***This Week’s Top Storylines***
*The Amerks embark on another busy stretch of three games in four nights this week highlighted by a pair of home matchups to bookend the Thanksgiving holiday. Rochester hosts the Providence Bruins on Wednesday before taking on the Utica Comets in the annual Black Friday matchup at The Blue Cross Arena. Both contests are slated for a 7:05 p.m. start.
*The Amerks enter the week missing their top three point-getters in Cal O’Reilly, Cole Schneider and Taylor Fedun, all of whom are currently on recall with the parent Buffalo Sabres and have each had impactful returns to the NHL.
– O’Reilly, who became the 11th different Amerk to earn a recall to the Sabres this season, currently leads the AHL with 15 assists and ranks second overall with 18 points. On Saturday, he scored the shootout-deciding goal to give the Sabres a 2-1 win over the defending Stanley Cup-champion Pittsburgh Penguins, improving to 6-for-13 in his NHL career. O’Reilly has four assists in his last three games with the Amerks and has been scoreless just three times all season.
-Schneider joined Buffalo for his second recall of the season after seeing his six-game point streak come to an end in Friday’s shootout loss to the St. John’s IceCaps. The fifth-year pro has found the back of the net in four of his last seven games and had nine points (4+5) total of over his six-game point streak, the longest of any Amerk this season. Schneider currently ranks third in the league in points (17), eighth in goals (7), eighth in power-play goals (3) and ninth in assists (10) entering play this week. The Amerks are 5-2-0-0 this season when Schneider records a point and 4-1-0-0 when he tallies two points or more..
-Fedun has made quite the splash since joining Buffalo, picking up an assist in each of his first two games as a Sabre. Fedun, who notched the primary assist on William Carrier’s first career NHL goal Saturday against Pittsburgh, has now registered an assist in each of his last three NHL outings dating back to Jan, 15, 2016. He enters the week third in scoring among all AHL defensemen with 12 points (2+10) in 14 games on the season. His 10 assists are also third-most among blueliners.
*Second-year goaltender Linus Ullmark has started seven of the last eight games for the Amerks and boasts a 6-5-1 record through 12 appearances. He ranks fourth among all netminders in games played (12) and minutes (718) and is tied for seventh in wins (6).
