Hey guys, Farmies coming at you again with another dose of the farm! Admittedly I got incredibly shitfaced last night at a work Christmas Party and am INCREDIBLY hungover right now, so I MIGHT miss some key plays and moments so for that I apologize! Alas though, lets get into Fridays game, as our Utica Comets visited the Belleville Senators and looked to regain their winning ways after having their streak broken Wednesday against the Binghamton Devils. It should be an interesting game as the Comets have looked OK since Juolevi and Chatfield went down, but their powerplay has struggled hard the past 5 games, completing 7 for 25 (28%) in that time. Thatcher Demko looks to make his third straight start, so it looks like he’s really trying to make up for lost time here.
Starting Lineup
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
| Dahlen | Darcy | Archibald |
| Carcone | Cameranesi | MacEwen |
| Gaunce | Woods | Lind |
| Boucher | Kero | Jasek |
| LD | RD |
|---|---|
| Brisebois | Sifers |
| Sautner | Blujus |
| McEneny | Graham |
| G |
|---|
| Thatcher Demko |
Returns
The team has amazingly lost 101 man-games to injury this season, with 18 of those to Demko, 22 to Wacey Hamilton and 13 to Kole Lind as the top 3 longest IR stints. Unfortunately it looks like Juolevi is still a long ways out before they even know wtf is going on with his knee, which is very concerning.
Recalls
The team still has Brandon Anselmini and Jagger Dirk on the roster as call-ups from the Kalamazoo Wings but have yet to play either due to the bevvy of players that returned before Wednesdays game. I believe Anselmini as 7D will probably be out of the lineup unless another injury befalls a Comets D-man.
RE: Benchings
Utica GM Ryan Johnson was on Sportsnet650 and answered why Palmu was being healthy scratched so often. Nothing really surprising from his comment, but a lot of people seem to ask why and I think Johnson’s answer pretty much sums it up.
Johnson on why Palmu is getting healthy scratched so much : “Petrus is learning the AHL, learning to be a pro, the little details. To think they are going to come in and step in, the AHL is a process, a yearly process.”
He also said this of Demko which I liked to hear
Johnson on Demko : “He is a kid in a candy store, he is back playing. We play with a little more pep when he is in, he said to me “I want to play the next 60 games, let’s go.”
| BENCHED | — | — | — | — |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reid Boucher | Jagger Dirk | Jonah Gadjovich | Tanner MacMaster | Petrus Palmu |
| Injury Report | — | — | — | — |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arseneau | Bancks | Chatfield | Hamilton | Juolevi |
| Hand | upper body | lower body | concussion | knee |
Apparently Wacey Hamilton had a setback with his recovery from concussion after a practice earlier in November, he’s still yet to play this season. Carter Bancks also picked up an upper body injury during last Saturday’s game and has been listed as day-to-day by the team, so
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 and don’t want some gaudy blue taking up the screen.
1st period
Comets in Blue
- The first real shot on net is a softy and the first whistle of the game comes at 16:32 in the period.
- Archibald(#25) finds himself on a rush and loses the puck trying to cut to the net
- Really nice shift from Lukas Jasek(#9). Watch his little stick lift along the boards and then his effort to keep the puck on the line which leads to a scoring chance for Utica; really great hustle from this guy the whole shift.
- Demko does the splits to make an absolutely nutty save on a Utica penalty kill
- better angle of that save that really shows the stretch made. Holy moly
- GOAL – BELLEVILLE – Senators 1-0: Demko makes a great save but the next shot he faces takes a weird tip in front and gets batted in the net. Unlucky
- Reverse angle of the Belleville goal
- Jasek(#9) –in front of Demko to start – showing off why he’s arguably one of Uticas best players with another great shift.. Good defensive play, breaks up a pass and then great speed to get a breakaway but the pass to him is weak as fuck.
- Kole Lind(#13) with a nice pass to set up Brendan Woods(#21)
1st period score: 1-0 Belleville
Utica HEAVILY outshot in the first period 17 to 7 but a lot of those shots were pretty weak, Utica were kept in their own end for a majority of the period and seldolmy escaped except for a few times; would have thought with Boucher back in the lineup, that the team would have gotten some more offense going.
Looks like Cull wasn’t happy with the offense from his boys as he re-tooled all his lines for the second period. Looked like this.
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
| Archibald | Kero | Boucher |
| Lind | Darcy | Gaunce |
| Jasek | Woods | MacEwen |
| Carcone | Cameranesi | Dahlen |
2nd Period
- Brendan Gaunce(#16) with a nice pass in front for Lind(#13)
- Dahlen(#54) to Michael Carcone(#58) who jets down the ice on a breakaway!
- Dahlen(#54) with some great puck protection and space creation that almost leads to a Reid Boucher(#24) goal
- Dahlen(#54) gets a great pass through traffic to Achibald(#25) but he wastes the chance created
- Gaunce(#16) with a great cross ice pass to Jasek(#9) who misses the net on the one-time attempt.
- Following Jaseks(#9) 1T attempt, a miscue on a line change leads to a breakaway going the other way and almost a 2-nothing game
- Lind(#13) – top of streamable – almost gets in his first AHL tilly
- Demko glove save
- Archibald(#25) levels a Sens player and then gets in a pretty big tilt to try and spark up the boys
- Lind(#13) with a good scoring opportunity in front of the net
- GOAL – UTICA – 1-1 tie: Tanner Kero(#10) picks up a rebound off a Zack MacEwen(#15) shot on goal tipped by Boucher(#24)
- GOAL – UTICA – 2-1 Comets: Cacone(#58) absolutely dazzles with the spinorama to get a shot on goal, catches his own rebound and the ensuing shot gets deflected right to Tony Cameranesi(#27) who gives the Comets their first lead of the game. What a fucking move from Carcone holy moly
- MacEwen(#15) drives to the net and sets up Kero(#10) for a one timer on the net
- MacEwen(#15) with steals the puck and drops it to Carcone(#58) who sends it to Evan McEneny(#2) for the one-timer on net
The Score at the end of the 2nd period: 2-1 Comets
Looks like the line shakeups may have paid off as the Comets cleanly outshot the Senators this period, 14 to 6. Will be interesting to see if they can find some more offense in the third, or will we see a bit of fatigue setting in after a pretty active 2nd.
3rd Period
- Boucher(#24) rips a one timer
- Boucher(#24) blocks a shot and gets a breakaway off it, nice scoring opportunity for him
- GOAL – BELLEVILLE – 2-2 Tie: Comets get tripped up in the offensive zone, and Cam Darcy(#11) doesn’t have the speed to stop Logan Brown from getting an easy goal off a nice pass from Chase Balisy
- Demko with a great pad save up close
- GOAL – BELLEVILLE – Sens 3-2: A wrister from Jordan Murray gets past a crowded Demko. And the Comets are down by a goal with 10 minutes left in the game
- Carcone(#58) with ANOTHER spinorama and speeds past 3 Belleville players to set up Woods(#21) in front of the net who gets stopped
- Demko with a nutty point blank glove save
- Ashton Sautner(#6) lets up on chasing the puck and Belleville negates the icing call really surprised no one yelled at him that he was being outraced to the puck.
- MacEwen(#15) gets blatantly high-sticked in the face right in front of the ref but it doesn’t get called
- GOAL – BELLEVILLE – 4-2 Senators: Continuing from the above play, Belleville gets the empty netter and seals it for them.
- Comets outshot 10 to 6 in the final frame
Final Score: 4-2 Belleville Senators
Scoresheet
| Period | Team | Goalscorer | Primary assist | helper | type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Belleville | Adam Tambellini | Chase Balisy | Erik Burgdoerfer | 5v5 |
| 2nd | Utica | Tanner Kero | Reid Boucher | Zack MacEwen | 5v5 |
| 2nd | Utica | Tony Cameranesi | Michael Carcone | Lukas Jasek | 5v5 |
| 3rd | Belleville | Logan Brown | Chase Balisy | Ben Sexton | 5v5 |
| 3rd | Belleville | Jordan Murray | Erik Burgdoerfer | Logan Brown | 5v5 |
| 3rd | Belleville | Filip Chlapik | Patrick Sieloff | — | EN |
Takeaways
- Comets looked pretty clusterfucky defensively tonight, a lot of bad giveaways and kept crowding Demko due to their inability to force Bellevilles players away from the net
- Zack MacEwen had a good game lot of chances for him
- Lukas Jasek had a pretty solid game as well, fought really hard and barring the line-change miscue, was pretty sound defensively and offensively. He seems to do well with anyone as a linemate, looked good with MacEwen.
- Demko did really well all things considered, he was left out to dry on NUMEROUS occasions tonight, and had to bail out his defenders with highlight reel saves several times.
- Powerplay went 0 for 4 (technically 0 for 3, as their first powerplay was only 5 seconds long).
Comets Three Stars
- Zack MacEwen – Only registered 1 shot on goal tonight but he had a lot of good scoring opportunities generated from his drives to the net and his passing. A really solid overall game from him
- Michael Carcone – the speed on this guy will probably earn him a call-up at some point. Good to see a game from him, which sees him have consistent offensive output and chance generation
- Thatcher Demko – he bailed his team out so hard this game, he probably kept this from being like a 7-2 blowout.
What’s Next?
After Fridays game the Comets moved on to Laval to face the Canadiens farm team. I’ll probably have a Farmies for this episode posted Sunday! Laval are 8th in the North Division and have lost 4 of their last 5. Comets need a statement win going against the Rocket to move along from the dismal third period showing from Friday; Yes I know I’m writing as if its Friday looking ahead to Saturday, but it makes for a better read 😀
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!
