Rochester continues four-game road swing tonight in Charlotte
Amerks will then begin 6-game homestand on Sunday
by Rochester Americans @AmerksHockey / Amerks.com
Rochester continues its four-game road swing this week beginning tonight with the first of back-to-back meetings against the defending Calder Cup champion Charlotte Checkers at Bojangles' Coliseum at 7 p.m.
The Amerks and Checkers will then conclude their season series on Wednesday at 7 p.m. before Rochester closes the week-long road trip in Syracuse on Saturday with another go-around against the Crunch at Upstate Medical University Arena. The Amerks return home on Sunday, Feb. 16 when they host the Utica Comets to begin a season-long six-game homestand.
Rochester shows a 3-7-0-0 all-time record against Charlotte while boasting an 11-6-1-1 record in their last 19 games against Syracuse, which includes a 5-2-0-0 mark this season.
The Amerks have collected at least one point in 17 of the last 25 games against Utica dating back to the start of the 2017-18 campaign, going 12-6-2-3 over that span while 14 of the last 23 games between the two teams have been decided by one goal.
Scoring leaders
| Player | GP | G | A | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Jean-Sebastian Dea | 43 | 14 | 17 | 31 |
| 2. Zach Redmond | 45 | 5 | 22 | 27 |
| 3. Andrew Oglevie | 41 | 13 | 11 | 24 |
| Sean Malone | 45 | 9 | 15 | 24 |
| 5. Lawrence Pilut* | 31 | 6 | 16 | 22 |
| Kevin Porter | 35 | 6 | 16 | 22 |
| *Recalled to Buffalo (NHL) |
Goaltending leaders
| Player | GP | W | L | OTL | GAA | SV% | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jonas Johansson* | 20 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 2.19 | .925 | 2 |
| Andrew Hammond | 27 | 13 | 10 | 2 | 2.57 | .904 | 4 |
| Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3.20 | .895 | 0 |
| *Recalled to Buffalo (NHL) |
News and notes
The Amerks come into the week eight points back of the Belleville Senators for the top spot in the AHL's North Division standings and have a slim one-point lead on the Utica Comets. Rochester, however, has two games in hand on both the Senators and Comets.
The month of February continues to be the busiest for the Amerks, who in all, will play a total of 10 games over a 19-day stretch beginning with their two-game road set against the Checkers Tuesday and Wednesday.
The busiest stretch of the month comes later this week when the team embarks on a season-long six-game homestand over a 13-day span. Of Rochester's 10 remaining games this month, eight will be played against North Division opponents with the only exceptions being the two in Charlotte and the final meeting of the season against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms scheduled for Friday, Feb. 21.
Jean-Sebastien Dea, who remains the only Amerk this season to reach the 30-point plateau, continues to pace the team in goals (14) and points (31) through 43 games. Coming into week, Dea, who is also second among all Amerks forwards with 85 shots on goal, has 10 points (4+6) in his last 13 games since the turn of the New Year, including goals in two of his last three outings.