Photo Credit: Lindsay A. Mogle / Utica Comets
The Comets have been heating up lately, winning five of their last seven games. In those five wins, they scored 25 goals, while scoring just one goal in the two losses. Having Hunter Shinkaruk and Brendan Gaunce back has certainly helped, as the top two Canucks AHL prospects each had a strong week.
What is more impressive is that they’ve been able to maintain strong play despite massive losses. Both the Canucks and the Comets have been experiencing a slew of injuries, and while the Canucks can offset losses with Comets players, the Comets themselves are running extremely thin.
In fact, during Friday’s game last week, the Comets played without their top four centres. Let that sink in. Oh, by the way, they won that game 7-4.
It’s been quite a week.

The Games

December 16th, 2015 vs Rochester: 5 – 2 Win
The Utica Comets got off to a good start Wednesday night at the Utica Memorial Auditorium and didn’t look back, as they defeated the Rochester Americans by the score of 5-2, giving them their second straight win and third straight win against the Amerks.
Alexandre Grenier (1-0-1), Mike Zalewski (1-1-2), Linden Vey (1-0-1), Jordan Subban (1-1-2), and Brendan Gaunce (1-1-2) each scored for the Comets, while Richard Bachman took home another victory with a 28-save performance.
The Comets took a quick 1-0 lead just 1:44 into the first period on Grenier’s fifth goal of the season. Grenier streaked down the middle of the ice and ripped a slapshot from the slot past Lieuwen. Subban and Ashton Sautner recorded assists on the goal. The goal, his 39th as a Comet, catapulted Grenier into sole possession of first place on the Comets all-time goals list.
Utica outshot Rochester 38-30 while improving their record to 13-10-2-1. The Comets power play went 0-for-3, while the penalty kill went a perfect 4-for-4.
The Comets will be on the road Friday, traveling to Springfield, MA to take on the Arizona Coyotes AHL affiliate, Springfield Falcons. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.
From the Utica Comets post-game report.
December 18th, 2015 vs Springfield: 7 – 4 Win
The Utica Comets rode six consecutive goals, three power-play goals, and Hunter Shinkaruk’s four-point night, to their seventh consecutive road victory when they defeated the Springfield Falcons 7-4 at the MassMutual Center Friday night.
Shinkaruk (1-3-4), Travis Ehrhardt (0-3-3), Brendan Gaunce (2-0-2), Darren Archibald (1-1-2), and newly-signed defenseman Danny Syvret (1-1-2) enjoyed multi-point nights, while goaltender made 30 saves in the victory.
The Comets shattered an 0-for-20 power play slump by scoring three power-play goals. The penalty-killing unit was a perfect 3-for-3 on the evening.
The Comets improved their record to 14-10-2-1 with the victory. The team’s seven goals in the game matched a franchise-best mark, which has been done three times previously.
The Comets return to The AUD tomorrow night for their final game before the Christmas break as the Hartford Wolf Pack make their final trip of the season to Utica. Puck drop for the 29thconsecutive sell out at The AUD is scheduled for 7pm.
From the Utica Comets post-game report.
December 19th, 2015 vs Hartford: 2 – 1 Shootout Loss
The Utica Comets scored 4:31 into the game, and could not find the back of the net again in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Hartford Wolf Pack Saturday night at the Utica Memorial Auditorium.
Brendan Gaunce (1-0-1) scored for the third time in three games, and Richard Bachman turned in yet another stellar performance and stopped 33 of the Wolf Pack’s 34 saves including several high-quality chances late in the third period.
The Comets finished with 26 shots on goal, while the Wolf Pack had 32 shots on the night. Jeff Malcom made 25 saves for Hartford.
The loss drops the Comets to 14-10-2-2 on the season, and the Wolf Pack improve to 12-15-2-0 with the win.
The Comets will try to extend their road-winning streak to eight games, as they travel to Rochester to take on the Rochester Americans the day after Christmas. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
From the Utica Comets post-game report.

The Lineups

We’ll begin with the injury report since injuries have taken complete hold of this team right now.
Injuries to the Canucks are well documented. The absences at centre of Brandon Sutter and now Henrik Sedin have brought Ronalds Kenins and Linden Vey to Vancouver. On defence, injuries to Dan Hamhuis and Luca Sbisa have led to call ups for Alex Biega and Andrey Pedan. Already that’s two top six forwards and two top four defencemen missing from the Comets’ ranks.
Down in Utica, injuries are just as frequent. Defenceman and power play quarterback Taylor Fedun is out with a hand injury. Mike Zalewski, who is suddenly one of the Comets hottest players, has missed two games so far with an illness. Alex Friesen, the Comets usual second line centre, is out for the time being as well.
On Friday, bottom six centre Wacey Hamilton was forced to sit out because a one game suspension levied following a match penalty he received for a high stick in Wednesday’s game. That meant that without Linden Vey, Alex Friesen, Wacey Hamilton and Mike Zalewski, the Comets had exactly zero of their usual centermen.
Canucks fans will be particularly interested to know that this led to Brendan Gaunce returning to centre. In both of last weekend’s games, he centered the top line between Hunter Shinkaruk and Alex Grenier, as well as centering the first powerplay unit. As is customary on Travis Green’s team, he was often protected on right side draws by Grenier.
The benefit of all the injuries has at least been felt by the Comets rookies. Jordan Subban, Cole Cassels and Joe LaBate each played all three games last week. It’s hard to hand out a healthy scratch when there’s no one to replace the player with. Ashton Sautner sat out the game on Saturday with a lower body injury, though play-by-play commentator Brendan Burke mentioned in the broadcast that he probably could have played. So it was a healthy-ish scratch.
The injuries also forced the Comets to add a couple of players: centre Cam Reid and defenceman Danny Syvret were signed to PTOs. It’s interesting that the Comets continue to hand out professional tryouts rather than call up Kalamazoo players on Canucks contracts like Dane Fox or Anton Cederholm. It probably reflects strongly on the organizations opinions of those players.

The Stats

#
Player
GP
G
A
P
+/-
Sh
PIM
10
B. Gaunce
3
4
1
5
0
9
2
9
H. Shinkaruk
3
1
3
4
0
10
2
2
T. Ehrhardt
3
0
4
4
-1
2
2
28
A. Grenier
3
2
1
3
-1
8
2
25
D. Archibald
3
1
2
3
0
5
0
7
J. Subban
3
1
1
2
-1
4
2
14
M. Zalewski
1
1
1
2
0
2
0
55
D. Syvret
2
1
1
2
-1
3
0
5
D. Shields
3
0
2
2
-1
0
2
17
N. Jensen
3
0
2
2
-1
13
2
22
B. Jones
3
0
2
2
-4
7
2
11
J. Negrin
3
1
0
1
-1
5
0
18
L. Vey
1
1
0
1
0
2
0
6
A. Sautner
2
0
1
1
0
4
0
19
C. Reid
2
0
1
1
0
2
0
34
C. Bancks
3
0
1
1
-1
4
2
3
A. Biega
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
8
A. Friesen
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
12
J. Kurtz
2
0
0
0
-1
1
5
15
R. Kenins
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
16
J. LaBate
3
0
0
0
0
2
5
20
J. Landry
3
0
0
0
-1
7
0
21
J. Virtanen
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
24
C. Cassels
3
0
0
0
-1
4
0
27
T. Fedun
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
36
W. Hamilton
2
0
0
0
-2
2
12
37
A. Pedan
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Canucks prospects were hot last week in Utica, with Gaunce, Shinkaruk and Grenier tallying five, four and three points respectively in three games. Jordan Subban also added a goal and an assist, while Jensen had a pair of helpers. Tragically, Cole Cassels is still sitting on his single power play secondary assist from much earlier in the year.
The Comets point leaders shake out like this.

Player of the Week

Player of the week honours goes to Brendan Gaunce. Hunter Shinkaruk made it a close contest, with four points to Gaunce’s three. However, all four of Shinkaruk’s points came in the Friday rout of the Springfield Falcons. Gaunce, on the other hand, maintained a level of consistency across the week, scoring in all three games, including twice on Friday, including this beauty.
Up to 15 points on the season, Gaunce is now tied for third on the team (with Linden Vey and Travis Ehrhardt), trailing only Shinkaruk and Grenier. However, Gaunce has been limited to just 17 games due to injury. As such, his points per game rate of 0.88 trails only Shinkaruk’s 1.05.

Looking Ahead

The Comets have a brief break for the holidays, before getting back to business on Boxing Day.
They’ll play two games this week beginning on Saturday in Rochester. The Americans and Comets will face off for the third time in as many weeks, with Utica winning both of the previous meetings.
Next, they’ll return home to host their nemesis, the Syracuse Crunch, on Sunday.