CanucksArmy Utica Comets Post-Game: Comets Head Into Break With 2-1 Win Over Syracuse

 

 

The Utica Comets hit the road today for one last game before the Christmas break as they rolled into Syracuse for game number 30 of the season. The Comets were sitting in 22nd place overall in the AHL with 29 points. The Crunch sat 13th with 33 points. Just four points separate 13th from 22nd in the AHL right now.

The Comets have had pretty steady results from their special teams this season, which plays a big part in their ability to stay competitive. Their power-play sat eighth overall coming into today, having gone 25 for 134 so far this season, while their penalty-kill sat 10th, with the Comets having given up 22 goals over 139 kills.

The Crunch were sitting in 23rd place on the power-play, having scored 22 goals on 146 opportunities, while their penalty-kill sat ninth overall, with the Crunch giving up 26 goals while being shorthanded 165 times.

Michael Chaput led the Comets active forwards with eight goals and seven assists, good for 15 points in 21 games this season. Philip Holm was still the Comets blue-line leader with four goals and 10 assists in 22 games this season. Alexis D’Aoust was back in the lead amongst Comets rookies with seven goals and five assists in 29 games this season. D’Aoust, Joe LaBate, and Carter Bancks are the only Comets players to have played in all 29 games entering the day today.

Matthew Peca was the Crunch’s leader in points with six goals and sixteen assists in 29 games this season. Jamie McBain was their blue-line leader with four goals and 11 helpers over 27 games.

The Comets were coming off of a 4-3 loss to the Marlies yesterday, while the Crunch laid an 8-2 beat-down on the Belleville Sens yesterday. The Comets had gone 3-3-4-0 over their previous 10 games, while the Crunch had gone 8-2-0-0 over the same span.

The parent Canucks currently have something of a logjam on their defense right now and the situation may be coming to a head soon. We found out today that the Canucks would be playing with seven defensemen tonight vs the Blues. They want to get Ben Hutton back in and do not want to sit Alex Biega after his impressive showing in his last handful of games. Travis Green mentioned that Biega may see some time as a forward today and that he would also like to rotate a couple of wingers through for some extra ice-time.

This does not bode well for Comets leading scorer, Reid Boucher. If the coach would rather play a defenseman at forward, no matter how well the Bull Dog has been playing, it doesn’t exactly scream, “I like what Reid Boucher brings.”

With the Comets having seven defensemen that they feel should be playing, I feel that it is entirely possible that the Canucks make a move after the holiday trade freeze has passed. There has been some talk that Erik Gudbranson may be the player on the move. If that is the case, I wouldn’t be surprised to see one or more of the Comets players packaged up with the big defenseman in order to maximize the return. This is all just speculation on my part, but I feel like there could be interesting times ahead for the Canucks and Comets.

If any of you Comets fans want to keep up with the Kalamazoo Wings, go check out Sie Morley’s author page at CanucksArmy. She is doing a great job covering the Wings for CanucksArmy.

 

Scratched today for the Comets were: Darren Archibald, (injured), Wacey Hamilton, (injured), Jaime Sifers, (injured), Yan-Pavel Laplante, (injured), Evan McEneny, (injured), Brendan Woods, (injured), Jayson Megna, (injured), Cam Darcy, (injured), Jalen Chatfield, (injured), and Cliff Watson.

16 Joe LaBate (A) – 19 Cole Cassels – 17 Alexis D’Aoust

13 Griffen Molino – 21 Michael Chaput (A) – 58 Michael Carcone

34 Carter Bancks (C) – 27 Tony Cameranesi – 15 Zack MacEwen

18 Vincent Arseneau – 12 Danny Moynihan – 14 Brady Brassart

6 Ashton Sautner – 8 Dylan Blujus

52 Philip Holm – 55 Guillaume Brisebois

28 Patrick Wiercioch – 2 Anton Cederholm

30 Thatcher Demko

I am going to be upfront with you all right away here, the quality of my video feed from AHL Live was pretty brutal for this one. Watching this game was sort of like trying to see through your Grandma’s glasses after smearing the lenses with Vaseline.

That said, it is my job to bring these post-game reports to you, so I will do what I can with what I have.

As you can see above, Trent Cull fired up the line blender once again for this one. It would take some time for these new lines to get their feet under them in this first period.

Michael Carcone and Griffen Molino were still on the same line though, and they were able to get a nice chance early, but Crunch goaltender Louis Domingue was ready with the save. Making a save was not something that Thatcher Demko would have to do often in the first period though, as the Comets would out-shoot the home team by a 9-1 margin in the opening frame. Zack MacEwen would have three of those nine shots for the Comets.

The Comets would take a too many men penalty at the 6:36 mark and MacEwen would serve the bench minor. The Crunch power-play wouldn’t last long though as Cole Cassels drew a holding penalty on Alexander Volkov just nine seconds later.

The two teams would go back and forth, but there wasn’t a whole lot going on. Dylan Blujus was having a strong period against his old team today. The Comets would get some good sustained pressure with Sautner, Wiercioch, and MacEwen getting nice chances, but Domingue was equal to the task.

Adam Erne was taking a holding penalty on Michael Chaput, and not unlike Cassels yesterday, it didn’t appear that Chaput wanted to be held. Chaput flipped off the mitts and he and Erne threw down for a quick scrap. I’m going to give this one to Mikey Chaps.

The Comets would end up with a power-play as Erne picked up the extra two for holding and each Chaput and Erne were assessed five for fighting. The Comets wouldn’t  get much more than a Patrick Wiercioch clapper on the power-play, and Domingue was there for the save on that one.

Wiercioch would take an interference penalty at the 18:54 mark to leave the Comets shorthanded to finish the period.

The Comets would outshoot the Crunch 9-1 in the opening frame.

The Comets started the second period shorthanded as Wiercicoh was in the box to finish serving his interference penalty from the end of the first.

Just as Wiercioch came out of the box, first-period scrapper, Michael Chaput buried his ninth goal of the year past Domingue. As I write this, Wiercioch is credited with his seventh assist of the season on the Chaput goal, but that may yet be changed. Griffen Molino did the work to make this one happen. The puck was dumped in around the boards and Molino blazed down from the right side and snatched the puck from behind the net, sending a beauty pass into the slot where Chaput was waiting to bury it. It was Molino’s third assist of the season.

The Crunch would manage more than one shot in the period, as Demko was forced to make a save in close to keep his team up 1-0. Cole Cassels was having another strong game, forcing Domingue into another save right after.

Erik Condra would tie the game at one at the 5:16 mark when he was set up by Matthew Peca on a two on one play. It was goal number four of the season for Condra, while Peca earned his 17th assist on the play. Carter Verhaeghe was awarded his 11th helper of the season on the play as well.

Right after the Condra goal, Demko came up big with a glove save off of Verhaeghe and a scrum ensued. Ashton Sautner and Mathieu Joseph would take matching roughing minors coming out of the scrum.

Wiercioch did some nice work to break up a Crunch two on one during the four-on-four play.

Michael Carcone and Mat Bodie would try to drop the gloves but the refs stepped in. Both men were given unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on the play.

Zack MacEwen was showing his physical side again, crashing and banging Crunch players along the bards.

Kevin Lynch would take a boarding penalty on Dylan Blujus at the 12: 00-minute mark. A little over a minute and a half later, Erik Cernak and Zack MacEwen would drop the gloves after MacEwen took the puck hard to the net and ran over Domingue. MacEwen was also assessed with a goaltender interference penalty on the play. MacEwen took a couple of shots in this one, but I will give him the win for the takedown.

Shortly after the MacEwen penalty expired, we would hear from Cassels and Molino again. Cassels and Molino went in two on one and Molino put the puck top shelf, where Grandma keeps her babushka. It was assist number five on the season for Cassels, while Molino picked up his second goal of the season and his first multi-point game for the Comets.

Mathieu Joseph would haul Anton Cederholm down in the neutral zone at the 18:40 mark and would be sent off for tripping. The Comets would finish the period on the power-play.

The final shot tally for the second period showed the Comets with a 9-8 advantage.

The Comets started the third period with a brief power-play but were unable to get any traction. At around the four-minute mark, Michael Carcone was hit in the face by…something. I was unable to see exactly what happened to Carcone, but he left the ice leaking all over the place and headed down the tunnel. A Comet heading down the tunnel is something that we hear far too often lately. You can hear the disbelief in Comets play-by-play man, Andy Zilch’s voice every time he says it. Luckily, Carcone would be back in the game after getting some repairs.

LaBate was showing his physical side again in the third as he crushed Mathieu Joseph with a big hit. I would like to see more of that from Big Joe.

Once again, PTO player Tony Cameranesi was showing that he might be worth a longer look in Utica. He worked a nice series of plays with MacEwen but neither player could get the puck past Domingue.

Thatcher Demko was busier in the third period than he was in either of the first two. He made a nice save on a backdoor play by Joseph to keep his team up by a goal.

Griffen Molino was having himself a game today. He looks like he might be finding his stride after getting more ice-time in the face of all of these Comets injuries and call-ups. He took a nice pass in the slot from Cassels, who set him up from behind the net, but Molino shot it high and wide.

High and wide was once again a common theme today when it came to Comets shooters.

MacEwen was showing that he isn’t all big hits and fisticuffs when he made a spinning, behind the back pass to Chaput, who couldn’t t get a shot off on the resulting play. Cameranesi showed a nice shot as he got a one-timer off, but once again, Domingue was ready with a save.

The two teams went end to end for a couple of shifts without much happening until Demko attempted top make a save and Kevin Lynch took an extra stab at his glove when the puck bounced out of it. Demko made the save and Lynch was sent off for slashing.

The Comets got some chances on the resulting power-play but were once again shooting the puck wide all too frequently. MacEwen had some nice chances though.

The Lynch penalty had barely expired when Cole Cassels was sent off for elbowing. Chaput had a nice chance shorthanded but…you guessed it, he fired it wide. The Comets kill was doing excellent work once again today. Denko was busy in the last five minutes of this game, making a nice save off of Anthony Cirelli, and stopping a point shot through traffic for another save and keeping his team in it.

LaBate had a nice chance with about three minutes left on the clock but Domingue was there with the save. The Crunch got a face-off in the Comets end with 1:42 left on the clock and Domingue was summoned to the bench for the extra attacker.

Demko made a nice save on a redirect in the dying seconds and the Comets hit a post with the empty net. Cole Cassels would draw a hooking penalty on Jamie McBain with 54 seconds left and that would be it for the Crunch.

The Comets would finish on the wrong side of the shot clock for the third period with the Crunch holding a 15-7 advantage over the final frame, but Demko stood tall and got his team the win. The Comets would finish the game with a 25-24 edge in shots for the game.

The Three Stars in the building today were:

3rd Star: Zack MacEwen.

2nd Star: Louis Domingue. 23 saves

1st Star: Michael Chaput. One Goal.

3rd Star: Thatcher Demko. Demko didn’t have much action in the first period, but he managed to keep his head in the game and was a big part of this win. Thatcher posted 23 saves today, but 15 of those came in the third period from a team that put up eight goals on Belleville last night. Demko can make big saves look routine, so sometimes it can look like he’s had an easier night than he’s actually had.

2nd Star: Michael Chaput. Chaput scored another goal today and he had a tidy little knuckleduster with Adam Erne. Chaput now has 16 points in 22 games for the Comets and continues to be an all-situations player for them. Chaput is another player who will be leaned on heavily with Boucher and Goldobin eating popcorn in an NHL press box and he has shown that he can be counted on.

1st Star: Griffen Molino. In recent games, it has been his “Kid Line” partners who have been getting all the fanfare, but today it was Molino’s turn to show what he can do. Molino had a sweet assist on Chaput’s goal that showcased his speed. He also scored a beauty of his own off of a nice pass from Cassels. Molino was all over the ice today. He got some time on the penalty-kill and showed that he should be an option there going forward. When this team is healthy and can roll four lines as Trent Cull would like to do, that 4th line of Molino – Cassels – Carcone should be a fun one to watch.