2nd Part of my Farmies:Rewind series where I look over games that happened pre-Farmies. Due to the nature of revieiwing multiple games in one night, these are a bit more stripped down than the usual Farmies.

Comets in White

  1st Period

• Palmu(#52) with the breakout pass off a feed from Chatfield(#5)

• Palmu(#52) leads the break-in attempt, when Sautner(#6) misses the puck along the end-boards, PP52 goes to the blueline to dump it to prevent a Belleville break-out attempt

• Comets get a freebie as Belleville has a perfect goal setup, but as Bachman goes to his post he easily knocks it off its moorings

• MacMaster(#19) gets laid the fuck out

• Puck pops out to Dahlen(#54) alone in front but gets brickwall’d

2nd Period

• GOAL – BELLEVILLE – 1-0 Senators: Juolevi(#48) completely whiffs on his backcheck; he and the rest of the Comets aren’t back in time to stop former Comet, Joe LaBate from giving the Senators the lead

• GOAL – UTICA – 1-1 tie: Talk about an immediate response as Dahlen(#54) gets off a nutty no-look pass to Gaunce(#16) who snipes it to even up the game less than ten seconds after giving up the opening goal

• an aggressive forecheck from Palmu(#52 )leads to a close scoring chance

• Gaudette(#17) leading a break-in attempt, but misses his pass; he still gets back to his D fast enough on the backcheck to disrupt a one-timer pass attempt, negating the scoring opportunity

• something I noticed when watching Palmu’s shifts in Utica; he has a tendency to angle his body and skates away from where he’s looking which, I assume is his style suited to him as he hopes to have the angle for an easy breakaway should he strip the puck or find a loose one (a staple to his Liiga/TPS season) but when the puck gets redirected behind him, it always seems like he needs extra 3-4 steps to re-align himself to the puck/play which would put him “behind the play”, an easy fix I’m sure with the right coaches .Example

• Palmu(#52) leads a break-in and gets a shot on net that somehow doesn’t get put in by Woods(#21 )or Archibald(#25)

• Chatfield(#5) leads the break in and gets a nice pass to Woods(#21) who puts it into the chest of the Belleville tendy’s chest

• Palmu(#52) has the puck poked off his stick, but he strips the puck away from the Belleville player and brings it back to his D to re-attempt a break-in

• GOAL – UTICA – 2-1 Comets: Comets on the powerplay; after winning the draw, Juolevi(#48) drags it to center and then goes back to Boucher(#24) who snipes it through traffic to give the Comets the lead

• In a mixup after the whistle, Brendan Woods absolutely sons Chlapik HARD; that stare and then shove into the boards was the best thing I’ve seen Woods do in my time doing the Farmies

• Woods gets a 5 minute fighting major AND an instigator which puts the Comets on a SEVEN MINUTE PENALTY KILL….holy shit

3rd Period

• To start the third, the Comets were penalty killing machines, Belleville gets practically nothing going offensively

• its not your audio by the way, the feed’s audio quality sounds like a 90’s VHS player, super choppy so don’t worry your headphones/speakers are A-OK

• Gaunce(#16) with his patented penalty kill breakaway

• Archibald(#2 5)breaks up a pass on the Belleville 7 minute powerplay to give the Comets a scoring chance the opposite way, Boucher(#24) follows suit with a scoring attempt of his own

• Utica gives the Comets a standing ovation after killing off the 7 minute powerplay. Really impressive penalty killing from them

• Palmu(#52) leading a break-in, finishing his checks, going to the net for an Archibald(#25) pass

• Dahlen(#54) with a super quick stick lift of the Belleville defender to take the puck and give himself a huge scoring opportunity, but misses the net

• Palmu(#52) with a nice feed attempt to Darcy(#11) and then effort to keep the puck in the Belleville zone

• Just to prove I don’t have a bias, here’s Palmu completely gassed on the backcheck after the play returns to the Comets end and he impersonates the controlled disconnected meme

• MacEwen( #15)with speed down the wing blows past the Senators team to set up Dahlen(#54) who SOMEHOW gets a backhand shot on goal

• Darcy(#11) with a golden opportunity off a failed clear by the Senators goalie; Chatfield(#5) misses a pass from Bancks(#34) and Juolevi(#48) VERYYYY non-chalantly skates back for the check

• GOAL – UTICA – 3-1 Comets: Belleville with the extra attacker on the ice; Bancks(#34) breaks up the play in their own zone and gets the puck to MacEwen(#15) who hands off to Archibald(#25) who backhands it in to give the Comets the 2 goal lead and their first win of the season!

Score at the end of the third period: 3-1 Comets

Well this was a fun game to watch. Utica was dominant, and had a nasty penalty kill, going 3/3 on the PK with the 1 7 minute long penalty being the most impressive kill I’ve seen from any team. Was interesting to see Lind get subbed out as I thought he had a pretty impressive first game with the Comets, and looked great on a line with Gaudette and Archibald…kind of the same case tonight as well, where Palmu looked really good playing with Gaudette and Archibald…things kinda went funky in the 3rd period when Brendan Woods got tossed from the game, so lines started to get jumbled pretty quickly and went off the rails a bit…but honestly Palmu specifically showed good hustle on his shifts, was leading a lot of zone entry attempts, and was controlling the puck quite well minus a few shifts where he looked gassed.