CanucksArmy Utica Comets Pre-Game: Game #22, Utica Comets at Toronto Marlies

Game #22

Utica Comets at Toronto Marlies

Sunday, December 1st, 2019

4:00 pm Eastern/1:00 pm Pacific

The 13-7-1-0 Utica Comets get right back at it today as they take on the 14-3-2-1 Toronto Marlies, (Toronto Maple Leafs affiliate) for game number 22 of the season. Today’s game will be the second of the season between the two clubs as the Comets took yesterday’s contest by a 4-3 score.

The Comets show a record of 5-4-1-0 over their previous 10 games while the Marlies have gone 7-3-0-0 over that same span. Utica has gone 7-2-0-0 on the road this year while Toronto shows a home record of 9-1-0-0. That’s right, folks. The Comets have the only win in Toronto this year against the Marlies.

As mentioned yesterday, these two clubs are closely matched with the Comets outscoring their competition by a 74-56 margin while the Marlies have scored 75 goals and have given up 54.

Yesterday’s game had its share of special teams work and the result has the Comets power play now sitting at 18/80 to give them a 22.5% success rate with the extra man, while their penalty kill has given up 13 goals while down a man 92 times for a success rate of 85.9% this season.

The Marlies power play has gone 16/70 to give them a success rate of 22.9%. Their penalty kill has given up 17 goals while down a man 78 times for a success rate of 78.2%.

Reid Boucher leads all Comets scorers with 15 goals and eight assists to give himself 23 points in 16 games this year. With Nikolay Goldobin up in Vancouver, Kole Lind sits second amongst active players with four goals and 12 helpers to give himself 16 points in 21 games. Frankie Perron rounds out the top three with four goals and 11 assists, giving him 15 points in 19 games.

Brogan Rafferty has been killing it in his rookie campaign, putting up two goals and 12 assists, giving him 14 points in 21 games this year. That has the right-shot blueliner on pace for 50 points this season. The Marlies, meanwhile have Jesper Lindgren at the top of their rookie heap with his four assists in 14 games played.

Pontus Aberg is the big cheese in Toronto with 10 goals and 13 helpers, giving him 23 points in 20 games, while Kenny Agostino sits second with 11 goals and nine assists to give himself 20 points in 18 games. Pierre Engvall rounds out their top three with seven goals and nine assists, giving him 16 points in 15 games this year.

The two clubs have squared off just once this year and that was yesterday when the Comets skated away with a 4-3 win in a back and forth game.

Sven Baertschi, Reid Boucher, Kole Lind, and Brogan Rafferty all finished yesterday’s game with two points each, while 13 others managed to grab a point for their efforts.

The Comets went 2/3 with the man advantage yesterday while the Marlies scored twice on six man-up opportunities.

Joseph Woll started yesterday’s game for the Marlies and finished with the loss after posting a goals-against-average of 4.11 along with a 0.833% save percentage. Mikey DiPietro got the win for Utica while posting a GAA of 3.01 along with a 0.880% save percentage.

After yesterday’s game finished, Antoine Roussel told reporters that he would be rejoining the Canucks and heading back to the NHL and that his conditioning stint was over.

 

The two clubs will get underway today in Toronto at 4:00 pm Eastern/1:00 pm Pacific. As always, CanucksArmy will have your post-game report following today’s action.