Good evening night owls, the Farmies back at it again with the ultra-late edition! I unfortunately got my official notice of my tenancy being ended yesterday, so its absolute crunch time for me to try and find a place to live!
Speaking of crunch time! The Comets, despite an abysmal 1-8-1-0 record in their last 10 are SOMEHOW still in a tight playoff race with the Belleville Senators and the surging Cleveland Monsters. With 7 games remaining in the schedule and only 4 points separating 4 teams for that final Calder playoff spot, it seems crazy to say it but…there’s…STILL, a chance! Granted they have their work cut out for them…tonight it’s the 3rd place Toronto Marlies, and Saturday it’s against the North Division leading Syracuse Crunch.
It certainly would be in the Comets best interest to get a win or 2 this weekend, because the schedule does them zero favors in April to wrap up their season, as they rattle off two triple-headers in back to back weekends…their first triple header of the season, the comets went 1-2-0-0, their second one they went 2-0-1-0. And that was when they had pretty well their best players available…with the bulk of the D-core either with the Canucks or on IR, it’s pretty unlikely they find points that easy in the months of April, so fingers crossed they can earn some points tonight!
Starting Lineup
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
| Pyatt | Kero | Boucher |
| Gaunce | Darcy | MacEwen |
| Malone | Woods | Jasek |
| Bancks | Gardiner | Stevenson |
| LD | RD |
|---|---|
| Saucerman | Blujus |
| Petgrave | Sifers |
| LeBlanc | Graham |
| G |
|---|
| Michael Leighton |
RE: INJURY REPORT
| Injury Report | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bachman | Juolevi | McEneny | Hamilton | Gadjovich | Arseneau | Chatfield | Lind |
| Out for the Season | Out for the season | Out for the season | Neck Injury | Upper Body Injury | DTD | DTD | DTD |
| Healthy Scratches | — |
|---|---|
| Anselmini | Thomas |
| 1 | 4 |
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 the Green/White Alternates
- Lukas Jasek(#9) takes a feed from Dylan Blujus(#8) and leads the zone entry for the Comets leading to scoring chance off a Jaime Sifers(#26) shot from the blue line
- Tom Pyatt(#20) flips a puck past center ice to Reid Boucher(#24) who’s all alone on the breakaway but is stopped , Blujus gets called for holding, putting the Comets on an early pk
- Brendan Gaunce(#16) with a great poke check on the PK to spring he and Tanner Kero(#10) on a shorthanded odd man rush, nice backhand from Kero to setup Gaunce…would’ve been great for them to get one shorthanded
- Comets kill the PK, then on an ensuing o-zone draw, Zack MacEwen draws a hodling penalty against Toronto to put the Comets on the powerplay
- 1st Unit appears to be 5 forwards only: Kero, MacEwen, Pyatt, Gaunce, Boucher – just loading up on that powerplay to try and get ANYTHING going – I will say it actually looked pretty decent with Boucher and Gaunce working the blue line as a tandem
- 2nd Unit: Jasek, Malone, Saucerman, Graham, Darcy
- LOL The Marlies have a few lines that are essentially all former Canucks assets – Subban, Corrado, Molino, Carcone, MacMaster, Sestito
- Tanner Kero gets dinged for high sticking and the Comets are back to penalty kill
- Comets do a good job killking off the penalty, Marlies only manage 2 or 3 shots on the powerplay
- Jasek(#9) goes end to end to help in a battle along the boards, leading to a scoring chance from Stefan LeBlanc(#3)
Score at the end of the first period: 0-0 Tie
Decent period from Utica…bit undisciplined in the penalty department that COULD cost them if they don’t straight out…but they spent a majority of the 1st in the Marlies zone pressuring, just didn’t get too many high danger scoring chances. Need to stop shooting pucks in form the blue line and hoping for the tip play to work.
2nd Period
- 15 Seconds into the second period, and Adam Brooks gets dinged for holding
- Powerplay groups have a weak showing, manageing only 1 shot, then they give up an oddman shorthanded chance leading to Jesse Graham taking a cross-checking minor
- Gaunce gets his second shorthanded chance of the game, but this time he pushes the puck too far ahead of himself on the rush and doesn’t get it in time toget a decent shot off
- In just one shift from Gaunce and MacEwen together, they manage to gain the Comets zone and rattle off 3 shots on goal
- Reid Gardiner(#14) with a nasty cross ice pass to Pyatt(# 20)who gets a breakaway on the Marlies but his shot gets blocked
- Jaime Sifers gets dinged for slashing and the Comets are onto their 4th penalty kill of the game
- GOAL – TORONTO – 1-0 Marliess: Comets on the penalty kill but set up from Calle Rosen and Dmytro Timashov proves too hard to control and the Jeremy Bracco is able to rifle a shot in past Leighton
- Comets now getting stuck in their own end throughout this period – have looked quite weak so far
- The Marlies Jeremy Bracco with a nasty play to tip a Brendan Woods(#21) pass in the Comets end leading to a huge scoring chance , not sure why were passing immediately through center there
- Carter Bancks gets dinged for slashing and the Comets are off to their 5th penalty kill of the game
- Kero(#10) with some aggressive forechecking on the penalty kill leading to a shot on goal
- Miraculously, Marlies’ Hudson Elynuik gets called for slashing and the Comets are onto their 3rd Powerplay of the game (0 for 2 so far)
- #FREEGOLDY
- the 5 forward powerplay unit once again gets nothing really going, Kero even gets pressured after the Marlies clear, and is only saved when Kero makes a hail mary diving spin with his stick to disrupt a shot from Pierre Engvall… love the idea but its clearly not working
The Score at the end of the 2nd period: 1-0 Marlies
Comets once again absolutely dominate the Marlies with pressure and shots, outshooting the Marlies so far 24 to 14. If they can’t maintain their stick discipline though and keep putting the team on the penalty kill, then they’re not going to get anything going. They desperately need someone to just rifle a shot past Hutchinson…the goalscoring droughts need to end!
3rd Period
- GOAL – TORONTO – 2-0 Marlies: a simple quick cycle of the puck around the boards started by Tanner MacMaster who hits Frankie Corrado on the blue line, who goes to his d-partner Rasmus Sandin, and his shot gets tipped in by recent NCAA pickup Colt Conrad who gets his first of the year to give the Marlies a 2 goal lead
- GOAL – TORONTO – 3-0 Marlies: 16 seconds later, former Comet Michael Carcone picks up the puck along the boards and absolutely rifles a shot from faraway top corner past Leighton
- GOAL – UTICA – 3-1 Marlies: The Comets FINALLY capitalize off their pressure…as Jasek(#9) battles for the puck along the boards, letting Woods(#21) fish the puck out to Seamus Malone(#19) who takes the puck to the top of the circle for a bank pass to Jasek who quickly sets up Woods in the front of the net who’s backhand rebounds out to Malone who sticks with the play to FINALLY get the Comets on the board
- lol, video has a full minute clipped out of the VOD but it cuts back and Tanner MacMaster is taking a penalty shot so not sure how we got here
- MacMaster penalty shot saved by Leighton
- scrum ensues after a shot on net, MacMaster loses his bucket and shares a smiler with his fromer teammate Darcy who’s giving him the gears
- Darcy DOES pick up a roughing minor during this scrum so the Comets are off to their 6th PK
- audio gone on the first PK shift – fortunately the Comets kill the PK pretty easily, one real chance for the Marlies but Leighton was solid
- Saucerman trips MacMaster and the Comets are off to their 7th PK of the game – fortunately the Comets once again kill it. They successfully killed 6 of 7 tonight
- Jesse Graham(#64) plays the puck along the boards and it ricochets off the stanchion right to Woods(#21) stick at the front of the goal but he gets denied
- Gaunce(#16) with a qquick pass out to Colton Saucerman( #39)who rips a bomb of a shot towards the net but it goes wide, fortunately it draws a slashing penalty and the Comets will close out this one on the powerplay
- 6 men on the ice to close this one out: Pyatt, Gaunce, Kero, Boucher, MacEwen, Saucerman
- re: the above, I don’t know why Cull benches Saucerman so often but can seemingly ALSO trust him to be THE guy to try and claw his team back into a game in the waning minutes with the goalie pulled
- GOAL – TORONTO – 4-1 Marlies TRIES to sauce a pass to Kero(#10) but it gets chopped down by Nicholas Baptiste who quickly rifles it down into the empty net
- GOAL – UTICA – 4-2 Marlies: quality VOD strikes again as I cant get the actual live call of this goal. But its all too little to late, as Blujus(#8) sets up Petgrave(#38) on the blue line for a long bomb that finds its way past Hutchinson. Not a bad 1st goal for Petgrave but a little bittersweet
- also the vod was choppy before but the Jasek/Woods/Malone combo that got the puck into the Marlies end is why they even got a goal here…they so far were the only effective offensive line tonight
- GOAL – TORONTO – 5-2 Marlies: an all too familiar scoreline for the Comets as Dmytro Timashov taps in an empty netter to round out a pretty successful game for him.
Final Score: 5-2 Toronto Marlies
Scoresheet
| Period | Team | Goalscorer | Primary assist | helper | type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd | Toronto | Jermey Bracco | Calle Rossen | Dmytro Timashov | PPG |
| 3rd | Toronto | Colt Conrad | Rasmus Sandin | Frankie Corrado | 5v5 |
| 3rd | Toronto | Michael Carcone | Pierre Engvall | — | 5v5 |
| 3rd | Utica | Seamus Malone | Brendan Woods | Lukas Jasek | 5v5 |
| 3rd | Toronto | Nicholas Baptiste | — | — | EN |
| 3rd | Utica | Matt Petgrave | Dylan Blujus | — | PPG |
| 3rd | Toronto | Dmytro Timashov | Andreas Borgman | Michael Hutchinson | EN |
Takeaways
- Once again the Comets BADLY outshoot their opponent, 39 to 23, but simply cannot find the back of the net. Shit ton of breakaway opportunities early but the team just bombed on every real chance they had.
- Like the Cull recognizes the success that Jasek/Woods and Malone were having together and chose to use them to close out the game.
- First line of Pyatt Kero and Boucher ended the night as a team worst -3 on the night
- Brendan Gaunce ended the game with 9 shots on goal and a -1 rating…after a 12 point December, a 9 point January and a 7 point february. Gaunce has 2 assists in all of March. I cant even say its just him though, the whole team is snakebitten, and ya a bulk of that has to do with the d-core built around this team…its simply not good enough, there isn’t enough depth to the organization to cover having 50% of their D-core playing up with the Canucks, while another 50% are on LTIR and thus being replaced by ECHL PTO’s. it’s a huge ask of the teams top “nhl caliber” players to be the sole providers of offense, but also be above-and-beyond the call of duty for backchecking and defensive play to compensate for the lack of awareness and speed of the current d-core.
Comets Three Stars
- Lukas Jasek/Seamus Malone/Brendan Woods in any order
What’s Next?
Comets will head into tomorrows matchup against the division leading Syracuse Crunch on another brutal losing streak with now even LESS available players than the last time these two teams met…with Chatfield/Lind AND Gadjovich all out with injury. Barring some quick recovery of course. Hopefully I’ll be able to cover this game at the latest by Sunday…going to be more house viewings, open houses and a friends birthday party so time might not be of the essence for me! To be completely honest I think I’m okay waiting to review the next Comets game…its getting a little tough to watch really interesting promising players just be completely ineffective due to the team they are surrounded with constantly blundering it up.
