Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer
Rochester has been having a good time lately, with six straight wins putting the Americans atop the North Division, one point ahead of Cleveland.
top prospect constellation helenius and Anton Wahlberg Back in town from the IIHF World Junior Championships in Ottawa. Helenius played for Finland, winning silver and dishing out six assists in seven games. Wahlberg has eight points (four goals, four assists) in seven games with Sweden, tied for fourth in the tournament in scoring. Both prospects played their first full AHL season before turning 20 years old. 1st overall pick by Buffalo and contributed 17 points (6 goals, 11 assists) in 28 games for the Amerks. Wahlberg, 19, has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in 25 games since joining the organization as a 2023 second-round pick.
The Amerkes forward witnessed one of the best stories of the Sabers season on Tuesday Tyson Kozakwas recalled to Buffalo again. A 2021 seventh-round pick, the 22-year-old spent his first two pro seasons in Rochester before being promoted to Buffalo in December and playing his second game in Buffalo. Scored his first NHL goal. Kozak has tied his AHL career season high with 12 points (six goals, six assists) in 24 games with Rochester.
Two other key players for the Sabres’ future got good news from the AHL on Wednesday, as goaltenders Devin Levy and forward Isaac Rosen Received an invitation to the 2025 AHL All-Star Classic presented by Spotlight 29 Casino on February 2-3. This will be the second consecutive All-Star selection for the 21-year-old Rosen, who has a team-leading 27 points (13 goals, 14 assists) in 30 games in Rochester. Levi spent his first two professional seasons between Rochester and Buffalo. The 23-year-old has played 14 games for América this year and has a record of 11 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss, with a goals against average of 2.19 and a save percentage of 0.914.
Rochester showed some promise early in the season, winning six straight, but lost seven of its next eight games, falling to 8-7-3 heading into the U.S. Thanksgiving Day game. Draw, 0 loss. But since then, they’ve proven they can handle the rigors of the AHL as well, winning 13 of 15 games and going 15-3-1-0, including a current eight-game winning streak. Winning goal +25. Even as the games and bus time piled up, they were able to stick to their plan and put in a huge effort during the night.
Levy arrived from Buffalo on November 18 and helped Amok turn the tide. He allowed two or fewer goals in nine of 14 starts, including Nov. 29 against Syracuse and Dec. 7 against Charlotte.
“As a coach,” Amerkes head coach Michael Leone “I have a lot of respect for our team because of how consistent they are, how competitive they are and how hard they work every game,” he said Wednesday on the team’s website.
Team USA made their schedule even easier with wins in Springfield and Bridgeport last weekend. They are top of the division but just seven points separate themselves from the Crunch in fifth place. They have a chance to make more progress this weekend, with Utica arriving in town on Friday before another jaunt to Syracuse the next night.
Buffalo management has made it clear that a competitive Amerks team is a necessary component for player development. The saber was brought Seth Appel After falling behind the Rochester bench in 2020, the club reached the North Division finals in 2022 and a year later took Hershey to six games in the Eastern Conference finals. Appel is now an assistant head coach in Buffalo Lindy RuffLeone takes over after having success with Green Bay in the American Hockey League and the U.S. National Team Development Program.
Leone’s mission is very similar to Appert’s: developing young talent and helping them play meaningful games and make the Calder Cup playoffs. Part of the process is learning how to play a full-blown NHL style game individually and collectively. Protect clues. Balance risk and reward. Manage shift length.
Some nights, Amerkes has the ability to overwhelm opponents. They scored 15 goals in two games at Belleville in mid-December. They have scored 26 goals in their current six-game winning streak. But they also struggled with game management, especially during the November slump. Even in an otherwise well-played game, one bad transition or an ill-timed decision can mean dropped points.
Lately, though, instead of suffering late-game misfortune, the Americans have shut out their opponents — or at least haven’t seen a conceded goal turn into two or three. Learning how to do this is a key difference between the AHL level and the levels further down the development chain.
That promise caught the attention of their head coach.
“I think our guys have what it takes to consistently win at this level,” Leone said. “With 10 minutes left in the game, you could feel it on the bench, we were ahead. As a coach, you feel comfortable because they’re saying the right things and you’re just standing there. , appreciating those who support this.
About two decades in the American Hockey League, TheAHL.com feature writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor for SiriusXM NHL Network Radio . In 2016, he received the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for outstanding coverage of the league.
