Hey guys, THRILLHOIAF (The1THRILLHOUSE under other mediums) here with the second edition of the Farmies! Today’s game has our Utica Comets visiting the New Jersey Devils farm team, the Binghamton (trust me there’s no P, I checked several times) Devils. Binghamton sits third in their division…somehow as they have a division worst goals against of 53 and a meager goals for of 39. Last year the Comets absolutely rolled the Devils series with a 6-2-0-0 record. The Comets looked to test their impressive road record (4-1-1) but the big question remained, can the Comets ride the high of last nights comeback win, or will exhaustion spell their doom…(spoilers: it did)

 

Note

I’m still working on audio balancing and streamable quality as it’s a new medium for me so the first couple issues of this will be a work in progress so any help/advice would be great!

 

Preamble

Coming off last night’s victory, the Comets had to call up Alex Kile on a PTO from the Maine Mariners. I believe this was to replace Vinny Arseneau and Cam Darcy who left the game with injuries. They have a few guys on AHL deals playing in the minor league affiliate, but I believe travel issues barred them from getting the call up. With all that being said, the numerous injury woes to the Comets squad, the number of guys up with the big leagues and playing their goaltender for a 5th straight start (two back to back) we were definitely in for an interesting game. With that said, let’s get into it!

 

1st period

 

• Binghamton might have the worst jerseys I’ve ever seen
• Olli Juolevi steps up to the play with a nice shot on net attempt
• Kevin Rooney sets up Nick Lappin who is all alone on the right wing to put the Devils up by 1
• Evan McNeny misses the puck along the boards and almost leads to a highlight reel goal for the Devils
• Evan McNeny follows this up with an awkward pinch at centre which allows the Devils LW to blow past him and get a scoring opportunity
• Palmu in the defensive zone using his stick to force the Devils defender to bank it off the boards instead of getting off his pass, followed by a nice backhand pass to Carter Bancks in an attempt to clear
• The Devils on the rush and Kulbakov loses sight of the puck and Studenic puts the Devils up by 2
• EDIT:ANOTHER ANGLE ON STUDENIC GOAL, SHOWING THE PUCK TRICKLING IN
• Kulbakov showing signs of exhaustion as he isn’t even set and lets an easy tip in from Devils player Kurtis Gabriel Quickly after, Kulbakov got the pull and Connor Lacouvee gets put in.
• Dahlen off the draw gets a nice looking pass to Tanner Kero who attempts to backhand it in
• Connor LaCouvee on his first shot of the night lets it slip past his glove side and the Devils go up 4-0 with 11:30 left in the FIRST PERIOD
• A burnt out Dahlen awkwardly tips a Juolevi pass right to a Devils forward who fortunately gets a bad bounce and gets caught offside
• Jalen Chatfield with speed from center ice gets back in time to disrupt a Devils breakaway scoring opportunity
• Now I’m not a development coach, video coach, or whateverr….but this is the kind of stuff where I’m like… how do you just dump this puck? Chatfield receives a pass from Palmu, and seeing the majority of Devils players facing his left wing, he decides to just dump it along the boards….PALMU’S WIDE OPEN!
• Jasek gets Utica on the board off a nice pass from Michael Carcone
• EDIT:closer view of the Jasek goal
• Dahlen beats the goaltender to the puck and centers it but no one’s there!
• Juolevi with another shot on goal

A very busy period indeed, and looks like I was right that Kulbakov 5th straight start (1st back to back) would have some serious fatigue. Not too many defensive errors on the goals against, mostly looked to be Kulbakov just having poor vision and puck control. Pretty reasonable, the guy had as many saves in last night’s Overtime as he did in the third period!

Alas, the score at end of 1st period: 4-1 Binghamton

 

2nd Period

 

• Utica ends up on the powerplay pretty early…but unfortunately I believe in this powerplay I discovered something….we have a Utica Comets version of “PASS IT TO BOESER”
• Palmu is quarterbacking this powerplay with crisp passing and a great shot attempt on the right wing
• BUT WAIT….HE’S WIDE OPEN! I know McNeny has been having a rough game so far tonight, but holy moly such a missed opportunity here
• Ashton Sautner with time and space elects to neither take his time nor use his space and sails the puck around the boards back to his own end
• Jalen Chatfield TRIES to send the puck around, but gets cucked by the ref and the Devils capitalize to make it 5-1
• Dahlen picks up a bad centering pass from the Devils player, feeds it to MacEwen and both wheel it towards the Devils goaltender with a scoring opportunity from MacEwen
• Comets on the Poweplay, Gadjovich ready at the net for the rebound, takes a crosscheck to the face and draws an additional penalty
• Gadjovich with one of his more noticeable shifts with some great effort to keep the puck in the offensive zone
• Not sure if this is really an accurate comparison whatsoever, but Juolevi’s willingness to jump up and keep the puck in the offensive zone reminds me of resurging Ben Hutton
• Palmu with the pass off the boards to Reid Gardiner who hits the goalie, Palmu there for the clearing attempt

Score at end of 2nd period: 5-1 Binghamton Devils

 

3rd Period

 

• Palmu with a nice centering feed to Carter Bancks
• Palmu tries to outmuscle the 6’2” 200 lb Josh Jacobs then finds himself with the puck and sets up Olli Juolevi who gets a nice one-timer off on the Devils netminder
• Carcone with a nice centering pass to MacMaster who gets tied up by Pavel Zacha
• Jasek takes the puck up ice, outnumbered still gets the pass to Brisebois who gets off the one timer
• Tanner Kero attempts to tip a rising MacEwen shot and gets crosschecked in the numbers by AHL lifer Eric Gryba, and again in the face when he’s on the ground getting the Comets on the powerplay
• Gadjovich with some real gud net front presence on the powerplay, catches a rebound, takes a shot and then battles on the boards. Willie D gud/60 through the roof here
• Carcone with a slick pass to Tanner Kero who feeds it to Dahlen but is stopped by Devils goalie Mackenzie Blackwood
• Juolevi breaks up the 2 on 1 with the patented Mason Raymond “forget how to skate” maneuver
• LaCouvee with some questionable rebound control makes a pretty big save
• Another Eric Gryba crosscheck to the back of a puckless Jasek who retaliates with a pretty blatant slash that puts the Comets on the PK

Final Score: 5-1 Binghamton Devils

 

Takeaways

• Utica is a very young team, and with all the callups to the Canucks, and the number of guys filling in from the ECHL, its pretty impressive the comeback they pulled off last night. But back to backs are brutal. Especially when the back to back involves going on the road
• I think Kulbakov was QUITE exhausted, and his poor play showed, fortunately, they have a week until their next game, a roadie against the Belleville Senators, so hopefully this will allow this young Utica squad some recovery time.
• Hopefully the Comets powerplay guys recognize the work that Palmu is putting in and (Jason Botchford high pitched screaming voice) PASS IT TO FUCKING PALMU!
• Also, shoutout to this guy in the bottom right for winning the puck toss contest between the 2nd and 3rd periods

 

Whats Next?

The Comets visit the Ottawa Senators farm team, the Belleville Senators. The Sens are coming off an 8-2 loss to the Toronto Marlies, so both teams will be looking to move past their rough losses.

 

Hope you guys enjoyed this edition of the Farmies, obviously this is still a work in progress so any feedback, improvement suggestions, content or highlights you’d like me to focus/pick out during games, let me know and I’ll do my best to provide! If not in this edition, but at the very least the next edition of the Farmies!