Mar 18, 2023
The oldest rivalry in the American Hockey League gets renewed tonight at Giant Center when the Rochester Americans (28-24-4-2) meet the Hershey Bears (36-16-5-2) in a battle between the AHL’s two cornerstone franchises. The 7:00 p.m. matchup will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV.
With 14 games remaining in the 2022-23 regular season, Rochester sits in fourth place in the American Hockey League’s North Division standings, just three points ahead of the Belleville Senators, who currently occupy the fifth and final playoff spot. The Amerks trail the third-place Syracuse Crunch by two points coming into the weekend.
The Amerks jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period and then came back to force overtime before ultimately falling 5-4 in a shootout to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Friday at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.
Forwards Mason Jobst (1+1) and Brett Murray (0+2) each collected a multi-point night while Jiri Kulich, Sean Malone and Jeremy Davies all scored in the contest with one goal each. Isak Rosen, Michael Mersch, Lukas Rousek, Linus Weissbach, and former Penguin Matt Bartkowski all notched one assist.
Goaltender Malcolm Subban (15-13-2) stopped 31 of the 35 shots he faced in regulation and overtime before stopping two of three in the shootout.
Tonight’s contest is the first against the Bears in Hershey since the Amerks recorded a 4-3 come-from-behind win on Dec. 19, 2021. The Amerks were trailing 3-1 early in the third period before storming back for three unanswered goals in 9:57 for the win. With Rochester’s 7-3 win over the Bears in the first meeting of the 2021-22 season, the Amerks have collected at least one point in six of their last 11 games against Hershey, going 5-5-1-0 dating back to the start of the 2016-17 campaign.
In each of the 12 previous matchups, the winning club has posted three or more goals. Coming into tonight’s 463rd all-time regular-season meeting between the two teams, Rochester is 192-216-53 lifetime against Hershey, which includes a 5-2-1-0 mark in the last five years.
After suffering a defeat in his season-debut, Subban has gone 15-12-2 since over his last 29 starts, including seven straight wins between Dec. 10 to Jan. 14. The seven-game win streak was the longest of his pro career.
He was the first Amerks goaltender to post seven straight wins since Jonas Johansson won nine consecutive…
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