CanucksArmy Utica Comets Pre-Game: Game #3 Vs Syracuse Crunch

Game #3

Vs Syracuse Crunch

Wednesday, October 16th, 2019

7:00 pm Eastern/4:00 pm Pacific

It’s home opener day in Utica today! The Comets have gone 2-0 so far this season, taking games over Binghamton and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton by matching 4-3 scores, although the win over the Pens came in overtime.

The Comets will be welcoming their biggest rival, the Syracuse Crunch, (Tampa Bay affiliate) to the sold-out Adirondack Bank Center for game number three of their season. The Crunch, for their part, have gone 2-0-1-0 so far this season.

Syracuse has scored four times on 12 power play opportunities, while their penalty kill has been perfect to this point, giving up no goals while down a man 13 times this year. The Comets’ power play has scored once on 10 opportunities, while they have given up two goals while shorthanded eight times.

The Crunch last played to a 6-3 win over Cleveland, while the Comets are coming off of that 4-3 overtime victory over the Pens.

Cal Foote leads all Syracuse skaters with four points, all assists in their first three games, while former Comet Cory Conacher sits second with three points. Rookie Peter Abbandonato rounds out their top three with a pair of points. Abbandonato was at the Vancouver Canucks development camp last season and might have made a decent signing for the team.

Abbandonato is also leading all Syracuse rookies with his two points. Olli Juolevi and Brogan Rafferty each have an assist to find themselves sharing the Comets rookie scoring lead.

Reid Boucher lead all Comets in scoring over the past two seasons and if the first two games are any indication, he isn’t planning on handing that honour over to anyone else anytime soon. Boucher has four goals and an assist to lead the club with five points in his first two games. Kole Lind sits second with three helpers to give himself three points, while Carter Bancks, Lukas Jasek, and Sven Baertschi have each grabbed a pair of points to round out the top three.

As expected, the Comets announced the recall of rookie blueliner Mitch Eliot from Kalamazoo after the rearguard spent last Saturday’s game with them in order to get some ice-time. Eliot finished the game pointless but was credited with five shots on goal.

As you can see in the above link, the Eliot move was not the only one being made by the club this week as goaltender Zane McIntyre has been summoned to Vancouver by the parent Canucks. The move was made as Jacob Markstrom has a personal matter to look after. For what it is worth, Thatcher Demko made his first start of the season for Vancouver last night and came away with a 5-1 win for his efforts.

With McIntyre in Vancouver, it will be one of veteran Richard Bachman or rookie Michael DiPietro making their season debut today, or in DiPietro’s case, his AHL debut. My money is on the rookie getting his first start.

There was another move made by the Canucks that affects the Comets as Ashton Sautner has also been recalled to the big club. Sautner has been playing the right side so far in Utica this year, so his move to Vancouver could see Dylan Blujus or Mitch Eliot slide into the lineup in his stead. My guess is that Blujus gets the nod for today.

Forwards Seamus Malone and Francis Perron have yet to make their season debuts with the Comets as both have been dinged up. Ben Birnell of the Utica Observer-Dispatch let us know yesterday that both were skating in regular jerseys at practice, which means that we could see one or both get into the lineup today.

Captain Carter Bancks sounds like he will be out of commission for today’s contest with an upper-body injury as well, according to Ben. We should expect to see Tyler Graovac sitting this one out with his lower-body injury as well.

Last year, these two clubs squared off 12 times with Syracuse taking the series by a seven-games-to-five margin.

Taylor Raddysh and Carter Verhaeghe lead this series with 15 points apiece last year, while Cory Conacher wasn’t far behind with 13. Alex Volkov finished with 12 points, while Gabriel Dumont had 11.

Reid Boucher, Andy Andreoff, and Nolan Valleau each picked up nine points in the series, while Tanner Kero and Cal Foote each earned eight. Zack MacEwen finished with seven points, while the brothers Gaunce, and Boris Katchouk all finished with six.

A good number of players from both of last year’s squads have moved on, so this game will be a good one to watch to see who takes the bull by the horns in the season series this year.

The two clubs will get underway at 7:00 pm Eastern/4:00 pm Pacific. As always, stay tuned for the CanucksArmy Utica Comets post-game report following today’s action.