Amerks enter week tied for 2nd place in North Division

Rochester enters the week in a second-place tie in the AHL's North Division standings with the Laval Rocket and trail the Toronto Marlies by just six points. The Amerks, however, have two games in hand on the Rocket and one on first-place Toronto.

News and Notes

The Amerks were dealt their first regulation loss on the road this season after coming up empty-handed in a 5-0 setback to the Binghamton Devils on Saturday to close out a busy stretch of three games in four nights. The loss came just four nights after Rochester shutout the Devils on home ice. The Amerks were 4-0-1-1 on the road entering Saturday's matchup in Binghamton. The same two teams will face-off again on back-to-back nights this weekend as part of a home-and-home series.
Coming off his four-point effort in Friday's 4-2 win over Hartford, rookie forward C.J. Smith leads the Amerks with 15 points (4+11) through his first 16 games of the season. Smith, who had a season-long five-game point streak snapped last month, currently ranks fourth among all AHL rookies in points and is tied for third with a team-high 11 assists. He's also tied for second among all first-year skaters with eight power-play points.
Sahir Gill has moved atop the team's goal-scoring leaders with six on the season, matching the career-high he set last year in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. The former Boston University standout reached the six-goal mark in 31 fewer games and has already recorded more than half his total offensive output from the 2016-17 campaign through just 16 appearances this season for Rochester. He also shares the team lead with two power-play tallies.
Brendan Guhle remains Rochester's top-scoring blueliner and comes into the week tied for fourth in scoring among all AHL rookie defensemen with 10 points (3+7), all of which have come in his last 12 games.
Linus Ullmark is currently tied for the AHL lead in wins (8) and ranks first in saves (341) while his .924 save percentage is ninth-best among all netminders with at least 300 minutes played.
Alexander Nylander and Evan Rodrigues made their season debuts with the team on Saturday.

Wednesday: RCH 3 - BNG 0

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The Rochester Americans (8-4-1-1) took an early two-goal lead Wednesday night at The Blue Cross Arena as they hosted the Binghamton Devils (5-7-0-1) to begin a stretch of three games in four nights. After grabbing the lead, the Amerks never looked back as goaltender Linus Ullmark, who appeared in his 200th professional game, stopped all 31 shots he faced to record his second-career AHL shutout and helped the Amerks to a 3-0 victory.
With the win, the Amerks improve to 4-0-1-1 in the first six games in the month of November and show a record of 6-2-1-1 in their last 10 games overall while collecting 14 of 18 points dating back to October. 25.
Defenseman Stuart Percy factored in on all three Rochester goals, scoring twice while also adding an assist for a career-high three points to lead the Amerks. The blueliner pushed his point streak to three games as he shows six points (2+4) over that span.
Eric Cornel notched his second tally of season in the opening period while Ullmark won his fourth straight start and sixth of his last seven to improve his record to 7-3-0 on the season. The Swedish netminder is now one win shy of Anders Lindback of the Milwaukee Admirals for the league-lead in wins.
Binghamton's Nick Lappin tied Percy for a game-high five shots while goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood made 33 saves but dropped his second consecutive game.

Friday: HFD 2 - RCH 4

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Much like Wednesday's contest, the Rochester Americans (9-4-1-1) jumped out to a 2-0 lead with a pair of goals 2:21 apart and never gave it up as they would go on to a 4-2 win over the Hartford Wolf Pack (6-8-2-1) at The Blue Cross Arena Friday night.
With the win, the Amerks improved to 7-1-1-1 in their last 10 games overall while collecting 16 out of a possible 20 points dating back to Oct. 25. They also hold a record of 5-0-1-1 through their first seven games in the month of November.
Rookie forward C.J. Smith took over the team-lead in scoring as he notched a career-high four points with his third and fourth goals of the season and a pair of helpers. The first-year player is now third among all AHL rookies in scoring with 15 points (4+11) through 15 games to begin his professional career.
Colin Blackwell tallied two assists on the night as Brendan Guhle and Hudson Fasching added their third and fourth markers of the season, respectively. Goaltender Linus Ullmark pushed his win streak to a personal-best five games as he made 36 saves on the night. The Swedish netminder is now tied for league-lead for in wins (8) and has won seven of his last eight outings.
Ryan Sproul collected his third multi-point outing of the campaign as he led the Wolf Pack with a goal and assist while defenseman John Gilmour bagged his second marker of the slate in the loss. Rookie goalie Alexandar Georgiev made 27 saves of 30 but took the loss as he now shows a 3-4-2 record.
"I think it was a big addition for Nylander and Evan Rodrigues both to return to the lineup with our team playing as well as we have for the last few weeks," Amerks head coach Chris Taylor said. "Our team has played well as of late but we are building on each day and only getting better and better."

Saturday: RCH 0 - BNG 5

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After shutting out the Binghamton Devils (6-8-1-0) on Wednesday night on home ice, the Rochester Americans (9-5-1-1) were held off the scoreboard in a 5-0 loss Saturday night at the Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena in a rematch against the Devils.
The loss was the Amerks first in regulation on the road this season after starting 4-0-1-1 away from The Blue Cross Arena. Additionally, the loss snapped Rochester's string of seven straight games with a point, the team's longest stretch since an eight-game run to open the month of April during the 2013-14 campaign.
Defenseman Stuart Percy, who entered the contest riding a four-game point streak (2+5), led all Amerks with five shots while goaltender Adam Wilcox suffered the defeat in net despite making 31 saves.
Jacob MacDonald helped the Devils to the 5-0 win as the defenseman recorded his second-straight multi-point night as he bagged his sixth goal of the season to go with his two assists. Joe Blandisi (1+1) and Josh Jacobs (0+2) each collected two-point nights while Viktor Loov and Blake Pietila rounded out the scoring on the night. Netminder Mackenzie Blackwood notched his first shutout of the season, stopping all 18 shots sent his way while snapping a six-game winless streak.

Scoring leaders

1. C.J. Smith: 4G - 11A - 15 PTS
   2. Kyle Criscuolo (with Buffalo): 5G - 6A - 11 PTS
   3. Sahir Gill: 6G - 4A - 10 PTS
      Brendan Guhle: 3G - 7A - 10 PTS
   4. Kevin Porter: 4G - 5A - 9 PTS
      Steve Moses: 3G - 6A - 9 PTS

Goaltending leaders

Linus Ullmark: 8-3-0-0; 2.65 GAA; .924 SV%
Adam Wilcox: 1-2-1-0; 3.49 GAA; .886 SV%