Archive for February, 2008

Second Straight Loss For The Amerks

February 18, 2008 - By

The Rochester Americans lost at home on Sunday night against the Hamilton Bulldogs by a final score of 4-1.  It was the Amerks third game in three nights.

Coming off of a two game suspension, Mike Weber made his presence on the team known tonight…but, not in the way the team would have liked.  Weber took three penalties throughout the game, two of them resulting in Bulldogs’ goals.  Undisciplined elbowing and cross checking penalties kept him in the box for four minutes, while a holding call rounded out his night in the box.

Mikhail Grabovski of the Bulldogs had four points tonight against the Amerks with a goal and three assists.  In his last three games, Grabovski has five goals, five assists, 10 points, a plus-3 rating and has been named first star in all three games.

The Bulldogs took the lead at 7:23 of the first period when Weber’s first penalty gave Marvin Degon the chance to get one past Dennis with assists from Grabovski and Corso.

There was a great chance for Stefan Meyer to tie it up near the end of the first period, unfortunately he hit the post and was unable to get a second shot [...]Read More

Amerks Lose to Crunch in OT

February 17, 2008 - By

The Rochester Americans three game winning streak came to end Saturday night as they lost to the Syracuse Crunch in OT, the final score was 3-2.  With a total of 23 penalties called between the two teams, the Amerks stood up to the hard hitting Crunch by not backing down and playing a full 60 plus minutes of hockey.

At 13:29 of the second period a shoving match started in the corner between Drew Larman and Derek Dorsett.  Aaron Rome of the Crunch was a third man in and pulled Larman away from Dorsett, punches were then tossed around.  The fight was one sided, in favor of Dorsett, but it was great to see Larman not back down.  Dorsett was given a game misconduct for being third man in.

Franklin MacDonald was given two minutes for hooking and was in the penalty box when at 6:48 of the first period The Crunch opened the scoring with a goal from Adam Pineault.

Andrej Sekera scored the first Amerks goal half way through the first period on the power play.  The goal was assisted on by Zagrapan and Gragnani.  The three players did an excellent job passing the puck around and getting Crunch goaltender LaCosta out [...]Read More

Amerks Alumni To Play NYS Troopers

February 16, 2008 - By

The Rochester Americans’ Alumni team will take on the New York State Troopers before at 1:00PM at Blue Cross Arena.  The game is free with a ticket to the Amerks’ home game against the Hamilton Bulldogs which begins at 6:05.

There will be 50/50 raffle tickets and auction items (including a Ryan Miller Autographed Stick).  Donations will also be accepted.

Read the rest of this entry »

Amerks Defeat Bears; Three Game Winning Streak!

February 16, 2008 - By

The Rochester Americans beat the Hershey Bears by the final score of 4-2, three of those goals came in the second period.  The Amerks are now on a three game winning streak heading into Saturdays game against the Crunch.

The Amerk goals were scored (in order) by Yannick Tifu, Dan Collins, Marek Zagrapan (PP), and Anthony Stewart.  Adam Dennis was in net and recorded 29 saves.

A strong second period (which hasn’t been typical this season) and Zagrapans five on three power play goal allowed the team to take a commanding 4-1 lead into the third period.

With the win the Amerks climbed out of the basement of the AHL and are no longer in last place in the league.  They are two points ahead of the Lowell Devils.

It appears as if the team has found a way to play hockey again (and I’m probably jinxing it), let’s just hope they found some much needed toughness to bring to Syracuse on Saturday.

Mike Weber did not play as he was suspended earlier on Friday for two games.

Stefan Meyer was returned to the Amerks from the Panthers, he did not play due to a deep cut on his [...]Read More

Mike Weber Suspended Two Games

February 16, 2008 - By

Mike Weber was assessed a major penalty and a game misconduct for checking from behind at 19:23 of the third period against Grand Rapids on February 10th which resulted in a two game suspension.  He was suspended from Friday nights game against Hershey and also for Saturdays game against the Syracuse Crunch.

Amerks Sign Justin Aikins

February 16, 2008 - By

The Amerks signed Justin Aikins from Bossier-Shreveport of the Central Hockey League today.  He has scored 9 goals, 21 assists in 46 CHL games.

Amerks vs Bears; Top 5 Reasons To Go

February 15, 2008 - By

The Rochester Americans and Hershey Bears are playing at 7:35pm on Friday night, the long time rivals and the two oldest teams in the American Hockey League.  The two teams have played a total of 431 games against each other, the Amerks record against the Bears is 179-199-53.  With such a long history one would think this should be a special occasion, but it’s not considered one this season.  They didn’t play each other in the 06/07 season, and this is only the second of two games scheduled this year.  The Amerks lost the first game this season 3-1 back on October 20.

This season so far hasn’t been fun.  The only thing really interesting about the season has been the way the Amerks stayed out of record books with a win and goal when needed.  Ever since the end of November when all the financial issues really seemed to come to light, everyone stopped caring including fans, players, coaches, front office, and even the Panthers and Sabres.

All of that leads to a great reason that Friday nights game should have been promoted differently.  Maybe if more people knew about the Bears coming to town it could lead to a large crowd, [...]Read More

Dan Collins Assigned to Rochester

February 14, 2008 - By

The Panthers have recalled Dan Collins (RW) from the Florida Everblades to the Amerks.  In 24 games played earlier this season for the Amerks he had 3 goals, 5 assists, and 15 penalty minutes.

Amerks partners stop feud

February 14, 2008 - By

This is a copy and paste of the article as it appeared in the Democrat and Chronicle.

Amerks partners stop feud
Kevin Oklobzija
Staff writer
(February 14, 2008) — The possible sale of up to half the Rochester Americans and Knighthawks became a whole lot more probable on Wednesday after an amicable, call-a-truce telephone conversation between feuding ownership partners.

Minority owner Randall Latona, who in the spring filed suit in New York Supreme Court to have Amerks president and controlling partner Steve Donner ousted from power, opened a direct line of conversation in hopes of expediting a resolution to their dispute.

“They’re in a move-forward, go mode,” said Lisa Latona, Randall’s wife and business partner.

Donner and the Latonas, who live in Andover, Mass., spoke by phone Wednesday afternoon. Afterward both sides agreed that a buyout of Randall Latona’s 20 percent share of both the hockey and lacrosse franchises is much more likely to take place sooner than later.

“We may have had a breakthrough; I’m excited,” said Donner, who predicted completion of a buyout by the end of the month if there are no snags. “It’s the best heart-to-heart talk we’ve had about the situation in [...]Read More

CF Dinner A Success

February 13, 2008 - By

 Last night was the Rochester Americans’ 18th annual Amerks’ Celebrity Dinner to benefit the CF Foundation of Rochester.

The dinner was a great way for fans to get to know the players and make them do crazy things for tips.  Each table had an Amerk waiter whose job it was to do whatever the guests wanted to try to raise as much money possible for the event.

My waiter was Mike Funk.  Our table was pretty relaxed so, he didn’t have to do anything too crazy but there were plenty of guys who had to dress up for their tables.  Jordan Henry at one point had on fairy wings and bunny ears.

I was talking to some of the guys about their years in Juniors and they had some great stories about playing against Crosby and other greats.  A few of them agreed that the toughest person they played against in Juniors was Anthony Stewart.

All the players made bears at Build-A-Bear Workshop that were auctioned off along with other AHL and NHL memorabilia.  There were signed pictures of every player you could buy among many other things.

Kyle Schuhart did a fantastic job MCing the night and helping [...]Read More

Stefan Meyer Recalled By Florida

February 13, 2008 - By

The Panthers have recalled Stefan Meyer (LW) from the Amerks.  Meyer currently leads the Amerks with 16 goals.  He has played in three games for the Panthers this season.

Panthers Call up Rob Globke

February 12, 2008 - By

The Florida Panthers believe in calling players up based on recent performances, with Globke’s great weekend he has been recalled by the Panthers.  It’s his second call up of the season.