By: Aiden Locke
ROCHESTER, NY --- The Rochester Americans ended 2024 red-hot with a 9-2 record in December. They picked up where they left off winning their third straight to start the new year. Rochester handled business scoring five unanswered goals in their first home contest of 2025, beating the Utica Comets 5-1.
"We had a tough stretch but when you're rolling you want to keep playing hockey games, but we had a good week of practice, the guys dug in and worked hard," Amerks assistant coach Nathan Paetsch said.
Utica drew first blood early in the first period. Utica forward Ryan Schmeltzer crashed the net and received a saucer pass from forward Max Willman from the half-wall. Willman is a former Sabre fifth round draft pick from 2014. Schmeltzer's goal was the only time the Comets lit the lamp Friday night.
Rochester found success in the second period. They scored two goals and took a one goal lead into the third period. The first Amerk goal of the night came on the power play. Forward Anton Wahlberg took advantage of chaos around the net after multiple shots, securing a rebound and roofing it far side with his backhand. Forward Josh Dunne and defenseman Jack Rathbone were credited with assists on the power play marker. This marked Wahlberg’s first AHL goal since November 13th in his first game back with the team after the IIHF World Junior Championship.
"Our line and the whole team got momentum from it and we kept going and never looked back," Wahlburg said.
"These young guys just get exponentially better throughout the season," Amerks captain Mason Jobst said. "They're obviously drafted so high for a reason and he's been really good for us."
The second Rochester goal was delivered by defenseman Nitika Novikov. Novikov carried the puck down the left wall, cut toward the red line and just outside the blue paint where he slid a sneaky shot five-hole on goalie Issac Poulter.Â
Rochester took off in the third period, scoring three goals. Forward Isak Rosen score the third of the day for Rochester off a rush. Jobst found him immediately after breaking the Utica blue line and Rosen did the rest with speed and a crafty move near the goal. Two minutes later, forward Lukas Rousek added another, recovering a loose puck in the neutral zone. Rousek's speed gave him a breakaway which he stuffed a five-hole with his backhand.
"He's (Rosen) scored some big goals for us," Paetsch said. "When he's skating he's hard to contain in this league and his goal was purely speed... he has the ability to take over games and that's what we expect from him and that's what he expects from himself."
Jobst added the final goal midway through the period on a power play to bring the score to 5-1. Jobst, the team's captain has five goals in his last four games (seven on the season) to break out of his scoring slump since the beginning of the season.
"I think it was 23 games without a goal, which for me is a really long time," Jobst said. "When you go through a slump like that you try and find other ways to contribute."
"it was one of those things, once one went in you knew there would be a lot to follow," Paetsch said.
Rochester was in trouble late in the first, briefly having to kill off a five-on-three. The second penalty being a four minute double-minor on defenseman Vsevolod Komarov. Utica generated nine unanswered shots in the final seven minutes of the opening period. After one, the shots on goal totaled 14:6 in favor of Utica. Rochester's week long layoff led to a slow start out of the gate in the first period.
"We started a little slow," Paetsch said. "Long week of practice and I thought we took a while to get to our game then you take a bunch of penalties and it's hard to get into a rhythm."
Rochester defenseman Kale Clague had a great scoring chance in the middle of the first. Forward Brett Murray, who leads the team in goals (16), drifted toward the half-wall before feeding a cross ice pass to Klague who ripped a one-timer just above the right circle. Poulter jumped post to post to rob Clague with a massive glove save.Â
The second period was difficult for Utica. They took three penalties and spent a lot of time in their own zone killing those three penalties. Rochester outshot Utica 14:9 in route to taking their first lead of the night. The speed and physicality picked on both ends after the first in a game that ended up being chippier than normal.
Emotions ran high in the third period. 18 total penalties were handed out including nine in the third period alone. This included Rathbone and Utica forward Shane Bowers dropping the gloves. Rathbone won the brief fight with a slam into the ice after a couple punches were thrown.
"Especially when we play teams like Utica when were up... you just need to keep your head up out there," Wahlburg said. "They we're trying to do extra things after every whistle but we played our game and didn't let ourselves get put in the box so a really good job by the team."
Rochester's power play went 2-for-8 on the night while Utica's struggled going 0-for-4. Rochester outshot Utica 37:30. Rochester got a 29 save effort including multiple highlight reel saves from AHL All Star goaltender Devon Levi. Levi picked up his 12th win of the season in the matchup. Poulter put in a 32 save effort in the loss for Utica.
"He's so good back there," Jobst said. "Mistakes that you do make up front, he's back there and we have all the confidence in the world in him to make the saves that he needs to make and he's keeping us in every single game right now... we're blessed to have him."
The Rochester Americans improve to 22-9 on the season to take first place in the North Division over the Laval Rockets (21-10). The Amerks shift their focus to tomorrow, Saturday January 11 as they travel to take on the Syracuse Crunch. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.