The Comets are crossing their fingers, singing their prayers and begging the almighty tonight, as the team aims for back-to-back victories for only the SECOND TIME THIS SEASON! Coming into tonight’s away game against the Rochester Americans, the odds are incredibly stacked against them, Utica’s been absolutely brutalized against Rochester, losing their series so far 2-0 while being outscored 10 to 1. Despite being outshot 9 to 2 after the first period in their last game against the Laval Rocket, the Comets managed to find a way to win, with key goals coming from blueliners Evan McEneny and Dylan Blujus to secure the victory, and with it, hopefully regained themselves some confidence in their ability to score goals and win games!
Reid Boucher’s offensive dominance so far this season earned him a call-up to the Canucks; and depending on his spot in the lineup, his chemistry with Goldobin and by extension Goldy’s chemistry with Pettersson, could possibly lead to a prolonged stay up in the big leagues while the Canucks deal with an equally long injury list to key members of their forward group! With Boucher’s absence, the Comets will be shuffling lines around like crazy to try to squeeze out as much offense as possible from their young lineup.
Starting Lineup
In the last Farmies at the time of posting, I had yet to hear why Juolevi was benched, but immediately after I posted, naturally, the team confirmed Juolevi was out with a lower-body injury and wouldn’t be seen at all this weekend (bummer).
Richard Bachman returns from a prolonged stay with the Canucks, where his one game went about as bad as a one game stint with the Canucks could go. He’ll be backstopping the Comets tonight, with Demko likely backstopping tomorrow night against the Belleville Senators.
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
| Dahlen | Darcy | Bancks |
| Gaunce | Kero | Jasek |
| Carcone | Cameranesi | MacEwen |
| Gadjovich | Gardiner | Palmu |
| LD | RD |
|---|---|
| Brisebois | Sifers |
| Sautner | Blujus |
| McEneny | Graham |
| G |
|---|
| Richard Bachman |
| BENCHED | — |
|---|---|
| Jagger Dirk | Alex Kile |
| Injury Report | — | — | — | — | — | — |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arseneau | Chatfield | Hamilton | Juolevi | Lind | MacMaster | Woods |
| Hand | lower body | concussion | lowerbody | week-to-week | undisclosed | undisclosed |
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) I’m also going to reduce the amount of hyperlink in the GOAL streamables, since that’s what I think MOST people are here for.
1st period
Comets in Blue
- Tanner Kero(#10) with a nice saucer pass to Lukas Jasek(#9) who tries to tap it in
- GOAL – 1-0 UTICA: Jasek(#9) with a nice feed to Kero(#10) behind the net, who passes to Brendan Gaunce(#16) right in front of the net for the tap-in goal!
- LOL, Petrus Palmu(#52) racing back to stop an odd man rush, when he receives a push from behind from linemate Reid Gardiner(#23)…unfortunately he’s pushed right as a broken stick comes into his skating lane so it looks like Gardiner trips Palmu intentionally
- Jasek(#9) with some nice play
- Jonah Gadjovich(#22) with a nice takeaway and a nice break-in to the offensive zone
- Tony Cameranesi(#27) gets a pass to Zack MacEwen(#15) who has some nice moves to get a great shot on net that doesn’t get controlled and sits there WAITING to get hammered in
- GOAL – ROCHESTER – 1-1 TIE – the play continues from the previous streamable, Rochester going the other way sees Wayne Simpson(#10) completely alone on the right wing, no chance for Bachman on that one
- Gaunce(#16) tries to get Jasek(#9) a breakaway, but the pass has too much steam
- Comets on the penalty kill after Ashton Sautner(#6) gets called for roughing. Bachman picks up the puck through a horde of bodies
- Comets on the penalty kill. Kero(#10) SOMEHOW takes a penalty for roughing, and puts the Comets on a 5-on-3 PK…super weak call
- Jamie Sifers(#26) puts his butt into it
- GOAL – ROCHESTER – 2-1 Americans: a puck redirects off Sifers(#26) skate right onto Danny O’Regan’s(#65) stick, who taps it in for the easy goal…right at the end of the Sautner(#6) penalty too.
- Comets on the powerplay: Jonathan Dahlen(#54) with the one-timer, and then Rochester’s Jack Dougherty gets called for slashing…COMETS now on the extended 5-on-3
- GOAL – UTICA – 2-2 TIE: Dahlen(#54) tries to go top shelf but is stopped, the ‘Muricans tendy slides too far to one side, and MacEwen(#15) picks the top shelf from short range to tie the game!
- GOAL – UTICA – 3-2 Comets: Comets still on the powerplay, Jasek(#9) gets a quick pass to Jesse Graham(#64) who passes to Michael Carcone(#58) who blasts it past the ‘Muricans tendy to give Utica the lead! Nice screen from Gadjovich(#22)
1st period score: 3-2 Utica
Nutty first period! Lot of dumb penalties, but lot of goals and really good scoring chances from Utica!
2nd Period
- Jesus tittyfuck…I can’t believe Rochester didn’t score off this…pretty big misplay from Bachman
- Comets on the penalty kill off a Gadjovich(#22) tripping minor. MacEwen(#15) strips the puck and drops it off for Carcone(#58) who attempts to give Utica the 2 goal lead
Writers Note: I realized during this streamable that the games camera operator failed to white balance properly lol
and now the audio is near-silent…its not your computer guys…the AHL is just having their usual technical difficulties
- GOAL – ROCHESTER – 3-3 TIE: A shot from the blueline somehow goes OVER Bachmans shoulder and the game is tied again
- Palmu(#52) sets up Guillaume Brisebois(#55) who steps up far into play but can’t find the net
- Sifers(#26) has the puck go by him, Palmu(#52) alone to defend the 2-on-1, Bachman comes up big with two saves
- Bachman no clue where the puck is, comes up huge with a blocker save
- Gadjovich(#22) with a burst of speed to reach an Evan McEneny(#2) stretch pass, he quickly drops off for Palmu(#52) who’s shot is blocked
- Rochester tendy misplays the puck, and Gaunce(#16) shows off what he’s learned from the Canucks
- GOAL – UTICA – 4-3 Comets: Comets on the penalty kill; Carcone(#58) with a great effort to strip the ‘Murican defender of the puck, gets it to Cam Darcy(#11) who dingle-dangles his way to the net, gets off a shot, and it gets shoved in to give the Comets the short-handed goal and regains the lead with 5 seconds left in the second!
The Score at the end of the 2nd period: 4-3 Utica
This is a Utica I can get behind, they’ve got great penalty killers are playing aggressive in the offensive zone and have plenty of guys who are showing up with big effort shifts to negate the Rochester offense. Great stuff from the guys after getting some really weak ass penalty calls against them. Comets getting outshot 35 to 17 after two periods, so we’ll see if the ‘Muricans slow down, or if we’re in for another nutty period!
3rd Period
- Carcone(#58) with wheels drives to the net
- Cameraman has no zoomed in incomprehensibly close for the third period, so the action around the ice is very stutery/jittery, sorry for shit quality guys
- GOAL – UTICA – 5-3 Comets: Rochester D Brendan Guhle channels his inner Richard Bachman, and passes it straight to Cam Darcy(#11) who shelfs it point blank to put the Comets up by 2!
- I can’t verify this because I don’t know if AHL has advanced stats, but from my recollection, I feel like this is the first defensive zone start given to Gadjovich/Gardiner/Palmu, usually they start in neutral zone or in the offensive…trust in the rookies is growing I suppose!
- The same shift, Gadjovich(#22) banks a pass off the boards to Palmu(#52) who gets a great centering pass to Gardiner(#23) but he doesn’t time the tap-in quite right so the pass goes under
- Not really caught well on stream, but Rochester’s Matt Tennyson blatantly boards Cam Darcy into the boards, but no call is made…ref right there too…pretty bad missed call
- GOAL – ROCHESTER – 5-4 Utica: Puck takes a weird bounce off a skate straight to the net that gets shot off the inside of Bachmans right pad and in to the net; Rochester back within 1.
- More Utica defending their goaltender; McEneney(#2) letting Rochester know you can’t be giving snow-showers to Bachman
- MacEwen(#15) casually picking up the puck and weaving around several ‘Muricans to get a shot off on net
- Brisebois(#55) takes a shot on net, and on the rebound attempt, MacEwen(#15) gets cross-checked in the fucking face by Rochester’s William Borgen(#3)
- Jasek(#9) huge breakaway chance on the 4-on-4, but loses an edge
- On the 4-on-4, Sifers(#26) draws the cross-checking penalty from Rochester’s Justin Bailer(#95) to put the comets now on a 4-on-3
- Dahlen(#54) with patience takes a shot on the 4-on-3 powerplay
- Another shot from Rochester gets deflected upwards off a Utica skate, but this time Bachman is ready for the catch
- Rochester with the goalie pulled; Bachman comes up huge with 2 big saves
The Comets win it, their SECOND back-to-back victory of the season
Final Score: 5-4 Utica Comets
Takeaways
- Glad to see Bachman get a very clutch victor here against the divisions best team. Utica had been getting trounced by Rochester earlier this season. 43 saves on 47 shots. Very good stuff from him!
- Carcone is making himself a very likely candidate to be called up. Great speed and offense; only thing he could work on is saving some of that speed for the back-check.
- Another strong performance from the penalty kill teams, killed 6 of 6 penalties – ignore what it says on the AHL game reports, because they have O’Regans goal listed as a powerplay goal, but Sautners penalty was over and was back on the ice….in fact they even have Sautners penalty listed…lol
- Dahlen had another quiet night…lot of shots and passes generated but not playing on a line with Carcone/Kero obviously hurts Dahlen as he doesn’t have a bonafide finisher with im
- Lukas Jasek had a pretty impressive night, lot of great scoring opportunities generated off his fore-checking
- Zack MacEwen is in the same boat as Carcone, he’s exactly the type of player you’d expect to see in the NHL, a power forward with great puck control and great offensive instincts. If he can just work on his speed I think he might cement himself as a call-up if the Boucher experiment doesn’t pan out again
- Defensive core is pretty quiet sans-Juolevi and sans-Chatfield, but they are proving to be quite good without; coupled with the forward group getting offense from all lines and returning AHL quality goaltending, this team could look to turn things around in a big way!
What’s Next?
The Comets are back at home tomorrow night against the Belleville Senators. Utica will most likely be rolling with Demko back in net, and with their offense coming from all lines lately, we should be in for another great game! I’m pumped, and so should you! After weeks of painful gameplay, it finally looks like the Comets have got some blood back in their veins and are ready to play some hockey again!
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!
