ran into either Borgens elbow or butt end of his stick and went down to the ice. The play was whistled dead with Carcone down on the ice. After Carcone slowly got up from the ice he slowly skated down ice during a break in play, with the ice crew on the ice with shovels, and delivered a high cross check to Jack Dougherty.

After the game Sheldon Keefe, Marlies head coach, talked about about Carcones actions saying, “A really good opportunity for that player to recognize just how selfish he was in that point in time.” He even mentioned Carcone putting himself ahead of the team.

Rochester took advantage of the five minute power play with two power play goals.

CJ Smith fired a hard shot from the point where the initial save was made but with the puck loose at the side of the net Kevin Porter ensured it went into the back of the net.

Victor Olofsson scored his 11th goal of the season less than two minutes later off a pass from Rasmus Asplund. Olofsson was parked in front of the net all alone and immediately blasted the pass from Asplund into the net.

A 4-1 advantage at that point delivered the win for Rochester but they weren’t done. Toronto pulled their goalie in a desperate chance with over five minutes remaining in the third period and it provided CJ Smith the opportunity to score his third goal of the game into an empty net.

As Toronto attempted to pass the puck down low it was intercepted by Jack Dougherty who spotted CJ Smith departing the defensive zone and heading down ice.

Scott Wedgewood finished the game with 26 saves for his 14th win of the season.

The two games were almost mirror images of each other. Friday night saw Toronto deliver a crushing loss to Rochester on home ice. Late Saturday afternoon it was Rochester delivering a crushing loss to Toronto on home ice. Friday night saw an Amerks team that didn’t show up to play. Saturday afternoon saw a Toronto team take costly penalties and it cost them.

Splitting the weekend salvaged the weekend for the Amerks to keep them in first place along with some help from other North Division teams losing.

There were two lineup changes in Toronto. Sean Malone didn’t travel with the team to Toronto and is considered day to day for now. That provided the open forward spot for CJ Smith to play.

Brandon Hickey sat the game out on defense with Jack Dougherty going into the lineup in his place.

Rochester doesn’t play again until next weekend when they travel to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Friday and then Allentown to play Lehigh Valley on Saturday.

***

The game in gifs as they happened:

Welcome to the eleventh episode of our Amerks weekly podcast on Beyond The Blade between myself, Keith Wozniak, and Chad DeDominicis from Die By the Blade. It’s a short podcast where we discuss what’s currently going on with the Rochester Americans and what’s happened since the previous episode.

This week we touch on the weekend series with the Marlies,  CJ Smith, Scott Wilson, half way report cards, and look ahead to next week.

These are kept to 30 minutes or less to make it easy to listen to and get caught up on what’s going on with the Amerks.

Listen to “Amerks Weekly | Episode 11 – Weekend Split” on Spreaker.

Other ways to subscribe and listen other than Spreaker:

|| iTunes || Google Play || iHeart || Spotify || Spreaker ||

This coming week the Amerks play two road games. Friday they play at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Saturday they play at the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Come back next week for the next episode!

In case you missed it….

The Amerks had a week of practice before going on the road this weekend to play the Penguins and Phantoms. They’re coming off of last weekend where they split a home and home with Toronto where Toronto won in Rochester and Rochester won in Toronto.

On the road this weekend they’ll likely be without Sean Malone in the lineup who has been on the day to day list recovering from a nagging injury.

It’s expected that they’ll be joined by Taylor Leier who was just acquired in the trade in exchange for Justin Bailey. [ Details of that trade and more on Leier ]

I could have turned all of the quotes below into individual stories but a busy week got in the way. It’s a buffet of questions and quotes that gets straight to the point with answers from Alex Nylander, Chris Taylor, Jack Dougherty, CJ Smith, Kevin Porter, and Amerks GM Randy Sexton.

Alex Nylander

On his first half the season, “I think I’ve had a good half of the season, obviously started off really good, slowed down a little bit, but now I’m back on track and trying to get back up to the best I can be.”

Asked if he’s starting to see consistent play payoff, “It feels good that it’s paid off. I could start shooting more and I know I am a goal scorer. I just need to get to those opportunities to start shooting for and look for the pass as much as I have been. I’m always trying to get better at getting to those areas where you can score goals. I’m happy with the way it’s been and I know it can get even better.”

Asked how he judges success for himself, “Working hard every game. How much I work, how much I’m skating, making plays and stuff like that. When I work hard the points will come. You can have a really good game with zero points as long as you’re creating chances. The points will come in the next game if you keep doing that.”

First half of the season as a team, “I think we can just get even better from now. We’ve had a pretty good start to the season half way. We just need to keep going. We know the way we can play, be consistent, and play like that every night.

Chris Taylor

Asked about looking forward to a road trip where they’ve played better, “I don’t think of that as much. We’re trying to make corrections where we can whether it’s at home or on the road. We’d like to play better at home, we’re not very happy with ourselves and the results or lack of results at home. We just have to be better. For us this weekend it’s about going on the road and we have to be prepared against two quality teams in the other division.”

On having CJ back, “He helped energize our room the way he came out and started playing.”

On wanting players shooting more, “We want a shot mentality. Everybody thinks sometimes that it’s selfish when a guy shoots but it’s unselfish because the next guy and the second guy gets the opportunity. When teams have good defensive posture it’s tough to score from the outside, you have to shoot get to the inside. It’s very unselfish to start shooting the puck and that’s what we need more guys to do.”

On the first half of the season, “I’ve really liked it so far. We’re improving game by game. I’ve gone over Fridays game a couple of times and if we score on a couple of our chances it’s a different game. In Saturdays game we gave up a couple of scoring chances and it could’ve been the other way. It flip flopped for both teams at home. I think we’ve played some really good hockey, there’s a couple of games I’d like to have back but we’re moving forward and guys are maturing.”

What are you looking to improve on in the second half, “Improve on results at home. Results when we have opportunity, are we bearing down on them? Looking at our structure I want to improve our structure so we don’t have to go over it as much in practice later on in the year. Keep moving forward and every day we’re coming to work, it’s not here to just show up. We’re getting to that but haven’t gotten to that point with everybody yet.”

The team still trying to find an identity, “We always are and I think every team is until they get to the playoffs. It doesn’t matter how you start, it matters how you finish and where you end up.”

Last Saturday there was an incident in the third period where Michael Carcone of the Toronto Marlies had skated into a group of Amerks players and hit Jack Dougherty with a high stick. Refs gave him a five minute major and game misconduct. A little surprised that the league didn’t follow up as well.

Asked about that Taylor said, “We looked over it afterwards. There’s been way more things that have happened, that’s just part of it. It’s one of those things that because he had a bloody nose the day before it looked like it was more than it was. If we felt that there was a major major incident we would’ve taken it to the league.”

On Dougherty, “He’s playing well. It’s tough for him a little on the left side that he’s not used to but he’s adjusting but he plays hard and hard minutes for us. He’s been a really good job on the penalty kill and being hard to play against.”

Jack Dougherty

His face has had a rough season so far. At the end of November he took a high stick and lost a tooth. Last week a puck hit him in the face at practice and busted his nose open. And then in Toronto last Saturday during the break in play mentioned above he took another high stick that had more blood flowing to the ice.

With a laugh he said, “It happens to everyone and this is my year, my week, my month, whatever you want to call it.”

He didn’t want to comment on the incident in Toronto.

Dougherty currently leads the team (with active players) at a plus-12, “I can’t look at that because there’s four other guys on the ice that are making things happen too. I’m not a huge individual stat guy, obviously I don’t get very many points. I just trying to look at my game as a whole.”

On how he judges success, “Comfortably and confidence. Just looking back at the game before how you had an impact on it. We’ve all played this game long enough to know when we’ve had a good game and a bad one. Just look back at your mistakes and figure out what you need to work on.”

When it comes to defensemen the names Will Borgen and Brendan Guhle are mentioned often but Dougherty can be in that mix as well. Dougherty was drafted in 2014, Guhle was drafted in 2015. They’re both second round picks, both 51st overall.

CJ Smith

Asked about being disappointed to get sent down but also the response in Toronto, “Obviously you don’t want to get sent down. It kind of frustrating and I hope anyone in that spot would be frustrated because everybody wants to be in the NHL. I think anybody in that spot would be a little but upset but you know what i’m not going to dwell on it and do what i can to get back up there. i was pretty happy with the response i had and a good team win too.”

He also mentioned being aware of the contract situations and said, “Sucks for me but it is what it is, there’s nothing I can really do about it right now but keep a positive attitude and keep working to get that moment again.”

Confidence booster, “It gave me a lot of confidence. It helps you to go up there and practice and get a couple games at that level. The game is really fast, guys are really skilled. I was able to roll with it. I had a lot of confidence coming back.”

Talked about the speed difference, “The play making is a different level but speed here in the American League is still fast. Guys can make plays here too. Playing up there helped, this is still a good league, not something you can just come down here and stand out every game. You still have to work for your spot.”

Asked what the Sabres had told him when he was assigned back to Rochester, “They liked my game, they liked how I played, and I liked  how I played too. It’s just a tough numbers spot right now. I just need to stay patient, not dwell on it, not let it impact my game or attitude down here. Being able if that spot comes again to be the first one called up and roll with it if I get the opportunity.

First half of the season thoughts, “I love playing for this coaching staff and this team. It’s really close in there. It’s going to be a really exciting second half and we’re looking forward to making a playoff push.”

Kevin Porter

On the half way point of the season, “I think we started off really well, sometimes we’ve had some slumps where we win a game, lose a game, win a game. We want to get out of that rut and get on a winning streak but overall it’s been a pretty good start. There’s definitely room for improvement though.”

Randy Sexton

How do you think the season has gone so far?

“It’s gone pretty much according to plan. We’re pleased with where we are and so far so good.”

Is there a player that has exceeded your expectations and anyone you’d like to more performance out of?

“No I don’t think so. We spend a lot of time putting together a realistic development plan for everybody and I don’t think there’s anyone that’s fallen short and anybody that’s really really exceeded. I’d say we’re right on point. From our perspective we think guys are right on track.  I expect our offensive guys will produce in the second half, our defenseman will continue to develop and grow and play well, and our goaltending has been real solid so we’re happy with where we are.”

At the start of the season the talk was of being an elite playoff team. What would you like to see more of out of this team in the second half of the season?

“I’d like to see us get off to better starts. Occasionally we’re a little slow out of the gates. We’re a much younger team than we were last year so I think part of that is our younger players learning that we have to be ready to play opening puck drop every night and every period. I’d say part of that I’d chalk up more to maturity and experience. I think year every year since I’ve been involved the intensity heightens after the all star break so we have to be sure as a team and player by player we’re ready to play with that heightened intensity and play our opponents with intensity.

In recent weeks we’ve seen a lot of AHL trades, are you looking at options? (this was asked before the Justin Bailey trade for Taylor Leier)

“We’re actively looking to improve our organization from Buffalo to Cincinnati. That’s not a unique one day one event thing. We work at that every day. It’s part of my job is to be on the phone every day talking to other teams to see what they’re looking to do. That’s an ongoing daily process. and sometimes they work out but the ratio of discussions to transactions is probably 30 to 1.”

Winning from the bottom up appears to be the long term plan…

“When we sat down at Christmas I think Buffalo was 5th or 6th in the NHL, in Rochester we were first in our division, and Cincinnati was 1st or 2nd in the ECHL. It’s that type of performance and consistency we’re striving for and we just need to maintain in the 2nd half.”

Weekend ahead

Friday night versus Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and Saturday night vs Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The Amerks have played better so far this season against teams at the top half of the divisions so these should be good games. As the cliche answers say, they just need to play a simple game and stick to their game plan.

Questions, concerns, comments, disagreements, or anything else hop over to Twitter or Facebook and let me know!

ICYMI….

Milestones and tying franchise records are a lot more enjoyable when the team wins and the Rochester Americans did just that on Friday night in a 5-4 win on the road against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Zach Redmond scored two goals to reach 18 goals this season and tie the franchise record for goals by a defenseman in the regular season. The record was set by Rick Pagnutti during the 1972/1973 season. A record that has stood for over 40 years. Have the defenseman been that bad or are Pagnutti and Redmond that good? We’ll go with that good!

Redmond started the season with 13 goals in the first 19 games putting him on a direct path to break the franchise record. Things cooled off once Lawrence Pilut was called up and It’d take another 20 games for the next five goals. He’s now in the record books and only needs one more goal in 37 games to take sole possession of the stat.

There were two other milestones tonight to mention before getting into the game recap.

Wayne Simpson reached 100 career assists in the AHL with a helper on the second goal of the game by Zach Redmond.

Dalton Smith played in his 300th AHL game and spent the night doing #DaltonSmithThings (follow us on Twitter). The Amerks are 22-7 when D. Smith plays in a game and 2-6-2-0 when he doesn’t. Let that stat sink in.

Back to the game itself….

There’s almost always a few ways to look at a game but in this case we can say that the Amerks played 60 minutes, were perfect on the penalty kill, and scored a power play goal. Those three things are a the cliche keys to success in a hockey game. It wasn’t a perfect game by either side and was won in the third period when the Penguins were down two defensemen.

Penguins defender Jeff Taylor had left the game after a hit by Dalton Smith, the reason for Matt Abt leaving is unknown. Either way, playing a game with only four defensemen at any time isn’t ideal.

Anthony Angello scored first for the Penguins at 3:29 of the first period but it only took 73 seconds for the Amerks to respond when Zach Redmond scored his 17th goal of the season. An odd man rush at 9:46 of the first period resulted in Jimmy Hayes scoring to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead.

The two goals against were results of Matt Tennyson on the first goal taking himself out of the play. The second goal was Brendan Guhle delivering a hit at center ice leaving Andrew MacWilliam alone in the defensive zone.

A turning point in the game was at 7:48 of the second period when every Penguins player on the ice went to the bench for a line change. Every player. As they made an attempt to dump the puck into the Amerks zone it landed on the stick of Zach Redmond. He looked up, saw Danny O’Regan all alone, and delivered a perfect long pass. O’Regan scored his 13th goal of the season on the breakaway.

The game was tied 2-2 until Zach Redmond scored his 18th goal of the season on the power play. CJ Smith sent a hard crisp pass into the slot where Redmond was ready to shoot for his team lead ninth power play goal of the season.

Adam Johnson would score at 14:27 of the second period as both teams played four on four. He scored unassisted on a breakaway as the four Amerks skaters were all caught down low in the Penguins zone.

Victor Olofsson took over in the third period to score two goals and secure the win for Rochester. His first goal was was a quick release into the back of the net off of a back hand drop pass from Danny O’Regan. His second goal of the game, and game winning goal, was scored at 14:31 of the third. Alex Nylander entered the zone on the left side, spotted Olofsson ready to shoot and put the puck right where it needed to be. Olofsson went down to one knee to deliver the game winning shot.

Anthony Angello would score again with 62 seconds left to get the Penguins within one but the Amerks played a perfect shut down game in the final minute.

Zach Redmond finished with 2G+2A and a team high seven shots on net. Scott Wedgewood finished the game with 19 saves for his 15th win of the season.

New comer Taylor Leier was reportedly with the team arriving at the end of morning skate and did not play in the game. Sean Malone is still out with a day to day injury and did not make the trip. Nathan Paetsch, Tyler Randell, and Brandon Hickey were the healthy scratches.

For a recap of the game from a Penguins blogger check this out – https://chirpsfromcenterice.com/2019/01/18/redolof/

Rochester is scheduled to play in Allentown, PA against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Saturday night. With the incoming snow storm and thruway closures we’ll find out early Saturday if the game is going to be played as scheduled.

***

Here’s the game in gifs as they were tweeted:

Here’s that line change…

Welcome to the eighth part of a 15 part season series highlighting the last five games (the last segment will be six games) showing off the stats, standings, highlights, transactions and whatever else took place prior to the next five games. The goal is to post these the day of the next game of a five game set. A little different than a weekly format to give us a better snapshot of trends as the season goes.

The team finished the last five games with a record of 2-2-0-1. They’re still in first place based on points and winning percentage. The team had two big wins against (Toronto and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton), two close losses (Laval and Lehigh Valley), and a blow out loss against Toronto on home ice.

Amerks Weekly Podcast

A shortened Amerks schedule allowed for three Amerks Weekly episodes to be recorded in case you missed them.

• Beyond The Blade: Amerks Weekly | Episode 10
• Beyond The Blade: Amerks Weekly | Episode 11
• Beyond The Blade: Amerks Weekly | Episode 12

Articles (that aren’t game recaps) in case you missed them:

• Recap of the Last 5 Games (Games 31-35)
• Scott Wilson Looks to Win, Score, and Enjoy the Bus Trips
• Weekend Preview – Home and Away versus Toronto
• Rochester Americans 2018/2019 Mid Season Report Card
• Sabres Acquire Taylor Leier from the Flyers for Justin Bailey
• Quotes from Randy Sexton about the season
• CJ Smith talking about his success
• Alex Nylander on his first half
• Zach Redmond Ties a Franchise Record in Amerks Win

Wins and Losses – Games 36-40

• 3-2 SOL at Lehigh Valley Phantoms 1/19/2019 [ Recap ]
• 5-4 W at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 1/18/2019 [ Recap ]
• 5-1 W at Toronto Marlies 1/12/2019 [ Recap ]
• 5-1 L vs Toronto Marlies 1/11/2019 [ Recap ]
• 2-1 L at Laval Rocket 1/5/2019 [ Recap ]

Leaders in just the last five:

• Zach Redmond – 7 points (3G+4A)
• CJ Smith – 6 points (3G+3A)
• Kevin Porter – 4 points (2G+2A)
• Danny O’Regan – 4 points (1G+3A)
• Wayne Simpson – 4 points (4A)

Leading the Season:

• Zach Redmond – 36 points (18G+18A)
• CJ Smith – 35 points (16G+19A)
• Victor Olofsson – 33 points (13G+20A)
• Danny O’Regan – 25 points (13G+12A)
• Wayne Simpson – 25 points (12G+13A)

Even though it’s been 21 games since Lawrence Pilut has played with the Amerks he finally fell out of the top five in scoring. Or should I say, others finally caught up? Danny O’Regan moves into the top five spot along with Wayne Simpson. They bumped Nylander and Pilut to 6th and 7th.

Looking at just league leaders on defense, Zach Redmond moved into the top spot ahead of TJ Brennan.

Redmond has tied the Amerks franchise record for goals by a defenseman, one more to break it.

More than Just Points

The second half of the season is going to be all about points. Points in the standings and points on the score sheet. That’s the only way to remain in first place and at the top of the league.

Scott Wilson has started to settle into his role on the team and tallied two assists in his first four games.

Newly acquired Taylor Leier has played one game but will be looking to find his spot on the team and work his way up the lineup.

The names that are supposed to be leading are – Zach Redmond, CJ Smith, Victor Olofsson, Wayne Simpson, and Danny O’Regan. Now it’s time for Alex Nylander, Rasmus Asplund, and Kyle Criscuolo to find their grooves and start tallying more points.

Internal competition has been talked about again now that there’s two extra forwards skating in practices with a soon to be third when Sean Malone returns from an injury. This is the time of the season when we find out who’s going to step up. It doesn’t get any easier once the playoffs start and this team learned last year that struggling in the second half hurt the teams chances.

Defensively the team continues to be lead by Zach Redmond, Andrew MacWilliam, and Will Borgen. Brendan Guhle has had slight improvement as the season has gone on but we’ll quickly be at playoff time where he didn’t have the best performance last season. There’s only 36 regular season games remaining with Matt Tennyson in the organization. Jack Dougherty and Brandon Hickey have continued to go back and forth with the sixth spot on defense with each of them showing decent development curves.

Goals and Shots

It’s pretty simple, score more than the other team and win.

The good news is that the Amerks are scoring goals in first periods and are preventing the other team from scoring. The bad news is that it doesn’t equal wins.

A season high 51 shots in game 40 wasn’t enough against a hot goalie in Alex Lyon. They’re getting the shots on net just not getting those second and third chances.

Special Teams

Power play is currently 6th in the league at 21.7% (Previously 6th in the league at 21.5%)

Penalty kill is currently 24th in the league at 79.5% (Previously 26th in the league at 78.3%)

The power play has remained consistent to keep them at 6th in the league with slight improvement in the penalty kill. Going 0/7 on the power play in the last game didn’t help the chances of winning but they were also up against the Phantoms who have the leagues best penalty kill.

PP and PK in games 36-40 by period:

Standings

Heading into the 41st game of the season the Amerks continue to stay in first place in the North Division. Looking at the conference level the Amerks remain in the third spot.

Syracuse and continues to stay on the heels of Rochester and with nine games between the two teams left to play this season there’ll be some gaps or changes ahead. Utica is only a point behind but they also have 5 games in hand. Last season at this time the North Division was already locked up.

Highlight Goal(s)

Two this time around. Zach Redmond tying the franchise record and Victor Olofsson scoring a beauty on one knee.

The Next Five – Games 41-45

• Wednesday 01/23/2019 Binghamton at Rochester 7:05pm
• Friday 01/25/2019 Utica at Rochester 7:05pm
• Saturday 01/26/2019 Rochester at Syracuse 7:00pm
• Friday 02/01/2019 Rochester at Binghamton 7:05pm
• Saturday 02/02/2019 Rochester at Hartford 7:00pm

Injuries as of 01/23

• Sean Malone – Unknown – day to day – treatment for a nagging injury.
• Andrew Oglevie – Concussion – indefinite – Occurred during the game on 11/30. Has started working out again.

Transactions

• 1/17 Justin Bailey called up to Buffalo for a trade to the Philadelphia Flyers
• 1/17 Taylor Leier assigned to Rochester from Buffalo
• 1/9 Scott Wilson cleared waivers and assigned to Rochester from Buffalo
• 1/9 Judd Peterson returned to Cincinnati

Highlight Videos

Previous Five Game Recaps:

• Games 1-5
• Games 6-10
• Games 11-15
• Games 16-20
• Games 21-25
• Games 26-30
• Games 31-35

The top four positions of the North Division are composed of the same teams as last season, just in a different order right now. Rochester remains in first place with Utica, Syracuse, and Toronto in the next three. All three teams have been on the heels of the Amerks all season. There’s two big games this weekend starting tonight at home versus Utica and then a road game in Syracuse on Saturday night.

Kevin Porter is one of many players with flights out of town planned for the All-Star break and he said, “Everyone will have a much better break if we get four points the next couple of games.”

Utica Comets arrive in town today riding a 7-2-1-0 stretch over there last 10 games. Three wins vs Syracuse, two vs Cleveland, one vs Binghamton, and one vs Rochester. They’re currently in second place, three points behind Rochester, but have four games in hand. Amerks are 3-2 in five games against the Comets this season.

Rochester travels to Syracuse on Saturday against a Crunch team that has had some struggles as of late. They’ve only won four of their last 10 but anyone who follows the North Division closely knows that they’re a team capable of pulling off a long winning streak at any time. Amerks are 3-0 in three games against the Crunch this season.

Playing at home this season hasn’t always been the best place to play. The overall home record is 13-9 compared to a road record of 12-4-2-1.

“We’ve tried to figure it out and we’re trying to do different things,” Chris Taylor said after practice on Thursday when asked about playing at home.  “We’re not status quo on how we’re doing things. We have to change things and we have to change things on how we get prepared for games at home. I thought we did a good job Wednesday night, obviously we didn’t maintain it where we wanted to. We got it out and we got the win. That’s the most important thing, we got the results.”

The biggest difference this weekend and going forward is that the team will be without leading scorer and top defenseman in Zach Redmond. He’s out week to week with a lower body injury from late in the game on Wednesday. More on the injury here:

It’s a new opportunity for players like Will Borgen and Jack Dougherty to get some increased playing time along with time on the power play. Brendan Guhle has played on the power play all season and will likely step into that top spot that Redmond controlled.

Gord Dineen gave a little nod after the morning skate to Will Borgen as a potential for some added offense time. He said, “He’s a guy we’ve kind of penned in as a defensive defenseman but the way he’s been handling the puck and seeing the ice he’ll be an option too.”

CJ Smith was asked if they feel a little more pressure to take that extra step to get back or cover for Redmond being out he said, “I think we trust everybody on our team. It’s kind of next man up mentality. I think we feel like anyone can come in and do a job. We might lose out on some scoring with Reds but it’s not going to change the way we play or change our mindset at all. We’re just going to trust whoever is in the lineup in his spot that they’re going to do his job.”

Victor Olofsson said, “I think we have a lot of good guys on this team and I think we all have to step up a little bit, take more responsibility, and we’ll be fine.”

On Wednesday night the Amerks allowed three goals in a span of 1:55 at a time they had a 4-1 lead. After the game Kevin Porter had said there were a lot of things they had to take from the game and get better at. When asked what those things are he said, “I think its little mistakes here and there. Turnovers are a big thing for us and shot selection.”

The shot selection he’s referring to is shots directly at a goalie with no one else driving the net looking for rebounds. They need to be better at how they’re shooting it. And avoid turning the puck over.

Brandon Hickey will be the sixth defenseman in with Redmond out of the lineup. Yannick Veilleux will replace Tyler Randell in the lineup. Dalton Smith and Nathan Paetsch are the other two scratches. Sean Malone and Andrew Oglevie are still out injured.

Taylor Leier scored his first goal in his second game with the Amerks, his 11th overall of the season. After practice on Thursday he was asked about his first impressions of the team and he said, “The depth i would say. There’s a really deep group especially at forward. Just as a forward i noticed they’re very deep and a lot of guys that can make plays. There’s 4 lines that can score, not a lot of teams have that.”

They’ll have to better with those offensive choices, defensive shortfalls without Redmond, and also playing with a goalie who’ll be playing in only his fourth American League game this season. Scott Wedgewood has been sidelined with a lower body week to week injury which meant that Jonas Johansson was called up from Cincinnati.

One of the three games for Johansson was a 5-2 win over Utica on December 5. The goalie at the other end of the ice was Thatcher Demko.

**

AHL All-Star Game

Brendan Guhle was announced as the Amerks player to be going to the All-Star game in Springfield on Sunday and Monday. Guhle is ninth on the team in scoring with 19 points (4G+15A) in 37 games.

Zach Redmond and Lawrence Pilut were the original choices but they will not be available. Pilut is with the Buffalo Sabres and wasn’t sent back to be eligible to play. Zach Redmond is out with a week to week injury.

Details from the AHL along with other details on the All-Star game: http://bit.ly/2G0d84O 

**

Other articles this week in case you missed them..

It took the fourth match up of the season for the Syracuse Crunch to defeat the Rochester Americans this season and they accomplished that on Saturday night with a 4-3 overtime win. Carter Verhaeghe scored the overtime winner to complete his hat trick. The Amerks had a 2-1 lead going into the third period before giving up an early goal and a late goal that forced the game into overtime.

The title is a stick tap to our friends at Raw Charge for a fun article getting to know Crunch players as if they went to Hogwarts [ Read it Here ]

All four goals by Syracuse were scored as time was ticking down or just starting. This was the fourth loss of the season for Rochester when leading after two periods.

The good news the team will takeaway for now as they go about their ways and travels for the All-Star break is that they finished the week with five out of a possible six points. The details behind those points can be concerning and that’s something that’ll be addressed after the break.

Syracuse appeared to follow the same game plan that Rochester had on Friday night, keep shooting the puck.

Scott Wilson scored the first goal of the game, his second of the season, at 8:22 of the first period on the power play. Assists to Wayne Simpson and Matt Tennyson. A shot that appeared simple was thrown at the net from the face off circle and went in the net past Connor Ingram.

Carter Verhaeghe tied the game with 32 seconds left in the first period with a quick wrist shot as he entered the zone. Alexander Volkov of the Crunch appeared to partially screen Wilcox.

If the American League had off-sides challenges this one would’ve gone to a review and likely overturned.

Halfway through the second period Kyle Criscuolo scored his fourth goal of the season to give the Amerks a 2-1 lead. CJ Smith had the puck on the left side and delivered a perfect pass at the direction of Criscuolo’s stick for the redirect. The assist extended CJ’s point streak to nine games (5G+8A) which also ties the longest active streak in the American League.

Syracuse only had four shots in the second period and it took them over 13 minutes to get their first. Adam Wilcox only had to make four saves but they were quality shots and important saves.

When the Amerks won on Friday night against Utica they entered the third period with the mindset of just continuing to shoot the puck and eventually they’d score. That’s what Syracuse appeared to do with 20 shots in the third period on Saturday.

It only took 36 seconds for the Crunch to score and tie the game 2-2 when Jan Rutta scored. Andrew MacWilliam and Matt Tennyson were pulled behind the goal line trying to win a puck battle and it left a lot of open room in front of the net. A quick pass from Alex Barre-Boulet to Rutta and the game was tied. This goal was reviewed to determine if the net had come off of it’s moorings before the goal was scored. Officials said nope, it didn’t, good goal.

Rochester took back the lead at 9:19 when Brendan Guhle sent a quick low wrist shot to the net. Danny O’Regan appeared to redirect the shot but as of typing this it reads Guhle from Olofsson and O’Regan. The assist is the 23rd of the season for Olofsson.

Less than two minutes later the officials decided to hand a penalty shot to the Crunch when they believed that an Amerks player closed their hand on the puck in the crease. Amidst the big scramble in front of the net (gif below at the end of the recap) it’s hard to imagine how they could make that determination. Cory Conacher took the penalty shot and the Amerks caught a brake when the puck slipped away from his stick, something that rarely happens to Conacher in a situation like that.

With less than five minutes remaining in the third there was a holding the stick call on Danny O’Regan. On the delayed call O’Regan was tackled by Conacher in front of Adam Wilcox but there was no call on that. Syracuse pulled goalie Connor Ingram to gain a six on four advantage. That’s the game of hockey.

Rochester was able to kill the penalty but that didn’t slow down the momentum Syracuse had built up.

Carter Verhaeghe tied the game with 87 seconds left in regulation skating down low with the puck and beating Wilcox. Rochester had the triangle setup down low but another move by Alexander Volkov tied up Borgen and MacWilliam to give Verhaeghe the space he needed.

Syracuse finished with a 20-4 advantage in shots in the final 20 minutes of regulation.

Overtime was over just as it started. Rasmus Asplund won the face off back to Matt Tennyson but he fumbled the puck and it ended up behind him. Verhaeghe didn’t hesitate to use his quick wisdom to get behind Tennyson and score blocker side on Wilcox.

Teams now take four days off for the All-Star break and will return to work on Thursday. That’ll give us plenty of time to research how many leads the Amerks have given up this season along with how many goals they’ve had scored on them at the start or end of a period. For now, they’re in first place where they have been all season and finished the week with five of six possible points.

Here’s the game in tweets/gifs as they happened:

The Rochester Americans completed a two game road trip with their second win in as many nights with a 4-1 win over the Hartford Wolf Pack on Saturday night. Eric Cornel and CJ Smith each scored a pair of goals in the win with Jonas Johansson in net. Back to back wins that saw the team play full 60 minute games and it paid off. The team is on an eight point game streak right now with a 6-0-1-1 record and they remain in first place.

Full recap below courtesy of the Rochester Americans. First, here’s the goals in gifs as they were tweeted:

****

Here’s the full recap courtesy of Amerks.com

(Hartford, CT) … C.J. Smith and Eric Cornel each scored twice and Jonas Johanssonstopped all but one of the 35 shots he faced as the Rochester Americans (28-13-3-1) closed out their three-game road swing with a convincing 4-1 victory over the Hartford Wolf Pack (19-23-3-2) at XL Center on Saturday night.

Along with the win, which gave Rochester the weekend sweep, the Amerks have collected 14 out of a possible 16 points during their current eight-game point streak and maintain their first-place lead atop the AHL’s North Division standings coming out of the All-Star break. The team has also notched 22 points in its last 15 games dating back to a 4-0 shutout win in Cleveland on Dec. 26.

With a three-point (2+1) night, Smith took over the team scoring lead on the season as he scored his 17th and 18 goals of the campaign to go with an assist while Cornel also bagged a pair of goals in the win. Johansson (3-1-0) was less than three minutes shy of earning his first-career AHL shutout but instead turned in a solid 34-save effort to improve to 4-1-0 through five appearances with Rochester this season.

Forward Ville Meskanen scored his 10th marker of the slate for Hartford, which dropped to 0-6-1-0 in its last seven games, while netminder Dustin Tokarski stopped 24 of the 27 shots he faced but took the loss.

After serving an interference penalty in the early minutes of the contest, Smith collected a loose puck inside the center-ice circle and sprinted in all alone towards Tokarski. The second-year winger faked a shot to the left of the netminder before flipping in his first goal of the night four minutes into the opening stanza.

As the end of the first period was nearing, the Amerks doubled their lead as Cornel skated into the Wolf Pack zone on a 2-on-1 rush alongside Rasmus Asplund at the 15:21 mark. Cornel used Asplund as a decoy before snapping in his fifth goal of the campaign over the shoulder of the netminder.

The contest remained a two-goal game until Cornel netted his second of the tilt with 3:01 left regulation. Rochester pressured the Wolf Pack inside their own territory and while turning with the puck just inside the blueline, Smith flung it towards the net. Cornel, stationed in front of Tokarski, managed to redirect the offering from Smith through the pads of the Hartford netminder and watched as it slowly trickled its way past the goal-line, extending the Amerks lead to 3-0.

While Hartford avoided its second shutout of the season with Meskanen’s marker at the 17:40 mark of the third period, Smith sealed the 4-1 victory as he deposited his 18th goal of the season into a vacant net with 1:48 left in regulation.

With two goals tonight, Smith, who saw his career-long nine-game point streak halted last night, established a new career-high in goals (18) in 16 fewer games this season and has also recorded 22 points (11+11) in his last 16 games dating back to Dec. 14.

Rochester’s shorthanded unit went a perfect 2-for-2, and dating back to the turn of the New Year, has successfully killed off 31 of the 33 penalties in the last 12 games.

The Amerks return to action for a pair of home games beginning on Wednesday, Feb. 6 as they welcome the Syracuse Crunch to The Blue Cross Arena before hosting the Springfield Thunderbirds two nights later. Both of the 7:05 p.m. games can be heard live on The Sports Leader AM 950/95.7 FM ESPN Rochester as well as AHLTV.

Goal Scorers

ROC: Smith (17, 18), Cornel (5 – GWG, 6)
HFD: Meskanen (10)

Goaltenders

ROC: Johansson – 34/35 (W)
HFD: Tokarski – 24/27 (L)

Shots

ROC: 28
HFD: 35

Special Teams

ROC: PP (0/3) | PK (2/2)
HFD: PP (0/2) | PK (3/3)

Three Stars

1. Jonas Johansson (ROC)
2. Eric Cornel (ROC)
3. C.J. Smith (ROC)

Welcome to the 14th episode of our Amerks weekly podcast on Beyond The Blade between myself, Keith Wozniak, and Chad DeDominicis from Die By the Blade. It’s a short podcast where we discuss what’s currently going on with the Rochester Americans and what’s happened since the previous episode.

This week we focus on Remi Elie, future call up, C.J. Smith , two-win weekend, Jonas Johansson, top deserving forward call ups, and the three game week ahead.

These are kept to 30 minutes or less to make it easy to listen to and get caught up on what’s going on with the Amerks.

Listen/Subscribe via: iTunes || Google Play || iHeart || Spotify || Spreaker ||

Listen to “Amerks Weekly | Episode 14 – Streaking Again” on Spreaker.

Listen/Subscribe via: iTunes || Google Play || iHeart || Spotify || Spreaker ||

This coming week the Amerks play three games. Home on Wednesday February 6 vs Syracuse, home Friday February 8 vs Springfield, and Saturda February 9 at Utica.

It’s been an active few days for the Rochester Americans roster with one player going up and two players going down. There’s also good news on the injury front with one player returning and another closer than expected.

Remi Elie was sent down to Rochester from the Buffalo Sabres after clearing waivers. In only 16 games played with Buffalo this season he had one assist. The Sabres had claimed him off of waivers in early October as they were dealing with injuries. Elie doesn’t count against any veteran spots on the Amerks roster and brings some valuable Calder Cup playoff experience to the team. He played in 19 playoff games last season with the Texas Stars making it to the Calder Cup finals. Once Elie cleared waivers and was assigned to Rochester it opened up a roster spot for someone to get called up. Elie practice with the Amerks on Monday.

CJ Smith is the player that was called up by the Buffalo Sabres and depending on how he plays and the Sabres do there’s a chance we may not see him back in Rochester until sometime in the playoffs. The sometime in the playoffs part is dependent on what the Sabres do. When CJ Smith was assigned back after his first call up he immediately scored a hat trick against Toronto. He also had had a point in seven of eight games since finishing with 12 points (5G+7A).

Jonas Johansson was assigned back to Cincinnati after appearing in two games with Rochester and earning two wins. A shootout win against Utica and regulation win against Hartford. There’s a good chance we’ll see Johansson back in Rochester again this season.

Scott Wedgewood is cleared to play and is returning from a short injury after being out for almost two weeks and missed four games. Even without the number one goalie the team was 3-0-1-0 in those games with the only loss in overtime against Syracuse.

Wayne Simpson ended his iron man streak at 231 consecutive games played when he sat out this past Saturday in Hartford. He’s skating this week as an extra and is day to day. Simpson started his 231 game stretch on January 29, 2016 playing with the Portland Pirates. Continued through 76 games with Providence, 76 with Hershey, and 44 this season with Rochester.

Andrew Oglevie has returned to team practices for the first time since November and is in a no contact jersey. He had left the game on November 30 with a concussion and wasn’t involved with any on ice team practices since. He had been skating on his own until now. He’s not expected back in the lineup for a couple weeks as he gets back into game shape. He had only played in 14 games at the start of the season and scored one goal. In his last season at Notre Dame he finished with 39 points (15G+24A) in 36 games.

Zach Redmond is on the day to day list instead of week to week which is great news. He’s been out for almost two weeks as well. The last game he played was January 23, the same game that Wedgewood went out with an injury from. The lower body injury wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been and the team is hoping he’ll be ready soon. He hasn’t returned to skating with the team yet.

Sean Malone is still week to week and hasn’t started skating yet.

Taylor Leier is good to go on Wednesday. He sat out the two weekend games with an illness.

For the latest updates follow @LetsGoAmerks on Twitter!

ICYMI….

Welcome to the ninth part of a 15 part season series highlighting the last five games (the last segment will be six games) showing off the stats, standings, highlights, transactions and whatever else took place prior to the next five games. The goal is to post these the day of the next game of a five game set. A little different than a weekly format to give us a better snapshot of trends as the season goes.

The team finished the last five games with a record of 4-0-1-0 to gain nine points in the standings. There has only been one other stretch of the season where they finished this well and that was games 6-10 in the first month of the season. There were wins against Binghamton (two), Utica, and Hartford. The only loss was in the first 10 seconds of overtime against Syracuse in a close game.

Here’s how the team has finished each five game stretch so far:

Amerks Weekly Podcast

The only Rochester Americans focused podcast in the world! Recorded every Sunday.

• Beyond The Blade: Amerks Weekly | Episode 13
• Beyond The Blade: Amerks Weekly | Episode 14

Articles (that aren’t game recaps) in case you missed them:

• Recap of the Last 5 Games (Games 36-40)
• Zach Redmond has Settled into Breaking a Record
• Taylor Leier is Ready for the Change of Scenery
• Zach Redmond Sets a New Amerks Franchise Record
• New Challenges with Redmond and Wedgewood Injured
• Next Guy Up Mentality Leading into the Weekend
• Ullmark Opens up about Amerks Playoff Loss
• Weekend Preview, Wilcox Visited Scranton, More thoughts from Sexton
• Injury Updates and Three Roster Moves. Two Down, One Up

Wins and Losses – Games 41-45

• 4-1 W at Hartford Wolf Pack 02/02/2019 [ Recap ]
• 3-2 W at Binghamton Devils 02/01/2019 [ Recap ]
• 4-3 OTL at Syracuse Crunch 01/26/2019 [ Recap ]
• 3-2 SOW vs Utica Comets 01/25/2019 [ Recap ]
• 7-5 W vs Binghamton Devils 01/23/2019 [ Recap ]

Leaders in just the last five:

• CJ Smith – 6 points (2G+4A)
• Brendan Guhle – 6 points (1G+5A)
• Danny O’Regan – 5 points (3G+2A)
• Victor Olofsson – 5 points (2G+3A)
• Eric Cornel – 4 points (2G+2A)

Leading the Season:

• CJ Smith – 41 points (18G+23A)
• Zach Redmond – 39 points (19G+20A)
• Victor Olofsson – 38 points (15G+23A)
• Danny O’Regan – 30 points (17G+13A)
• Wayne Simpson – 27 points (13G+14A)

Another hot stretch for CJ Smith put him back into the top 20 overall in the league for scoring. He’s currently tied for 14th overall with his 41 points. He was called up to the Buffalo Sabres and after scoring another goal we may not see him back until the post season.

Zach Redmond continues to lead the team in goal scoring and continues to lead the league in the defensemen category for scoring.

Redmond broke the Amerks franchise record for goals by a defenseman in the regular season when he scored his 19th goal. Unfortunately he’s missed the last four games after being injured in the final moments of that record breaking game.

More than Just Points (but about points)

In the last five game recap I had mentioned the second half of the season is all about points and that’s what the team did earning nine out of a possible 10 points. The points are what will keep them in first place and they also moved into 2nd overall in the conference and league. The team had been sitting at 3rd overall all season.

The word depth has become cliche in a way but it was put to the test over four of the last five games when the team played without Zach Redmond and Scott Wedgewood. Redmond remains out with a lower body injury but is expected back sooner than later. Scott Wedgewood is healthy and ready to play. CJ Smith shared the phrase next man up when it comes to missing players whether it’s due to injury or call up. You can’t replace your number one defenseman and number one goalie but it can provide an opportunity for the next man to step up.

Another cliche is playing 60 minutes of hockey but that’s what this team has done over the last five games (for the most part). That’s not to say they’ve been perfect games as they’ve had to erase deficits to come back and win but one thing they haven’t done is played on their heels. February is arguably the toughest month of the season and the team is trending upwards instead of hitting a plateau like they did last season at this time. This is while playing with key players out of the lineup.

One concern is that Rochester has lost a division high four games after leading the game going into the third period. Four games may not seem like a lot but when you’re above everyone else it’s a big number. The overtime loss to Syracuse was an example of giving up a goal with less than 90 seconds to play in regulation. Something to keep an eye in as the season starts to speed up towards the end.

Brendan Guhle was selected for the 2019 AHL All-Star game once Zach Redmond went out with an injury and he made a name for himself. He participated in the fastest skater competition and clocked a time of 13.648 seconds, the third-fastest time in the event and sixth-fastest in league history. While the All-Star games may not have much appear to some die hard fans they’re a great experience for players to connect with others and take in the history of the league. [ Read more about Guhle at the game here on Amerks.com ]

Remi Elie has joined the team after clearing waivers and will play in his first game tonight. Like Scott Wilson and Taylor Leier it may take a game or two for him to adjust. Elie’s best season in the American League was 2016/2017 when he had 28 points (9G+19A) in 53 games with the Texas Stars. He also brings valuable Calder Cup playoff experience as he played in 19 games last season as the Stars lost in the finals to Toronto.

There was a time earlier in the season when Alex Nylander was talked about as having turned a corner but we’re back to asking questions again. In his last 20 games played he only has 6 points (2G+4A). The time has passed us by to say he’s still young, he was injured, or he should’ve spent an additional season in juniors. There’s only 31 games remaining in the regular season, it’s time for the top prospects to shine, not fall behind. As a comparison, Eric Cornel in his last 20 games has 9 points (4G+5A). By comparison in the first 20 games of the season Nylander had 17 points (6G+11A) and Cornel had 5 points (2G+3A).

The last two games saw goals from Eric Cornel (2), Yannick Veilleux, and Tyler Randell. The goals from Veilleux and Randell sparked the come from behind win in Binghamton and Olofsson scored the game winner. Secondary scoring is what is needed at all times and that fourth line stepped up.

Bill Belichick won another Super Bowl coaching the New England Patriots and it’s something that Chris Taylor gave a fist pump to when it was brought up. Don’t hold it against him. While a lot of people, especially locally, will dislike Belichick for a lot of reasons you have to respect what he’s able to do as a coach. Roster turnover? No problem. Injuries? No problem. Offense isn’t scoring? No problem, play defense. Defense is playing well, time to work on the offense. All of that can be compared to what happens in the American League.

There’s a big difference in plus/minus on the active roster right now between two defenseman. Jack Dougherty is leading the team with a plus-15 and at the other end is Andrew MacWilliam with a team low minus-10. Matt Tennyson is slightly ahead with a minus-9. That’s a big difference. Last season MacWilliam finished with a team high plus-19. The stat overall is flawed for a lot of reasons but a large gap like that is eye opening. MacWilliam is playing against the top lines vs more of a shut down role he had last season but as mentioned earlier in the season, Dougherty is a prospect to watch.

Wayne Simpson ended his iron man streak of 231 consecutive games when he missed a game this past Saturday in Hartford. He said something happened the night before and it just wasn’t worth the risk playing a game for a streak he already set. The stretch started on January 29, 2016.

There’s a lot of positives from the last five to enjoy and recap but tonight is a new night for a new stretch of games.

Goals and Shots

It’s pretty simple, score more than the other team and win!

Over the last five games the Amerks outscored opponents 20-14 which was fueled by a seven goal night against Binghamton.

One challenge the team appears to face is goals scored early and late in periods. An upcoming project will be to deep dive that stat to see if there’s more to it or it’s a perception issue.

There Amerks had another game with over 50 shots on net and they continue with the focus of shoot first mentality. Through the five game stretch they had a 168-151 advantage in shots.

Special Teams

Power play is currently 6th in the league at 21.5% (Previously 6th in the league at 21.7%)

Penalty kill is currently 17th in the league at 81.1% (Previously 24th in the league at 79.5%)

This was the first give game stretch where the penalty kill unit was perfect. The power play has remained consistent to keep them at 6th overall in the league.

PP and PK in games 41-45 by period:

Standings

Heading into the 46th game of the season the Amerks continue to stay in first place in the North Division where they’ve been all season. Looking at the conference and league level the Amerks moved into 2nd overall.

The Amerks are currently on an eight game point streak with a record of 6-0-1-1 but at the same time the Crunch are on a six game winning streak. The North Division is going to continue to be tight and exciting.

Highlight Goal(s)

Have to go with the shootout winning goal against Utica on January 25th at home. The Amerks tied the game late in the third period with a good home crowd and Taylor Leier won the game as the seventh shooter in the shootout. A great opportunity for the “new guy” to make his name known in front of the home crowd.

The Next Five – Games 46-50

• Wednesday 02/06/2019 Utica at Rochester 7:05pm
• Friday 02/08/2019 Springfield at Rochester 7:05pm
• Saturday 02/09/2019 Rochester at Utica 7:00pm
• Tuesday 02/12/2019 Rochester at Cleveland 7:00pm
• Friday 02/15/2019 Syracuse at Rochester 7:05pm

Injuries as of 02/06

• Zach Redmond – lower body – day to day – as of publishing this hasn’t started skating with the team again.
• Sean Malone – Unknown – week to week – hasn’t returned to skating yet

Details on injuries over on the injury report page.

Transactions

• 02/04 CJ Smith called up to Buffalo
• 02/03 Remi Elie assigned to Rochester from Buffalo
• 02/02 Jonas Johansson returned to Cincinnati
• 01/23 Jonas Johansson called up to Rochester from Cincinnati

Highlight Videos

Previous Five Game Recaps:

• Games 1-5
• Games 6-10
• Games 11-15
• Games 16-20
• Games 21-25
• Games 26-30
• Games 31-35
• Games 36-40

“The first two periods we didn’t have anything tonight,” Chris Taylor said after the game. “We played terrible.”

Those are some of the most candid public comments that Taylor has made this season. There’s likely times that he’s felt that way and shared that with the locker room but it’s not often he’ll make the comments post game like he did on Saturday night.

Belleville extended their point streak to 15 games which now includes 11 wins and four shootout losses. On February 3rd they were nine points out of a playoff and now 20 days later they’re only one point out of fourth place.

“All of our top guys didn’t play very well tonight. We just didn’t get enough, didn’t have enough jam. They just looked a lot better. Stronger, everything. Skating better than us. Maybe we thought it was going to be easy even though they knew they’re on a 14 game point streak. It’s disappointing quite honest with you. I’m really disappointed in what transpired here.”

Sean Malone scored his third goal of the season in his third game back with an assist to CJ Smith. Senators goalie Marcus Hogberg attempted to play the puck behind his net and a rushing CJ Smith was able to create a turnover and pass to Malone in front for a short handed goal at 11:04 of the first period.

A weaving move by Stefan Elliott around CJ Smith and into the slot allowed him to tie the game at one just 5:12 into the second period. It was a nice back hand goal from the middle of the ice, a spot he never should’ve had the opportunity to shoot from.

Rochester gained the 2-1 lead when Andrew Oglevie found a loose puck in front of the net to score his third of the season. Alex Nylander circled with the puck right side to keep the puck in the zone and sent a crisp pass to Zach Redmond on the opposite side down low. Redmond took the shot that was saved by Hogberg on the inside of his right pad and with the rebound in front of the net it was picked up by Oglevie to score.

It only took 22 seconds for Belleville to score and tie the game again.

Darren Archibald scored unassisted after intercepting an Andrew MacWilliam clearing attempt. Archibald scored from the far left wing side with a low shot. That’s a goal that Adam Wilcox probably wants back.

Response is one thing that the Rochester coaching staff has talked about for two seasons now. Taylor addressed that again tonight saying, “It’s responding. If we let a bad goal in or a play that we could have had before the guys just get down. It’s getting dragged on.”

Belleville took a 3-2 lead at 14:17 of the second period, their third goal of the period, when Nick Paul tipped a puck perfectly mid-air off what looked like the shaft of his stick from a shot by Andreas Englund. The play started after Will Borgen sent the puck up the boards and Wayne Simpson wasn’t able to get a piece of the puck to send it out of the zone. A pass from Stefan Elliott to Englund resulted in the shot.

Belleville carried the one goal lead through most of the third period until two goals in less than two minutes put the game away. Nick Paul scored his second of the game at 14:50 followed by Darren Archibald for his second of the game as well at 17:30 into an empty net.

Tyler Randell, Yannick Veilleux, and Andrew Oglevie didn’t stop skating and the line was able to score goal with 10 seconds left. The Amerks scored three goals in the game and it was the third goal of the season for each player. Tyler Randell tipped a shot by Oglevie from the point.

“We had our opportunities. Everybody made mistakes. Everybody was part of it,” Taylor said after the game. “It was definitely a team loss tonight.”

The night before the Amerks went down 3-0 in the second period but was able to score three in response in the same period before winning in overtime.

When Taylor was asked about that game he said, “I liked that we came back from three goals but I didn’t like how we gave up after making a mistake on the first goal and then right away the second goal and then third goal. We keep doing that we’re not going to last long. We’re not going to be a team that’s competing against other teams.”

The team put 37 shots on net but didn’t look like the team that is capable of dominating play. Credit as well to the Belleville team that has strung together a 15 game point streak that includes 11 wins. After 55 games there’s little time to talk about chances and shots. The mistakes and given up chances resulted in a bad game and a loss.

“We’re in the meat of the season right now and these teams are catching us and playing well,” Taylor said. “We just have to get our act together, we still have a lot of games left.”

The only thing they can do is put the loss behind them like they’ve done before and prepare for next week. Taylor said, “It’s going to be a very tough practice on Monday, I can tell you that.”

***

Remi Elie was scratched after it was determined in the pregame skate that he wasn’t able to play. He’s considered day to day with an injury. Tyler Randell was put into the lineup in his place. Randell was a part of the Saturday morning skate and stayed out for an extended time, a sign that he didn’t expect to play.

Lawrence Pilut was assigned back to the Amerks on Friday afternoon followed by CJ Smith being assigned on Saturday. Both players were in the lineup on Saturday night.

Pilut definitely looked a little off compared to the way he played previously. There’s no doubt that he’ll quickly get his American League timing back. With Pilut in the defensive scratch was Jack Dougherty.

Dalton Smith was the healthy forward scratch with CJ Smith back.

There’s 21 games remaining in the regular season for the Rochester Americans and the North Division race is closer than it has been all season. The team plays road games tonight in Utica, Saturday in Syracuse, and finishes the week at home on Sunday when they host Syracuse. Three divisional games with two against the team they’re currently tied for first place with – the Syracuse Crunch.

Zach Redmond said after practice on Tuesday, “These games are big. Whether it’s game one (of the season) or right now. Right now it’s when you really notice those points add up or you notice teams kind of catching you. Right now there’s no bigger week than this week.”

There’s only seven points separating first place and fifth place. Belleville is on a 14 games point streak and continues to gain ground. Rochester and Syracuse have been in a constant back and forth. Toronto is in third place only four points back. Here’s the current standings:

In a three game stretch gaining four out of six points throughout the season can be seen as successful but that isn’t going to be good enough going forward. Redmond addressed that saying, “Where we’re at that’s probably ok but it’s not what we we’re shooting for. Right now is when you want to distance yourself and starting getting into those playoff habits which means when you get scored on now being down. Just making sure your play is consistent.  Right now with 21 games left that’s what we’re looking for.”

Rochester has a 5-3 record in eight games vs Utica this season. One overtime win and one shootout win in those games. Wednesday is the first of two final games between the two teams.

Rochester has a 4-1-1-1 record in seven games vs Syracuse this season. Four of those seven games have gone into overtime, two decided in a shootout. There’s six games remaining this season between these two teams, two of them this weekend.

Chris Taylor talked about the games ahead saying, “Separation and playing the right way going into where we’re going. There’s 21 games left and we’re close to the playoffs. First and foremost we have to make the playoffs.”

The goal of the season from training camp was to be an elite playoff team. When Jason Botterill took over as General Manager of the Buffalo Sabres he repeatedly said the goal was development through winning. Last season the goal was to make the playoffs and take it from there. They accomplished that goal but it still wasn’t good enough. Continuing to play important games makes everyone better as a player.

“I think that’s kind of the emphasis they put on this team at the beginning of the season,” Zach Redmond said when asked about playing important games. “There’s no better way to develop your young guys, to kind put those vibes throughout the organization to win. It’s something we’ve done a pretty good job of this year. These games and playoff games there’s no experience like them. It’s just something you have to go through. It’s definitely helping in their development and everyone as a team.”

The message was clear in practice this week – these three games are going to be a big part of the year and they have to separate themselves.

“Points are always important. I think you know, everyone knows, these next three games are huge for us,” Matt Tennyson said after practice. “It’s only a few points separating one, two, three, and four is close. Belleville is kicking at five. The next few games are huge for us and going down the stretch the points are always huge. You want to have home ice advantage going into the playoffs, you want to make sure you make the playoffs first. Not saying we have any doubts of that but every game is important, we take every game as serious as the next.”

The team has been confidence from training camp that they can beat anyone when they play a 60 minute game and that isn’t any different now. The loss on Saturday night was an example of failing to do that.

“We weren’t playing the way we normally play and that’s not good enough for me or the team or anybody,” Chris Taylor said about Saturday. “We have high expectations of our club.”

The right things are being said, they know the importance of every game going forward, and now it’s time to prove it. The fourth quarter of the season is about to begin.

Matt Tennyson said, “We’re excited to finish the year off strong and make a long playoff run.”

****

CJ Smith was assigned back to Rochester on Saturday afternoon and immediately joined the team for the home loss to Belleville. He had an immediate effect on the game with a short handed assist in the first period to setup Sean Malone to score.

When asked about getting sent back and being frustrated he said, “Can’t sulk on it, obviously a situation you don’t want to be in, it is frustrating. I’d hope anybody is frustrated in that situation. I think I’m making steps in the right direction. Just have to keep working for those opportunities and keep working to get better. I just have too much respect for the coaching staff and too much respect for the guys on this team to have a bad attitude.”

****

Lawrence Pilut was also assigned back to Rochester at the end of last week and played in his first game Saturday. It wasn’t the best game compared to when he started the season but after almost three months away it isn’t considered anything other than a speed bump. He’s proven he can be an NHL player and dominated the start of the AHL season.

Redmond talked about having Pilut back and said, “Maybe he’s a guy that doesn’t deserve to be down here but again that’s how the deadlines and the rosters kind of shake things out and he’s young. We’re definitely happy to have him. He’s a guy that shows up everyday, takes it seriously, and has fun at the same time. He’s just a great model for how a young player should be and he’s committed. We’ll take them how we can get them.”

****

Talked about the impact the NHL trade deadline can have on a locker room Zach Redmond said, “There is kind of a level of clarity in the locker room afterwards because you know this is your team going forward and hopefully you can stay healthy and stringing a bunch of games together.”

Zach Redmond and Andrew MacWilliam were two of a handful of players that met up with Brendan Guhle when the news came out that he had been traded. Guhle was family to this team and they all wish him the best.

****

Lineup changes:

Danny O’Regan has apparently been assigned back to Rochester. It’s not clear if he’ll join the team in Utica at this time.

Kevin Porter and Wayne Simpson are both considered day to day.

Kyle Criscuolo is still out and considered week to week.

****

The team practiced hard as intended on Monday, talked the talk leading up to the game on Wednesday night, and followed it up with a 60 minute effort on the road to beat Utica by a score of 3-1. It was a near perfect game with a 30 save night from Scott Wedgewood for his 21st win of the season.

In the first 20 minutes it was a goaltending battle with both Scott Wedgewood and Michael Leighton making big saves. Leighton made a big glove save on Victor Olofsson who was all alone on a breakway halfway through the first period. In the closing seconds of the first Scott Wedgewood made a sprawling save to get what appeared to be the tip of his glove on the puck and push it just wide. On that same play Lawrence Pilut prevented a pass that would’ve been a buzzer beater one timer.

Starting a period strong is something many teams can struggle with and it often seems like it’s your own team. Rochester has had their fair share of goals against early in periods but on Wednesday night they would be the ones to score.

CJ Smith scored his 19th goal of the season on the power play just 51 seconds into the second period. Matt Tennyson stopped the puck from leaving the zone and sent a cross ice pass to CJ Smith who blasted the puck into the net from just inside the face off circle. Leighton had eyes on it but wasn’t fast enough to make the save. In the last 22 games for CJ dating back to December 5th he has 26 points (13G+13A). That’s pretty impressive.

ICYMI… CJ Smith shared his thoughts on coming back down to Rochester in this article:

With just over six minutes to play the gloves were dropped between Yannick Veilleux and Vincent Arseneau. It’s easy to see who won that one.

Reid Boucher scored the only Comets goal with 3:22 left to play in the second period. A quick screen, a quick shot, and the puck was instantly in the net. Dalton Smith had been in the box for what would be considered a bad penalty after he cross checked an opposing player behind the play. That was the only moment that prevented it from being a perfect game.

When the third period started the line of Olofsson, Asplund, and O’Regan started fast and it only took 21 seconds for them to score what would be the game winning goal. Olofsson sent the puck into the corner for Asplund and he took a moment to back out and make room for a shot. O’Regan was parked to the side of the night, spotted Olofsson, sent a pass off his back hand to the opposite side and Olofsson scored. That line has been special all season.

Remi Elie scored his fifth goal in seven games at 6:55 of the third period and it was Rochesters game from that point on. Sean Malone won a puck battle on the right side, was able to get it to Elie coming across the ice and the power forward shot far side beating Leighton. In the last seven games for Elie he has 5G+1A. Only one of those seven games was without a point.

Utica had a chance with 5:05 left to play when Dalton Smith was called for high sticking and the Comets went on the power play. The penalty kill was perfect by not giving up any quality chances to the Comets.

Scott Wedgewood finished the game with 30 saves and played a stellar game. That was his 13th win in his last 16 games and the 21st win of the season is good for second in the American League.

Starting lines in the game:

12, 26, 65
19, 16, 92
40, 14, 15
37, 64, 20

28, 22
5, 2
44, 3

29

Scratched: Jack Dougherty, Nathan Paetsch, Tyler Randell

Injured: Kyle Criscuolo, Wayne Simpson, Kevin Porter [ More on the injury report ]

***

Amerks will finish the week with a couple of practices before big games on Saturday in Syracuse and home vs Syracuse. The Sunday home game has a 3:05pm start time.

***

Here’s the game in gifs as they were Tweeted:

Also in case you missed it:

The puck dropped on Saturday night in Syracuse with Rochester and Syracuse tied for first place with each team at 73 points in the standings. It’s not the first time they’ve been tied for first but just like previous ties the night ends with Rochester back in possession of first place.

An overall dominating game for the Amerks carried them to a 5-3 win against a Syracuse team that hasn’t been easy to play against. Taylor Leier (2), CJ Smith (1G+1A), and Alex Nylander (1G+1A) each finished the game with multiple points in the win.

Taylor Leier scored the first goal of the game at 3:40 of the first period with a short handed breakaway goal. Will Borgen moved the puck up the words, CJ Smith poked it out of the zone on the boards, and Leier took off and beat Eddie Pasquale to score his 14th goal of the season.

The second period started off hot for the Amerks when Alex Nylander scored his ninth goal of the season just 10 seconds into the period. Rochester won the face off, Tennyson sent it down the boards, and Syracuse was unable to control the puck as Nylander picked it up inside the blue line and scored high from the slot.

Syracuse got on the board at 14:04 of the second when Mitchell Stephens had an open shot from just above the crease. Lawrence Pilut allowed him to get too low and Syracuse made it a one goal game.

It took less than two minutes for Rochester to regain the two goal lead when Taylor Leier scored his second of the game and 15th of the season by redirecting a shot from Pilut. The puck was cycled up the boards to Zach Redmond, pass to Pilut, puck thrown to the net, and Leier got a stick on it.

Syracuse did put a puck in the net but it was waived off as the ref put an arm up as Andy Andreoff took out Andrew MacWilliam in front of the net.

After 40 minutes the Amerks had a 3-1 lead and 31-15 advantage in shots. In just the second period they had a 21-5 advantage. The Crunch only had 15 shots but they still had a handful of quality chances that relied on Scott Wedgewood to make the saves.

Mitchell Stephens scored his second of the game at 9:37 of the third period to get the Crunch within one. The Amerks were caught on a line change and as they scrambled for position the loose puck down low was picked up by Stephens to score.

Syracuse gained some momentum in the game down by only a goal and started to really pressure for the first time all game. They didn’t have any big scoring chances but started to push the Amerks on their heels.

It only took a span of 62 seconds for Rochester to regain control of the game with two quick goals to take a 5-2 lead.

Rasmus Asplund passed the puck up to Andrew Oglevie who got his stick on the puck to send it over to Victor Olofsson. As Olofsson carried the puck down the boards he sent a shot towards the net that either found a hole or went in off of a Crunch defender.

Moments later Zach Redmond cleared the puck off the glass from the defensive zone, Alex Nylander chased the puck down, and spotted CJ Smith going to the net. The quick pass allowed CJ to beat Eddie Pasquale and that was the lead the Amerks needed.

Syracuse scored one more time on the power play with 76 seconds left to go int the game but it was too little too late.

Scott Wedgewood finished the night with 23 saves for his 22nd win of the season, second best in the American League.

That’s second straight road win for this Amerks team and another big win at that. Rochester moves back into sole possession of first place with the two point regulation win. These same two teams play again Sunday afternoon in Rochester.

***

CJ Smith now has 28 points (14G+14A) in his last 23 games with the Amerks.

Alex Nylander had his first multiple point night since November 24 when he also had a goal and an assist that night.

Wayne Simpson and Kevin Porter were out again with injuries and are still considered day to day.

Rochester didn’t have any 20 goal scorers last season. They currently have three w/ Victor Olofsson (22), Zach Redmond (21), and CJ Smith (20).

Getting close are: Wayne Simpson (19), Danny O’Regan (18), Taylor Leier (15).

***

Here’s the game in gifs as they were sent out in Tweets:

Highlights provided by the Crunch:

In recent weeks it’s been said that the upcoming games are the biggest games of the season and that continues to hold true heading into this weekend as the Rochester Americans have slipped to second place for essentially the first time all season. There have been a couple of times based on points percentage they were in second but this is the first time that Syracuse has had more points.

(Featured picture by Amerks photographer Micheline Veluvolu)

I asked Zach Redmond, CJ Smith, and Victor Olofsson if these were the new biggest games of the weekend.

Zach Redmond, “That’s kind of how it works from here on out. We have a little break coming up in six games so we’re just focused on taking it one game at a time and setting ourselves up for that post break stretch.”

CJ Smith with a laugh recognizing the pattern of using the big weekend line said, “I think we say that every weekend but it kind of is. Syracuse caught up to us so these are some pretty important games this weekend for us.”

Victor Olofsson, “Every weekend is a big weekend for us at this point of the year. It’s going to be a tough weekend. I feel like we had a good week last week but we weren’t happy with the last game versus Syracuse so hopefully we can bounce back Friday night.”

There were a number of reasons the team wasn’t happy with the last game against Syracuse [ Game Recap Here ] and one way to fix that was with one of the toughest practices of the season. The team had a day off on Monday, hard practice Tuesday, day off on Wednesday.

“I think as a player sometimes it sucks getting bagged a little bit in practice but you’re pretty thankful after just because after a day off you kind of feel a little bit off and when you have a practice like that it kind of sets the intensity and kind of gets you back into the groove a little bit,” Taylor Leier said after practice on Tuesday. “Rest is very important at this time of year and you know we’re lucky that he’s giving us two days off this week to kind of regroup and get ready to empty the tank this weekend.”

Zach Redmond talked about the practice saying, “I think it was a little tougher because he gave us a couple days off also. You have to battle. No one likes to do it in practice against your friends but it’s good for you, you have to do it, and we definitely did it this week.”

“We have to get used to battling every day,” Chris Taylor said after practice on Tuesday. “If it’s battling against each other in practice it makes us better for the games, offense and defense. I think it’s very important that we we continue to do that, the right habits, doing the right things at the right time, and pushing ourselves in practice.”

Leier used the word bagged but it wasn’t a bag skate that many probably think of. There weren’t non stop suicides. A typical practice is around 45 minutes but this one went a full 75. It was a lot of one on ones, two on twos, guys in your face, and physical battles. There was a lot of stick banging on the ice to increase the pace and everyone followed through. Afterwards the team morale was still high and guys were feeling good.

“It was a tough practice. Obviously it was very hard,” Victor Olofsson said. “But I think it gives you confidence too when you’re working hard in practice. That should also help you in the games.”

There’s confidence within the team that they can continue having success into the spring but there isn’t a sense of comfort. Since the start of the season the power play has gotten better, the penalty kill has gotten better, and they’ve even corrected mistakes giving up third period leads. There’s still work to do in all areas. Last season the top four in the North Division was set by late December, this season anything is still possible in a five team playoff race. The goal remains the same – being an elite playoff team and now getting back into first place.

“I think there’s just that kind of assurance in here,” Redmond said when asked about the confidence of the team. “We had a really good team last year. I don’t think our record was all that much different if I remember right. There just seems to be a bit of an assurance like, we have the team. We know we do. It’s really up to us. It’s in our hands what we want to do with it. That’s a cool thing to have, it’s in our control and up to us to find it.”

Victor Olofsson talked about first place saying, “In the beginning of the year the goal was to make the playoffs but I think in the spot we’re in right now we want to get that first place spot.”

“You pay attention to it of course but you have to take it one game at a time and then at the end of the year you can sum it up a little bit,” Olofsson said when asked about looking at the standings. “One game at a time and don’t get too ahead of yourself.”

Zach Redmond talked about looking at the standings and said, “You look to see where you’re stacked up and what you can do to improve. Kind of helps you put a plan together going forward. Things will unfold how they unfold.”

At this time the team only has one injured player (Kyle Criscuolo) besides the bumps and bruises everyone goes through. Kevin Porter and Wayne Simpson are expected back in the lineup tonight after missing games last weekend. The only player out of the lineup will be Remi Elie to serve a one game suspension.

“There’s going to be a lot of internal pressure these last 18 games,” Chris Taylor said talking about the roster. “I’ve told them that we’re going to find out who’s going to be in the starting lineup for the playoffs and that’s the truth of it. It’s not what you did at the start of the year, it’s what you’re doing now. Who’s ready to play, who’s going to play the hard minutes, who’s going to block a shot, who’s going to take a hit to make a play. All of those things add up. It’s fun. It’s not the best thing as a coach to do but when we have healthy forwards and we can only dress 12 that makes a lot of good competition.”

A tough practice, a typical practice before a game, saying all of the right things, now it’s time to follow through. The team has a stretch of six games in nine days before a planned two day break. The next six games they’ll play Bridgeport, Binghamton (twice), Utica, and Charlotte (twice).

Rochester has won three games this season vs Bridgeport, all one goal games. One was decided in overtime, another in a shootout. Rochester has a 6-3 record vs Utica this season with wins in the last two games. In six games vs Binghamton they have a 4-2 record with wins in the last two games. The final two games of the stretch vs Charlotte will be the most interesting. Charlotte was in Rochester to start the season and handed Rochester back to back losses. As it turns out, Charlotte has been the top team in the league all season.

The team had broken the season up into four different segments and these upcoming six days is the last one before the final 12 games of he season. After the team plays in Charlotte there’s a two day break where everyone has plans to either take a quick getaway to Charleston, New York City, or simply head home to visit family and friends. One thing is certain – no one is looking that far ahead. This team is focused on the importance of the games ahead. The other segments were the start of the season to the Christmas break, Christmas to All-Star, All-Star to Charlotte, and then finishing the season.

Chris Taylor said, “I think we’re going to learn a lot about our team. I want everybody to play well. I want really hard decisions going into the stretch.”

One player that isn’t likely to come out of the lineup any time soon is Taylor Leier. In his last eight games he has 7 points (3G+4A) and is relentless with every shift. The coaching staff and teammates describe him as someone full of heart and soul. He’s determined like everyone else to get back to the NHL but more importantly he’s committed to the team he’s currently playing on.

“I’m super invested, I’m pumped for a hopeful playoff run, and I’m 100% in,” Leier said after the tough practice on Tuesday. “I’m really looking forward to it. I made the playoffs with the Phantom’s once but we didn’t have very much depth. We lost in game five in the first round to Hershey. I was pretty choked with that and you know, I want to win plain and simple.”

They practice the right way, have the right mindset, and said the right things. Only thing left to do is put it all into action and win.

****

Mentioned above, Kevin Porter and Wayne Simpson are expected back in the lineup tonight returning from minor injuries. Remi Elie will be out to serve his one game suspension.

Possible lines for Friday night based on practice:

CJ Smith, Kevin Porter, Wayne Simpson

Victor Olofsson, Rasmus Asplund, Danny O’Regan

Alex Nylander, Taylor Leier, Andrew Oglevie

Eric Cornel, Sean Malone, Yannick Veilleux

Matt Tennyson, Zach Redmond

Lawrence Pilut, Will Borgen

Jack Dougherty, Andrew MacWilliam

Scott Wedgewood

Extras: Dalton Smith, Tyler Randell, Remi Elie (suspended 1 game), Brandon Hickey, Nathan Paetsch

Injured: Kyle Criscuolo

****

The next six games they’ll play Bridgeport, Binghamton (twice), Utica, and Charlotte (twice).

Friday March 8, 2019 – Home vs Bridgeport Sound Tigers

Saturday March 9, 2019 – Away at Binghamton Devils

Sunday March 10, 2019 – Home vs Binghamton Devils

Wednesday March 13, 2019 – Home vs Utica Comets

Friday March 15, 2019 – Away at Charlotte Checkers

Saturday March 16, 2019 – Away at Charlotte Checkers

****

In case you missed these articles….

Welcome to the 16th episode of our Amerks weekly podcast on Beyond The Blade between myself, Keith Wozniak, and Chad DeDominicis from Die By the Blade. It’s a short podcast where we discuss what’s currently going on with the Rochester Americans and what’s happened since the previous episode.

This week we talk about the weekend games against Syracuse, Lawrence Pilut, Lawrence Pilut, CJ Smith, Alex Nylander, Rasmus Asplund, Will Borgen, division stretch run, Tage Thompson, and the upcoming games.

These are kept to 30 minutes or less to make it easy to listen to and get caught up on what’s going on with the Amerks.

Listen/Subscribe via: iTunes || Google Play || iHeart || Spotify || Spreaker ||

Listen to “Amerks Weekly | Episode 16 – Reinforcements” on Spreaker.

Listen/Subscribe via: iTunes || Google Play || iHeart || Spotify || Spreaker ||

This coming week the Amerks play three games. Home on Friday March 8 vs Bridgeport, away Saturday March 9 at Binghamton, and home Sunday March 10 vs Binghamton.

Welcome to the 12th part of a 15 part season series highlighting the last five games (the last segment will be six games) showing off the stats, standings, highlights, transactions and whatever else took place prior to the next five games. The goal is to post these the day of the next game of a five game set. A little different than a weekly format to give us a better snapshot of trends as the season goes.

The team finished a second straight set of five games with a record of 4-1-0-0. They’re 8-2-0-0 in the last 10 games.

Here’s how the team has finished each five game stretch so far:

Amerks Weekly Podcast

The only Rochester Americans focused podcast in the world! Here’s episode 16 recorded on March 3rd.

• Beyond The Blade: Amerks Weekly | Episode 16

Articles (that aren’t game recaps) in case you missed them:

• Recap of the Last 5 Games (Games 51-55)
• Will Borgen is a Thrilling and Confident Defenseman
• Remi Elie Suspended for One Game
• Every Player Goes Through It – Managing the Bumps and Bruises
• A Big Stretch of Six in Nine Before a Break

Wins and Losses – Games 56-60

• 3-1 W at Utica 02/27/2019 [ Recap ]
• 5-3 W at Syracuse 03/02/2019 [ Recap ]
• 1-4 L vs Syracuse 03/03/2019 [ Recap ]
• 5-1 W vs Bridgeport 03/08/2019 [ Recap ]
• 5-3 W at Binghamton 03/09/2019 [ Recap ]

Leaders in just the last five:

Over the last five games there have been 16 different players with points. 12 different players had more than one point.

• Alex Nylander – 6 points (4G+2A)
• Rasmus Asplund – 6 points (2G+4A)
• Taylor Leier – 5 points (4G+1A)
• CJ Smith – 5 points points (2G+3A)
• Victor Olofsson – 4 points (3G+1A)
• Danny O’Regan – 4 points (4A)

Leading the Season:

• Victor Olofsson – 50 points (23G+27A)
• CJ Smith – 47 points (20G+27A)
• Zach Redmond – 47 points (21G+26A)
• Danny O’Regan – 38 points (18G+20A)
• Wayne Simpson – 36 points (19G+17A)

No surprise that that Zach Redmond remains the league leading defenseman in scoring.

More than Just Points

It’s tough to stray from anything but points at this point of the season.

Rasmus Asplund has played great hockey all season but he’s been snake bitten when it comes to goal scoring. Two goals against Bridgeport will hopefully have that monkey off his back to find the net more often. He has the speed, he has the shot.

21 year old Alex Nylander has turned into a good hockey player with 4G+2A since his 21st birthday. Credit where it’s due, he’s shooting the puck and scoring. The great stretch earned him his first call up of the season today.

Scott Wedgewood is having a career season in games played and wins. There were valid concerns at the start of the season but he continues to play well.

Kevin Porter and Wayne Simpson both returned from managing minor injuries. Chances are they could have played if this was playoff time but the depth of the roster allows the games off and no one loses any confidence in being able to win.

The only loss of the stretch was a penalty filled game in which the Syracuse power play took over. The Amerks have said they’re taking too many penalties but very teams will also publicly say anything negative about the officials.

Rochester and Syracuse continue to battle for first place in the North, a spot that all of the players are hungry for. Meanwhile Belleville continues to win and rise up in the standings and Utica has fallen.

Goals and Shots

It’s pretty simple, score more than the other team and win! That’s what happened and they won more games.

Over the last five games the Amerks were outscored opponents 19-11. Balanced scoring and outscoring other teams won hockey games. Imagine that! Over the last 10 games they’ve outscored opponents 38-24.

Through the last five game stretch they out shot other teams 180-144. Everyone is encouraged to shoot the puck and when that happens you often win.

Special Teams

Power play is currently 6th in the league at 20.9% (Previously 5th in the league at 21.5%)

Penalty kill is currently 10th in the league at 82.2% (Previously 7th in the league at 83.2%)

The penalty kill struggled in game 58 vs Syracuse against a strong Syracuse team. It also doesn’t help when you have to kill off eight penalties. The penalty kill dropped a little bit due to a few too many penalties (that weren’t helped by officiating). The power play needs to find their groove again.

PP and PK in games 56-60 by period:

Standings

Heading into the 61st game of the season the Amerks had fallen behind the Crunch in points for the first time. Looking at the conference level the Amerks remain in third and league level remain in third as well.

Highlight Goal(s)

The way Oglevie split through two players to jump ahead with speed was impressive.

The speed and shot here from Asplund opened the game up. He would score a second in the same game.

The Next Five – Games 61-65

• Sunday 3/10/2019 vs Binghamton Devils 3:05pm
• Wednesday 3/13/2019 vs Utica Comets 7:05pm
• Friday 3/15/2019 at Charlotte Checkers 7:00pm
• Saturday 3/16/2019 at Charlotte Checkers 6:00pm
• Friday 3/22/2019 vs Cleveland Monsters 7:05pm

Injuries as of 03/10

Kevin Porter and Wayne Simpson had been out and returned from injury during the last five game stretch.

• Kyle Criscuolo – lower body – week to week – Left the game early 2/8, missed the game 2/9, and practice 2/11. Has been out since. Has skated on his own, hasn’t returned to team practices yet.

Details on injuries over on the injury report page.

Transactions

• 3/10 Alex Nylander called up to Buffalo

Highlight Videos

Previous Five Game Recaps:

• Games 1-5
• Games 6-10
• Games 11-15
• Games 16-20
• Games 21-25
• Games 26-30
• Games 31-35
• Games 36-40
• Games 41-45
• Games 46-50
• Games 51-55