THE FARMIES

 

Cheers folks, Farmies coming at you hot and heavy with the double header action this weekend! Tonight should be a doozy, the Comets are streaking hard and look to extend their January record to 8-1-1-0 today against the Belleville Senators.

Quick note: I’m probably going to call them the Binghamton Senators, the Belleville Devils etc… those bloody back to back B’s are gonna bust my balls

 

Back to reality! The Comets are currently losing the head-to-head season record (1w-1l-0-1soL), but the scoring line is close having been outscored 10-9 across those 3 contests. The Comets have been lights out at home this January and against this slumping Senators team I expect nothing different than their past couple of efforts at home. We’ve been getting absolutely great games from our Rookies who’ve really started to come into their own in this latter half of the season, and I’m excited to see them carry that momentum into today’s game!

 

Looks like recent PTO pick up Michael Leighton will be making his debut for the Comets today as well which will come as a welcome relief to starter Ivan Kulbakov who’s been absolutely lights out in this January stretch but I doubt he wants to do another double header weekend again. With all that lets get into todays afternoon matchup!

 

Starting Lineup

 

LW	C	RW
Pyatt	Gaudette	Boucher
Dahlen	Gaunce	MacEwen
Bancks	Darcy	Lind
Gadjovich	Woods	MacMaster

LD	RD
Brisebois	Blujus
McEneny	Sifers
Graham	Saucerman

G
Michael Leighton

 

Looks like the only changes since yesterday are MacMaster and Gadjovich switching wings…I’m pretty sure they were playing this way last game, so that might’ve just been a typo on my part.

 

Benched
Watson
3

 

RE: INJURY REPORT

 

Injury Report	—	—	—	—	—	—
Arseneau	Bachman	Chatfield	Hamilton	Jasek	Juolevi	Sautner
Undisclosed	Out for the Season	foot	Undisclosed	Sick	Out for the season	his fucking faceeeeeee

 

No changes since last night.

 

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 a green/black alternate tonight

 

• Cam Darcy(#11) runs it down the wing and sets up a trailing Kole Lind(#13) who sets it up to center when a Senators player blocks his shooting lane; good centering feed that gets picked up from Colton Saucerman(#39) after knowing his shot likely wont go in
• Reid Boucher(#24) picks up the puck from the Comets zone, gets a shove from the Senators Adam Tambellini that actually helps Boucher gain some speed, then plays the puck off the boards around Burgdoerfer to himself and gets a shot on goal that ALMOST trickles in
• Brendan Gaunce(#16) draws the hooking penalty off a faceoff win in the Devils zone
• Edit: correction to last night’s Farmies, Belleville now holds the league worst penalty kill percentage at 74% but that number drops to 69% (the sex number!) when they’re on the road
• GOAL – UTICA – 1-0 Comets: Comets on the powerplay, and a shot from Evan McEneny(#2) on the blue line goes through traffic past Marcus Hogberg to give the Comets the lead.
• Can’t see if it was tipped or not but in-house arena give goal credit to Jonathan Dahlen, so we’ll see who really gets credit on that one.
• Adam Gaudette(#17) despite losing the draw pokes the puck back to McEneny(#2) who gets a long ice feed to Boucher(#24) all alone again this time his shot goes through Hogberg’s legs and OFF THE POST
• GOAL – UTICA – 2-0 Comets: Zack MacEwen(#15) picks up the breakout pass on the blue line and calmly walks in and puts it top shelf above Hogberg’s glove side to give the Comets the 2 goal lead. Fantastic play from the big man
• Lind(#13) picks up a Leighton rebound and plays it up to Carter Bancks(#34) who gives it to Cam Darcy(#11) who’s in deep on a breakaway but gets his stick hooked out of his hands before he can take a shot and is rewarded with a penalty shot
• wellp that was deflating; Darcy(#11) puts it right into Hogberg’s glove on the penalty shot
• Jonah Gadjovich(#22) picks up a puck held at the line by Tanner MacMaster(#19) and wrists a shot on goal, and it looks like Hogberg has no idea where that shot was going and lucks out when it goes off his blocker
• Comets play a nice welcome back video for Archibald during the “tv/radio timeout” after a holding penalty against Stuart Percy is called
• MacMaster being given Dahlens spot on the first unit powerplay…pretty surprising
• Comets have trouble setting up and Belleville clears it 4/5 times to deny any chances from Utica
• Lind(#13) gets stripped of the puck after a zone entry but recovers nicely to chip it ahead to avoid a Senators rush the other way
• Brendan Woods(#21) gets a nice long feed to MacMaster(#19) to break into the Senators zone, but he then slows down and chips it off the boards and immediately loses possession for the Comets
• GOAL – BELLEVILLE – 2-1 Comets: off that ensuing loss of possession the Senators drive into the Comets zone and Morgan Klimchuk immediately score off a shot that beats Leighton blocker side…Woods rightly so, shows some frustration as he absolutely set MacMaster up for an offensive drive only for it to be completely wasted
• off an offensive zone faceoff draw, Gaunce(#16) takes a shot that goes off the post but play is whistled dead and Dahlen somehow picks up an interference penalty…not sure how considering it was like a fraction of a second off the draw
• GOAL – BELLEVILLE – 2-2 Tie: after some good cycling, Drake Batherson gets a pass past 3 Comet sticks to Morgan Klimchuk who tips it above Hogberg’s glove side to tie the game at 2
• Comets looking a little lost this last ten minutes, struggling hard to get any sustained pressure past the neutral zone.
• Gaudette(#17) Dahlen(#54) and Boucher(#24) combine for some intense late period chances on goal

 

Score at the end of the first period: 2-2 Tie

 

Period kind of got away from the Comets there for the second half of the first…looked to have struggled to find any meaningful offense in the Senators zone. Pretty bad penalty from Dahlen that lost the lead for the Comets, but it appeared to be a pretty soft call so I don’t think he’ll face any kind of “poor performance benching’s” from Cull. They definitely need to shore their game up though for the second to avoid letting this game get away from them

 

2nd Period

 

• Gadjovich(#22) nearing the end of his shift picks up a missed puck on the Belleville blue line and dumps it to the end boards, follows the play and nearly gets a rebound attempt at the front of the net
• Gadjovich(#22) after a LONG shift, enters the zone for the Comets that leads to a couple chances on goal for Gaudette(#17). One off a feed from Boucher(#24) the other off a wicked cross-ice pass from Dylan Blujus(#8)
• GOAL – BELLEVILLE – 3-2 Senators: Naturally, Darren Archibald scores his first goal since being traded to the Senators after Gaunce(#16) leaves him unmarked to cover Chace Balisy instead…pretty soft goal that Leighton lets in here
• genuinely have to wonder if Gaunce covered Balisy instead of Archie out of habit of seeing Archibald on his wing
• Crowd boo’d Archibald for scoring too hahaha after cheering for him in the tv-timeout video package…wide range of emotions tonight for the Utica crowd
• this is kind of why shot stats are pretty useless…Boucher(#24) runs up like 6-7 shots a night, and gets a shot on Hogberg, but its an incredibly low% chance of going in, and it loses possession for the Comets
• not sure wtf Jesse Gaham(#64) is trying to do here as he two hands Aaron Luchuk in the face with his stick
• GOAL – BELLEVILLE – 4-2 Senators: starting with the emoji that expresses how I feel about the fucking Comets video production team who decide to always cut away to shots of the crowd cause they don’t know when a fucking faceoff draw is happening…so I have to use the slow-mo replays of goals instead of the much better live reaction.
• Anyways that’s the league’s worst powerplay team in the league going 2 for 2 against the Comets off very dumb penalties from the Comets team….so much for not letting the game get away from them
• Gaunce(#16) straight trippin’; that’s three straight penalties to the Comets…seriously letting this game get away from them at this pace
• Dahlen(#54) with a centering feed from behind the net to MacEwen(#15) whos shot gets deflected aside by Hogberg
• Comets to the powerplay off an interference call on Andreas Englund
• Gaudette(#17) throws the puck away that leads to a breakaway for Chase Balisy but Leighton makes the save

 

The Score at the end of the 2nd period: 4-2 Belleville

 

Forgettable period of hockey, Comets looked lethargic, lazy and just looked like they had nothing in the tank to even attempt sustained pressure in the Senators zone… outshot 11 to 6 in the second, 21 to 15 so far. Not sure if the team playing right now has enough in the tank to try and overcome this 2 goal deficit…they certainly showed nothing in the 2nd period that warranted positive feelings haha

 

3rd Period

 

• 27 seconds into the period, Chase Balisy holds Gaudettes stick and Gaudette gives him a cross-check in anger, putting the teams at a 4-on-4 for the next two minutes
• Dahlen(#54) loses the puck in the neutral zone leading to a breakaway for Drake Batherson but he sends it high above the net, then Dahlen dangerously puts the puck towards Leighton’s left post to clear it from the Senators reach
• Gadjovich(#22) shoves his check to the ice then follows it up with a well-timed stick to deflect a shot on goal high and wide, then everyones grit/60 increases a bit
• Morgan Klimchuk and Brendan Woods get matching minors to put the game at its second 4-on-4 of the third period
• Jeez this team looks sooo gassed this period. They shift on, get one burst of speed and then just look absolutely labored trying to backcheck or return to the bench
• couple chances from Blujus(#8) and Pyatt(#20) in front of the net off an ozone draw
• 4 minutes left in the third and it genuinely seems like the Comets don’t have the gas to get a decent shot on net
• MacEwen(#15) sets up Gaunce(#16) for a backhand on net and then Dahlen(#54) gets a takeaway and a shot that gets blocked by Hogberg’s pads
• GOAL – BELLEVILLE – 5-2 Senators: Comets pull the goalie with 3m inutes remaining, and Jamie Sifers(#26) elect to dump the puck into the Senators zone instead of carry it in, causing the team to lose possession and leads to an easy empty netter for Max McCormick.

 

Final Score: 5-2 Belleville Senators

 

Scoresheet

 

Period	Team	Goalscorer	Primary assist	helper	type
1st	Utica	Evan McEneny	Adam Gaudette	Reid Boucher	PPG
1st	Utica	Zack MacEwen	—	—	5v5
1st	Belleville	Morgan Klimchuk	Drake Batherson	Stuart Percy	5v5
1st	Belleville	Morgan Kilmchuk	Drake Batherson	Stefan Elliott	PPG
2nd	Belleville	Darren Archibald	Chase Blisy	Adam Tambellini	5v5
2nd	Belleville	Cody Goloubef	Jack Rodewald	Darren Archibald	PPG
3rd	Belleville	Max McCormick	Jack Rodewald	—	EN

 

Takeaways

• Well ya cant win em all, and despited a 2 goal lead early today, the Comets just didn’t have anything in the tank to prevent the Senators momentum. Decent games from all, but hard to say anyone stood out due to the exhaustion that clearly affected this team from the get-go.
• Hard to really evaluate our rookies and players overall for this one because it genuinely seemed like this team was just fighting fatigue more than anything. Just didn’t have the energy for sustained pressure…that 2nd and 3rd period were a slog to watch as they just didn’t get anything substantial going. Didn’t seem like they even remotely had a chance to regain the lead or even tie the game.
• That being said, the Sens were coming off a back-to-back against the Syracuse Crunch coming into today’s game, so can’t just write it off due to exhaustion because the Sens could also make that excuse, but they showed up big and rattled off 5 unanswered goals straight to put this one away…so conditioning needs to be worked on from our team given that the back half of this schedule is a lot more 3 games in 4 nights, including two triple-headers to end their season in April.

 

Comets Three Stars

1. Evan McEneny
2. Zack MacEwen
3. the fans for having to sit through this game during an ongoing ice storm, godspeed to those loyal fans

 

What’s Next?

 

Comets are taking a much needed rest after 3 games in 4 days, they will go into next weeks AHL All-Star break only having played once next week, which will be an away game next Friday, when they visit their counterparts for first in the North Division, the Rochester Americans. Rochester plays twice before they meet Friday, so chances are that Rochester can gain a significant lead on first, and Utica drops to 3rd or lower. Regardless, the Comets are currently losing the season head-to-head record against the Amurks 2w-3L-0-0, and are getting blown out in the scoring too 22 to 12. Their last game against them was a very competitive match where the Comets won 4-3, however that WAS with Thatcher Demko in net, and as much as I love Kulbakov’s impressive stretch this January, he’s going to need to play the game of his life if he wants to try and even out the head-to-head record against the eastern conferences second best team.

 

 

Anyways that’s it for the Farmies for today, I’ll see you all next Friday for another recap and review. As always I 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!