**This Week’s Storylines**
**In front of the largest crowd (9,863) at The Blue Cross Arena since the 2014-15 season, Rochester native and 39-year-old veteran Brian Gionta scored his first goal as an Amerk on Friday in his debut in the red, white and blue after signing a one-game professional tryout earlier in the week. Tomorrow is Gionta’s last practice with the Amerks before departing to serve as the captain of the United States men’s hockey team for the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympic Games, which are set to begin Friday, Feb. 9 in PyeongChang, South Korea.
**Rochester enters the first full week of February having played in a league-most 20 games that have gone beyond regulation through 47 games. The Amerks carry 7-6 record in overtime and show 2-5 in shootouts.
**Despite seeing his three-game win streak halted in Saturday’s overtime loss at Binghamton, goaltender Adam Wilcox pushed his personal point streak to a season-long four games. The third-year netminder is 3-0-1 over his last four games and while owning a 2.50 goals-against average and a .902 save percentage over that span. Wilcox shows a record of 7-1-4 in his last 11 contests and is 8-3-5 overall on the season in 18 appearances.
**Rookie forward C.J. Smith continues to lead the Amerks in all offensive categories with 14 goals, 25 assists and 39 points while being one just two skaters to appear in all 47 games thus far this season. His plus-eight on-ice rating is also tops among all active Rochester skaters. The Des, Moines, Iowa native currently ranks third in scoring among all AHL rookies and is 14th overall among the league’s top point-getters. His 25 assists are second-most between all first-year skaters and are tied for 13th -most in the league.
** The Amerks own three of the top point-producing defensemen in the AHL in Zach Redmond, Stuart Percy and rookie Brendan Guhle. Redmond, who leads all Amerks defensemen with 29 points (8+21) through 39 games, is seventh in goals by a defenseman with eight, matching a career-high. Additionally, Redmond’s 29 points rank fifth among all AHL defensemen in scoring.
