The Comets are back in action today, hoping to win three straight for the first time this season against the Belleville Senators. The Comets play the Senators 6 times this season, and currently sit at 1-0-0-1 in their series (that’s 1 win, 0 losses, 0 OT losses and 1 shootout loss). In their last meeting against the Sens, the Comets rallied from a 2 goal deficit in the 2nd period, and then another 1 goal deficit in the 3rd to force overtime, and then the shootout. That was the game where Utica had 9 fucking powerplays. NINE…Belleville’s lack of discipline in their last matchup nearly cost them the game, so we’ll see what kind of adjustments the Sens have made coming into tonight’s matchup.
By some miracle, after last night’s game against Rochester, the Comets managed to come out unscathed, so fortunately their IR list didn’t expand; and with Alex Edler appearing to rejoin the Canucks lineup, the Comets should expect to see Alex Biega return to the lineup, as I believe on November 30th, he’ll require being exposed on waivers in order to be sent back down. I believe the same thing applies with Darren Archibald as well, so in theory, despite the Comets injury woes, the team WILLl get some veteran stability back into their lineup pretty soon.
Starting Lineup
The team recalled Jagger Dirk from the Kalamazoo Wings the other day on account of new injuries to Tanner MacMaster and Brendan Woods. However, the lines that were run against the 5th best team in the AHL were actually QUITE effective, special teams were especially effective, so it will be interesting to see what Trent Cull does with the lineup going into tonight.
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
| Gaunce | Kero | Jasek |
| Carcone | Cameranesi | MacEwen |
| Dahlen | Darcy | Bancks |
| Gadjovich | Gardiner | Kile |
| LD | RD |
|---|---|
| Brisebois | Sifers |
| Sautner | Blujus |
| McEneny | Graham |
| G |
|---|
| Thatcher Demko |
| BENCHED | — |
|---|---|
| Jagger Dirk | Petrus Palmu |
Palmu had some chances in last night’s game, and looked OK for the most part, but he had a few giveaways, and generally looked fairly hesitant with his passing; Given that Cull needs his 4th line to be aggressive and create opportunities and get the team some offensive zone starts for the 1st and 2nd liners, it makes sense that he would sub him out to show him he needs to be more confident out there to guarantee himself a spot on the roster.
| 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 White
- Elite sniper Brendan Gaunce(#16) with the steal and shot attempt
- Michael Carcone(#58) moving down the wing centers it for Zack MacEwen(#15) who fans on it
- GOAL – UTICA – 1-0 Comets: Comets on an early powerplay off a Senators faceoff violation minor, Evan McEneny(#2) to Carcone(#58) who gets a slick cross ice feed to Jonathan Dahlen(#54) for the one-timer powerplay goal!
- Chances galore – this was NOT a powerplay – great passing and puck control from Lukas Jasek(#9), sets up Jamie Sifers(#26) for a one timer and a chance of his own later…good netfront presence from Jonah Gadjovich(#22) who was out there for a long shift
- Ashton Sautner(#6) gets shoved from behind into Thatcher Demko that sends him tumbling over. Comets to the powerplay
- McEneny(#2) gives up the puck, Jasek(#9) on the defensive breaks up the breakaway attempt, tries to bait the call for hooking but instead gets called for embellishment even though he does get hooked blatantly twice in a row; Comets to the 5-on-3
- GOAL – UTICA – 2-0 Comets: Comets with the powerplay goal; Carcone(#58) to MacEwen(#15) to Tanner Kero(#10) in front of the net for the slick tick-tac-toe goal to give the Comets a 2 goal lead
- Holy guacamole, Guillaume Brisebois(#55) gets a nice feed to Gaunce(#16) who races down the wing on a breakaway and draws the holding penalty to put the Comets on their 4th powerplay of the night
- Thatcher with the nice toe save
- Ashton Sautner(#6) received a slashing penalty on the above play, and then seconds later Cam Darcy(#11) received a slashing penalty to put Comets on a long 2 minute 5-on-3
- Comets penalty killers doing a great job, play blown dead on a hand-pass call against Belleville
1st period score: 2-0 Utica
Solid first period from the boys! Effective powerplay, disciplined play for the most part…Not sure wtf they’re teaching them in Belleville but that’s 15 penalties in 7 periods against the comets. If that’s not bag-skate worthy, I don’t know what is.
Also Jonah Gadjovich getting 2nd unit powerplay time, which is great stuff, glad to see his hard work in the past couple games paying off!
2nd Period
- Comets successfully kill off the 5-on-3
- GOAL – BELLEVILLE – 2-1 Comets: A shot from the blue line gets tipped in front of the net that squeaks under Demkos pad
- MacEwen(#15) on the Comets rush with some nice weaving around the Senators
- Gadjovich(#22) doin’ thangs on the powerplay. Sets up Jasek(#9) then gets right in front of the net to screen the Senators tendy
- Belleville’s Joe LaBate gets a breakaway opportunity, but Demko gloves it down for the save
- Demko’s 10th save of the night after the puck deflects off the post right to a Senator forward
- Brisebois(#55) gets the pass from Carcone(#58) and gets a good shot on goal
- GOAL – BELLEVILLE – 2-2 Tie : Chlapik redirects a shot on net to tie the game at 2. Utica getting absolutely hammered with pressure in the second and they give up 2 unanswered goals.
- GOAL – UTICA – 3-2 Comets: Hot off killing a 2 minute penalty, Tony Cameranesi(#27) and Carter Bancks(#34) get the puck up to Darcy(#11) coming straight out of the box. Darcy goes top shelf cheddar cheese to put the team up by 1.
- Demko gets over to make the save and the Comets draw ANOTHER Belleville penalty.
Writers note: I know Joe Roberts (Utica play-by-play) makes calls that contradict some of my write-ups. But he says Gardiner draws the tripping penalty; but the refs arm was up already as the penalty happened around the net
- Comets on the powerplay; MacEwen(#15) off a great pass gets absolutely robbed by the Senators tendy
- 2nd period almost over, MacEwen(#15) gets a second scoring opportunity and gets stopped again
The Score at the end of the 2nd period: 3-2 Utica
Belleville started off super-hot in this period, just absolute dominance in Utica’s zone for the better half of the period; However, Belleville really started to fade after the halfway mark of the period, and with it, Utica was able to capitalize on some golden opportunities in the latter half of the period and were able to regain the lead off that clutch Darcy breakaway goal. It will be interesting to see if Belleville will regain some momentum or if their lack of discipline will continue
3rd Period
- 5 minutes in, not a whole lot of action, lot of break-in attempts disrupted by both sides
- First major save of the period, Demko blocker side
- Demko stops a rolling puck, Brisebois(#55) takes a punch to the face and shoves his opponent to the ground for being inconvenienced
- Gaunce(#16) with a “burst of speed” gets a shot on goal
- Dahlen(#54) – middle left of streamable – gives Gadjovich(#22) a little shove to speed up the backcheck!
- Holy shit, Senators pull the goalie, Dahlen(#54) tries to rush down the ice to get the empty net goal but HITS THE POST! Then Senators player Christian Wolanin dives in to absolutely rob Reid Gardiner(#23)
- GOAL – UTICA – 4-2 Comets: Comets defending the 6-on-5, Gaunce(#16) picks up the loose puck and buries the empty netter to seal the victory
The Comets win it. Three in a row for the first time this season
Final Score: 4-2 Utica Comets
Takeaways
- Brendan Gaunce had a great game with another goal and 4 shots on the night
- Thatcher Demko was clutch again, stopping 26 of 28 shots. The guy’s puck handling really sets him apart from the Canucks goalies and everyone else that’s been in the farms lineup. Guy exudes confidence and control of his game
- Another really solid game from Zack MacEwen, the guy looks like a total pro out there every shift. Does a lot of good things for such a big guy…usually the big dudes in the AHL are just total meatheads that got this far off their size, but MacEwen is one hard working dude, great speed for a guy his size
- Comets special teams coaches need a serious round of applause, Utica went 5 for 5 on the penalty kill. Their powerplay went 2 for 7, but I can let that one slide as they’re without Juolevi and have got some wonky powerplay units out there to compensate for all the injuries.
What’s Next?
The Comets will return next Wednesday to try to make it four straight, when they visit the Binghamton Devils. The last meeting with the devils went pretty terribly; the team was coming off an exhausting victory over the Hartford Wolf Pack, and were basically running goaltender Ivan Kulbakov into the ground; surrendering 4 goals in the first period, the Comets TRIED to come back but the damage was done. It should be a completely different game this time around with actual AHL quality goaltenders, and the likelihood of Alex Biega or Darren Archibald returning to the Comets lineup (to avoid waivers). Since their last meeting, Binghamton have gone on 1-5-0-0 with one win against the Toronto Marlies in that time; they’re currently on a 5 game losing streak, so the Comets will have to bring their A-game to keep their own streak running, as the Devils will be looking to impress at home to try to end their losing streak the same way the Comets did.
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!
