ROCHESTER, N.Y. --- The Rochester Americans opened their 2022-23 regular season at Blue Cross Arena, Friday October 14th, hosting the Toronto Marlies. It was an emphatic special teams display from Rochester, scoring all of their goals on either the power play or shorthanded. Linus Weissbach (1+1) notched two points on the day for the Amerks, as well as rookie Isak Rosén (1+1). Netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen posted 22 saves on 24 shots, standing tall once again as Rochester's starter.
Rochester started out quite sloppy, they were all over the ice in the first ten minutes and needed to get their bearings quickly, as The Marlies went up 1-0 just three and a half minutes into the game. with Rochester on the back foot, the momentum seemed to start churning for The Marlies, until the first penalty of the period. The first of five penalties in the period came at 7:53 in the first. On the power play Rochester looked much better, as expected, less than 40 seconds later a scrum occurred in front of the Toronto goal, the puck slid out of the middle and fell perfectly to Linus Weissbach for the first Rochester Americans goal of the season. As the game came level, a sense of calm washed over the Amerks and the jittery play we saw in the beginning started to fade.
The Amerks scored once more in the period, Brett Murray scooped a rebound into the back of the net on the third of Toronto's four penalty kills in the first period. Now with The lead the Amerks looked comfortable, however they couldn't put anything in the back of the net in the second period. Rochester got lucky though as they held the Marlies to no points in the second as well. The teams took things into the third the same way they took them into the second, Rochester up 2-1.
Rochester was ready to put the game to bed as they came out for the third period. Kale Clague was called for hooking in the first minute and The Amerks went into the penalty kill. As they passed the two minute mark in the period Brandon Biro came flying in off the bench for The Amerks and there was a feeling in the air he was going to make something happen, he drove the puck all the way to goal and, as he met a wall of three defenders, sent the perfect pass to defensemen Chase Priskie for the only shorthanded goal of the night. within minutes of the goal, Rochester moved back to the power play following a cross check and less than thirty seconds in Isak Rosén scored his first career AHL goal. With that the game was essentially put away, The Marlies got one back in the dying minutes but it wasn't enough. Rochester holds on to win it 4-2.
Game two for Rochester will be Saturday October 15th against The Marlies again, puck drop at 4pm in Toronto.
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