Amerks Live Stream Tonight

Just a reminder that the Rochester Americans' game this evening against the Syracuse Crunch will be available for live streaming online. You'll likely have to register an account, but I did to do a couple of game PPVs and it didn't take long.

It's a chance to see Noah Welch playing a major role, since he has had limited time with the Cats, along with the Panthers' current top defense prospect, Keaton Ellerby, and forwards Mike Duco and Kenndal McArdle, to name a few.

Here's the direct link to AHL Live's console: AHL LIVE

Rochester's coming off of a 3-1 win last night against Lake Erie and since the arrival of goaltender Mike Brodeur, the Amerks have gone 3-2. Brodeur has allowed only seven goals in the five games, posting a 1.39 GAA and a .948 save percentage.

The team has been playing their best hockey of late, really going back to November 28th when they were able to snap an ugly seven game losing streak with Chris Beckford-Tseu stopping 27 shots in a 2-1 win, also against Lake Erie. But in the 19 games leading up to November 28th, Rochester was averaging 4.42 goals against per game -- only scoring, on average, 2 goals for themselves, in the process earning a 2-16-0-1 record. In the nine games since, goals against have dropped to 2.1 and although the offense has struggled, the Amerks have gone 4-4-0-1.

Looking at Syracuse for a moment, you'll see a team that has, after winning 12 of the first 13 games of the season, gone 2-8 in their last ten, due in part to injuries and NHL callups. The Crunch though, have dominated Rochester early on this season as they did most of last year.

In the first three meetings of the season, Rochester's been outscored 4-3, 6-1 and 6-1 again. All three games came in October, and all three games saw at least two fights. The Crunch boast one of the AHL's best fighters in Jon Mirasty, who after the second meeting of the season -- one in which McArdle and Duco, along with Mirasty and Tom Sestito received game misconducts for fighting off the playing surface (sticks swinging at the benches) -- called Duco a "little rat". Since then, the Amerks have added Wild prospect Riley Emmerson. At 6'8" and 248 pounds, Emmerson's got the size to be a fantastic enforcer, though Mirasty handled him easily the first time they fought (they'd fight twice in that game).

So now the Amerks will take on a struggling Crunch hockey team and the offense is going to need to click while the goaltending will need to be solid. But whether they do or they don't, these two teams don't like each other. Rochester is trying to keep the momentum going and build off of what Mike Brodeur has added while Syracuse has been extremely frustrated of late. The potential is there for this to be one of the more exciting games of the season, so if you're interested, check it out.