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Posts tagged 'Phil Varone'

Posts Tagged ‘Phil Varone’

Marcus Foligno is Developing as a Dominant Player and Pleasing the Hockey Gods

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February 10, 2012 - By
Marcus Foligno is Developing as a Dominant Player and Pleasing the Hockey Gods

The 2011/2012 season has had it’s fill of injuries and call ups between the Rochester Americans and Buffalo Sabres and through it all there has been one player who has possibly benefited the most from it, Marcus Foligno.  The rookie is currently leading the Amerks in scoring with 12 goals and 17 assists for 29 points through 46 games played.  He’s also leading the team with a +/- rating of +15.  Marcus is also third on the team with 83 shots and with 57 penalty minutes is fourth on the team.  When looking at the rest of the league, Marcus Foligno is tied for 13th in the rookie scoring race.  Those may not be stats to earn the Sabres AHL affiliate a fourth straight AHL rookie of the year but there’s still 30 games left to be played.

What’s impressive about his points this season is that he’s working hard at acquiring them.  Of the 12 goals he has scored, nine of them have been during five on five situations.  He’s scored one power play goal and two empty net goals.  Of the 17 assists to his credit 12 of them have happened during five on five hockey and one [...]Read More

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Amerks Highlights from 3-0 Win Over the Heat on February 2

February 6, 2012 - By
Amerks Highlights from 3-0 Win Over the Heat on February 2

The Amerks started the month of February on a good note with a 3-0 win over the Abbotsford Heat on February 2nd.  For a full recap of the two games against the Heat you can read that here.

Goaltender David Leggio also debuted his new mask at this game, you can read about that here.

Thanks to YouTube and forums user Disengage for recording these to share.

Nick Crawford opens the scoring against the Abbotsford Heat. Assist to Marcus Foligno.

Joe Finley fights Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond after boarding Brayden McNabb.

Phil Varone scores a shorthanded goal assisted by Marcus Foligno

David Leggio makes a save on a shorthanded breakaway by Carter Bancks

Travis Turnbull scores on a rebound for the Amerks’ first power play goal in 31 attempts. Assists to Brayden McNabb and Paul Szczechura

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Leggio Earns the Amerks 3 out of 4 Points Against the Heat

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February 4, 2012 - By
Leggio Earns the Amerks 3 out of 4 Points Against the Heat

We’re now in the month of February and this is the time of the season that teams make a push for the playoffs and determine how they’ll be able to play once in the playoffs.  The NHL trade deadline is Monday February 27, 2012, just over three weeks away.  There’s one position that the Amerks have started to gain some consistency and that’s in goaltender David Leggio.  In two games he earned a shutout, overtime loss and combined 62 saves.  Leggio had an outstanding 33 save shutout on Thursday night and then two of the three goals scored against him on Friday night were the result of the puck being redirected, can’t really blame the goalie on those.  Now if only the Amerks could get healthy and possibly add a real scorer this team could start to make a better run.

The Amerks gained three out of four possible points in the standings so far this week which is acceptable looking at it that way.  The Amerks started the night three points behind the Marlies but the Marlies beat the Crunch and increased the lead to four.  Both teams have played 46 games.

In Thursdays game the Amerks looked like [...]Read More

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Griffins 3 Goals in Under 3 Minutes Defeats Amerks; Gongalsky vs Piche

January 26, 2012 - By
Griffins 3 Goals in Under 3 Minutes Defeats Amerks; Gongalsky vs Piche

The Amerks lost on Wednesday night and there’s two ways you could look at the standings after this game.  The glass half empty way is that the Amerks are following the Buffalo Sabres lead and slowly sinking in the standings.  There’s only four points that separates the Amerks from the Rockford IceHogs who are in last place in the conference.  They’re also only six points from last place in the league.  The glass half full way is that the Amerks are only two points from eighth place in the conference and four points from sixth place.  The good news is that the Amerks play nine out of 12 games in February on home ice so if there was ever a time to really turn things around it’d be in February.  The ship hasn’t sunk but there’s reason for concern.

The real downfall has been the inconsistencies.  Everything from goal scoring to goaltending to wins and losses.  This is a hard working group of hockey players with a lot of potential how much they can really accomplish is the question.  The hope for any sports team is to get into the playoffs and then anything can happen.  It’s going to take [...]Read More

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Amerks Comeback Takes the Bears to the Shootout; Successful Weekend

January 9, 2012 - By
Amerks Comeback Takes the Bears to the Shootout; Successful Weekend

The Amerks loss to the Hershey Bears can be looked at a few ways but the best way to look at it is that this team has a lot of heart, character and a never say die attitude that’s awesome to watch.  After two periods the Bears were winning the game and had a 36-9 advantage in shots, they had a 15-3 advantage after the first period.  The game appeared to be a game of kids amongst men but it was still only 2-0 after 40 minutes with plenty of time for the Amerks to make it a game.  They did just that 15 seconds into the third period and then tied it up with 61 seconds left on the scoreboard to send the game into overtime and the eventual shootout.

(photo courtesy of Sweetest Hockey on Earth, a Hershey Bears site similar to this one)

It was a successful weekend for the Amerks picking up four out of a possible six points in the standings.  They lost in the shootout on Friday against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and defeated the Binghamton Senators on Saturday.  I’ve often said not so nice things about the quality of video that you get [...]Read More

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Varone and Leggio Lead Amerks to 3-2 Win Over B-Sens

January 8, 2012 - By
Varone and Leggio Lead Amerks to 3-2 Win Over B-Sens

Sounds like the game came down to the final moments on Saturday night when the Amerks defeated the defending Calder Cup Champion Binghamton Senators.  I was not able to see or listen to the game so here’s the press release below…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 7, 2011

VARONE, LEGGIO POWER AMERKS TO 3-2 WIN OVER B-SENS

(Rochester, NY)… Rochester Americans rookie forward Phil Varone scored a pair of goals, including the game-winner, and David Leggio made a season-high 44 saves to power the Amerks to a 3-2 win over the defending Calder Cup champion Binghamton Senators tonight at Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena. The win improves Rochester (15-13-4-2) to 3-1-0-0 this season against the B-Sens as it has now collected points in six of its last seven games.

The two-goal effort was the first multi-goal game for Varone, who also extended his point streak to six games. The game also featured the return of forward Zack Kassian and defenseman T.J. Brennan, who were reassigned to Rochester earlier this morning. Kassian made an immediate impact in his first game back in the lineup, assisting on Varone’s first goal of the game and finishing with a +1 rating.

Andre Petersson (1+1) [...]Read More

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Another One Goal Loss, Pens Defeat Amerks in the Shootout

January 6, 2012 - By
Another One Goal Loss, Pens Defeat Amerks in the Shootout

The Amerks picked up a point again on the road against a tough Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins team which is better than nothing.  It came down to the skills competition where Eric Tangradi scored in the eighth round scoring top corner glove side on Drew MacIntyre for the win.  These one goal losses and one point games could come back to haunt the Amerks in April.  A week ago they were only one point back of the first place Marlies and after tonight their seven back from first in the division but tied for eighth in the conference.

The game started with both teams skating back and forth for the first 10:48 before the first whistle of the game and then they finished the first period in under a half hour.  At 17:11 of the first period Marcus Foligno put the puck on goaltender Brad Thiessen who tried to go for the glove side but it went off the edge of his glove.  The puck landed to the side of the net where Phil Varone was skating in and scored for his third of the season.

Jason Williams tied the game at 11:07 of the second period with a shot from the [...]Read More

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Gameday Notes: Amerks vs Bulldogs; Big Crowd Expected

December 30, 2011 - By
Gameday Notes: Amerks vs Bulldogs; Big Crowd Expected

The Amerks have a chance to take first back first place in the North Division with a win tonight over the Hamilton Bulldogs, a team they’ve had difficulty beating so far in six games this season.  The Bulldogs have 12 wins this season and five of those have been against the Rochester Americans.  Both teams are playing improved hockey lately so it should be a competitive game starting at 7:35 at the War Memorial.

Rochester is on a four game winning streak having just defeated the Oklahoma City Barons in a shootout and overtime.  They handed the Lake Erie Monsters a 4-1 loss last Wednesday and almost two weeks ago defeated the Houston Aeros on the road.  The winning streak has the Amerks within one point of first place in the North Division and thanks to a Toronto Marlies loss on Thursday they have a chance to move up.  They’re a young team finding ways to win through injuries, call ups and overall simply working as a team.

Hamilton on the other hand has won six of their last 10 games and picked up points in eight of those games.  On Monday the Toronto Marlies were winning 3-0 at the [...]Read More

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Amerks Shootout Win Extends Streak to Four Games; Adversity is No Problem

December 29, 2011 - By
Amerks Shootout Win Extends Streak to Four Games; Adversity is No Problem

(Update: Added shootout video and Travis Turnbull incident) This Rochester Americans team is supposed to lack goal scoring.  It’s supposed to be missing a couple of players as veteran leadership.  It’s supposed to lack depth.  It’s also supposed to be torn apart by all of the injuries and call ups but the players put everything out on the ice and won in a shootout against the top team in the league.  They were down 2-1 and 3-2 during the game but came back each time and didn’t slow down at all.  With the four game winning streak in hand the Amerks have climbed back to within one point of the North Division leading Toronto Marlies.  The players are certainly giving reasons to believe that the glass is half full and filling up.

(Picture by Steven Christy from http://okcbarons.com/)

Paul Szczechura, Shaone Morrisonn and Evan Rankin were all out of the lineup with injuries but watching the game it was hard to tell.  Sure, the team failed to score on five power play chances which is where a Szczechura or Rankin could have helped but when you can score at even strength it’s not as bad.

We’ve shared concerns about this [...]Read More

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Amerks Extend Win Streak to Three; Rankin Down; Back at it Tonight

December 28, 2011 - By
Amerks Extend Win Streak to Three; Rankin Down; Back at it Tonight

The Amerks travelled to to play a two game set against the Oklahoma City Barons and they came out on top of the first game with a 4-3 win in overtime.  The team was up 2-1 before the Barons scored two goals in 56 seconds and then Paul Szczechura scored halfway through the third to tie the game and eventually send it to overtime.  Watching the game online they had some struggles but didn’t back down from the top team in the league and came out victorious with an overtime goal scored by Drew Schiestel.

This was the third straight win for the Amerks and just like that they’re within three points of the North Division leading Toronto Marlies.  They’re still eighth in the Western Conference but can quickly jump to third by taking over the top spot in the division.  Assuming the team keeps playing hard every night, players can stay healthy and there’s few call ups anything is possible.. as everyone says, it’s a long season and it’s still only December.

Back to the game….. Paul Szczechura (aka Chewy.. aka Sahara if you listen to Rick Jeanneret) fresh off a recall to the Buffalo Sabres scored the first goal [...]Read More

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Grit, Guts and Goaltending Leads to Amerks 4-1 Win

December 22, 2011 - By
Grit, Guts and Goaltending Leads to Amerks 4-1 Win

The story leading up to the Rochester Americans vs Lake Erie Monsters game on Wednesday night was that the Amerks were short on players with what seems like half the team up with the Buffalo Sabres.  On paper there wasn’t much hope for the game considering they’re a squad that at times has had problems scoring goals and they were about to face the American Hockey League’s best goaltender in Cedrick Desjardins.  No one should deny that the current Amerks roster has it’s challenges against other top teams in the league but one thing is certain, this team works hard and puts everything they have out on the ice and they proved that again with a 4-1 win over the Lake Erie Monsters.

“I give a lot of credit to our guys coming back from Texas and being able to bounce back at home and put the effort there,” said Head Coach Ron Rolston.  ”I think they did that tonight so we were very happy with that.” (from the Amerks press release)

Drew MacIntyre had a solid night in net for the Amerks and besides the one goal allowed he made a number of big time saves, including a glove [...]Read More

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Amerks Need Some Players with 163 Man Games Lost Already

December 21, 2011 - By
Amerks Need Some Players with 163 Man Games Lost Already

Here we are in late December and the offensive side of the Rochester Americans lineup has just about dried up and as of this morning the team is short on players heading into tonights game against the Lake Erie Monsters.  Based on the Amerks roster that played on Sunday minus Whitmore and Foligno they have six defensemen, two goalies and ten forwards.  The simple math indicates that leaves them two forwards short.  As of Tuesday night there was not any news of additions to the roster.

Don Stevens had mentioned on Sunday that Shaone Morrisonn and Joe Finley were out with injuries from that game.  Morrisonn was also handed a one game suspension from the American Hockey League for an elbow this past Friday against the San Antonio Rampage.  It’s possible that Morrisonn was just sitting the game out ahead of the pending suspension.  We should find out sometime today what the status is of Finley and Morrisonn.

There’s often talk about “man games lost” due to injuries on a team and I can’t imagine another team having a number as high as the Rochester Americans right now.  The number combined between injuries and call ups (based on my late [...]Read More

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