The Comets are looking to end their 4 game losing streak tonight at home against the Laval Rocket. The last couple meetings with Laval have been pretty tightly contested matches, but overall Laval holds the edge in the series (2-1-0-0). With Utica just hemorrhaging players to the IR, the farm will need to play a very disciplined and risk-averse game tonight to secure a victory.
The great glorious news we’re all here for though, is the farm teams golden glove, Thatcher Demko, who makes his long awaited season debut, after picking up a concussion in pre-season that kept him out of the lineup until tonight.
It also looks like Anders Nilsson will be returning to the Canucks lineup, which means Richard Bachman will make his return to Utica; this will mean Ivan Kulbakov will be most likely sent back down to the Farmies Farmies, the ECHL’s Kalamazoo Wings.
Starting Lineup
Like I wrote earlier, the team got smashed up pretty bad by Syracuse during Saturday’s game, with injuries coming to the Comets most reliable defender, Jalen Chatfield, as well as an undisclosed injury coming to forward Tanner MacMaster.
So sadly, we pull Darcy and Demko off of IR and add Chatfield and MacMaster to it. So it will be a very interesting game seeing our Farmies try to end the losing streak without some of their best players…oh and holy shit Olli Juolevi got benched, hot off Ryan Johnson singing his praises all over Vancouver’s sports radio stations hahah,
Oh boy I’m sure the media will handle this well…. add, “Utica Comets also have to contend with injuries to Chatfield, but also their powerplay quarterback in Olli Juolevi.”
It will definitely be interesting to see if that’s injury related, or a “straighten up” kind of benching.
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
| Dahlen | Kero | Boucher |
| Carcone | Cameranesi | MacEwen |
| Bancks | Darcy | Jasek |
| Gadjovich | Gardiner | Palmu |
| LD | RD |
|---|---|
| Brisebois | Sifers |
| Sautner | Blujus |
| McEneny | Graham |
| G |
|---|
| Thatcher “motherfucking” Demko |
| BENCHED | — | — | — |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juolevi | Kulbakov | Kile | Woods |
| Injury Report | — | — | — | — |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arseneau | Chatfield | Hamilton | Lind | MacMaster |
| Hand | lower body | concussion | week-to-week | undisclosed |
For now, Juolevi will stay in the “benched” section, until we know if its injury precaution or not.
Streamable Clarity Improvement Notice
Continuing with last issues theme, going to be Players full name (jersey number) – place in streamable (if not outright obvious) then every sub sequential play featuring that player it’ll be last name(jersey number) – place in streamable (if not outright obvious) If anyone has suggestions to improve on the clarity of the highlights/plays, I’d love suggestions for improvement! Until then let’s get into this one!
1st period
- Lukas Jasek(#9) is getting bumped off of center back to the wing, which is unfortunate I thought he was actually looking pretty good at center
- Thatcher Demko(#30) 100% save percentage to start this one! Just give him the Vezina now
- Comets on the penalty kill, TD30 with his second save of the night!
- stuff like this always scares me, TD30 fresh off being away due to concussion uses his head to deflect a shot off the faceoff draw
- GOAL – UTICA – 1-0 Comets: Michael Carcone(#58) with a great goal off a slick takeaway by Tony Cameranesi(#27)
- Comets immediately after scoring see’s Reid Gardiner take a penalty 3 seconds into his only shift of the game (no streamable as they were replaying the goal as play started)
- TD30 trying to avoid a dzone faceoff on the Comets penalty kill goes for a very risky dump attempt in traffic
- Whole team comes to the aid of Demko who takes a whack after stopping a shot
- Cameranesi(#27) with his second steal of the night, gets it to Carcone(#48) who tries to center it, but it bounces off a couple of sticks and can’t be kept in the offensive zone
- Jonah Gadjovich(#22) – along the end-boards, chops a pass from Jamie Sifers(#26) right to the front of the goal, but no Comet is there to attempt a shot
- Tanner Kero(#10) with a nice feed to Reid Boucher(#24) who weaves between 3 Rocket players and attempts a shot through traffic on net
- Canucks organization and stanchions, name a more iconic duo
- Carcone(#58) with a nice through-the-leg’s feed to Cameranesi(#27) who gets a shot on net
1st period score: 1-0 Utica
Outshot 9 to 2 but the Comets lead 1-0!
2nd Period
- GOAL – LAVAL – 1-1 Tie: No clue how this one went in, bunch of hacks and the puck somehow bounces in
- Utica’s 3rd shot of the night from Carcone(#58)
- Dylan Blujus tired of the Rocket’s pestery with Demko and he throws down to spark up the boys and let the Rocket know, they aren’t standing for that shiet
- A brutal shift in defensive zone, unreal pressure from Laval, but Demko getting a bit physical seems to give the Comets some much needed time and space to clear the puck
- Comets on the powerplay after a Hayden Verbeek penalty; Dahlen(#54), under pressure gets a nice pass to Boucher(#24), who’s shot gets broken up and the puck ends up going the other way
- A pass from Petrus Palmu(#52) gets picked off and leads to a scoring opportunity for Laval, but Demkos there to make sure nothing bad happens!
- Boucher(#24) sauces one to Kero(#10) who settles the puck and gets a shot on Rocket goaltender Charlie Lindgren
- A carbon copy of the last play from Boucher(#24) and Kero(#10); this time they draw a slashing penalty and the Comets go on the powerplay!
- GOAL – LAVAL – 2-1 Rocket: Utica gives up their 7th shorthanded goal of the season after a long ice pass goes off a skate, and a slow change from Utica leads to an easy 2-on-1 breakaway short hander for Laval
- Boucher(#24) and Jasek(#9) combine for a slick one-timer scoring opportunity
The Score at the end of the 2nd period: 2-1 Laval
Utica are at least getting some shots on net…but after being outshot again 9 to 7 in the second period, the Comets are going to have to start throwing everything at the net to try and even this game up if they want to try to end the losing streak.
Also worth noting Jasek and Dahlen swapped lines about halfway through the second period. Guess Cull liked Jaseks hustle a bit more than Dahlens. Can’t say I disagree, Dahlen’s looked off all night.
3rd Period
- Boucher(#24) with a couple one-timers on the powerplay
- GOAL – UTICA – 2-2 Tie: Gadjovich(#22) gets a nice pass out to Palmu(#52) with a nice pass to Dylan Blujus(#8) who goes top shelf for his first of the year, and we have a tie game!
- Carcone(#58) with some crazy speed up the wing, stops to pass to Zack MacEwen(#15) who’s just a step behind and can’t get a shot off
- Dahlen(#54) with some nice puck handling and a nice pass to Evan McEneny(#2) who has his shot deflected out of play by the Rocket netminder
- Gadjovich(#22) Palmu(#52) combining for some nice work in the offensive zone along the boards, leads to a scoring attempt from Reid Gardiner(#23)
- Comets on the penalty kill; Carcone(#58) gets the puck off a weird bounce and draws a hooking penalty to make it 4-on-4
- GOAL – UTICA – 3-2 Comets: Comets on the ensuing powerplay get some great chances from Boucher(#24) and MacEwen(#15), McEneny(#2) changes it up and shoots it in himself to regain the lead
- Comets get put on the powerplay, and on the first drive, MacEwen(#15) gets called for slashing, odd call cause it doesn’t really look like MacEwen even does anything worthy of a penalty
- TD30 with a great glove save on former Canuck prospect Hunter Shinkaruk
- Another brutal shift towards the end of the game, with the Rocket’s goalie pulled, lot of chances but the Comets persevere
The Comets complete the comeback, Final Score: 3-2 Utica Comets
Takeaways
- Demko didn’t look rusty whatsoever, played aggressive. Made 19 saves on 21 shots
- Carcone has got fucking wheels man, I legitimately don’t think anyone on the Utica roster has the speed to keep up with him
- Gadjovich and Palmu have good chemistry…maybe it’s the several years in junior together, but I think they complement each other’s skillsets quite well
- Gadjo’s skating looked much better tonight than it did previously, plus he was making some great passes throughout the game so it’s good to see him gaining some confidence in his offensive capabilities at this level
- Utica’s penalty kill tonight was on fire, 5 for 5 on the PK, and their powerplay survived without Olli Juolevi and Jonathan Dahlen, so you know what that means!
TRADE JUOLEVI – CONFIRMED BUST!
- but no, this was a good win for the team, if Culls masterplan was to have the team win without Dahlen on the top line and with Juolevi on the bench, then that’s effing genius. A good statement victory for the boys
- also, it was great to see a massive drop in backhand passes in this game…maybe it’s like a “notice me” type of move that players on the farm use to increase their ice time etc. but so much of the time those backhand passes lead to nothing, so it was nice to see the team play a bit more of a straight forward, “simpler” hockey game
What’s Next?
Utica hits the road this Friday and visits the Buffalo Sabres farm team, the Rochester Americans. Rochester is absolutely annihilating their division right now with an impressive 24 points out of a possible 34. The Comets will have to bring their A game in order to make this one competitive. With Thatcher Demko back between the pipes and Richard Bachman coming back to the farm to back him up, we might see some steadier times ahead for the farm!
Hope you guys enjoyed this edition of the Farmies, 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 during the next Farmies!
EDIT: Juolevi was confirmed to be out with a knee injury…not benched for performance, but confirmed IR
