CanucksArmy Utica Comets Pre-Game: Game #39, Belleville Senators at Utica Comets

Game #39

Belleville Senators at Utica Comets

Saturday, January 11th, 2020

7:00 pm Eastern/4:00 pm Pacific

The 22-12-2-2 Utica Comets will welcome the 21-13-2-1 Belleville Senators, (Ottawa affiliate) to town for game number 39 today at 7:00 pm Eastern/4:00 pm Pacific.

The Comets are coming off of a big 5-2 win over Lehigh Valley yesterday, while the Sens last played to a 5-1 win over Rochester. Both clubs have a winning record over their previous 10 contests with the Sens showing a record of 5-3-1-1 over that span and the Comets going 7-2-1-0.

The Sens have been better on the road this year… but so have the Comets, so this game might be a tough one for Utica. Belleville has gone 12-3-1-0 on the road this year. The Comets, for their part, have gone 10-7-2-1 at home.

Both clubs have outscored their opponents this year with the Sens showing a goal differential of plus-16 and the Comets sitting at plus-21.

Once again, the Comets find themselves with the better special teams for this game as they’ve gone 35/155 on the power play for a success rate of 22.6% with the man advantage. Their penalty kill has allowed 28 goals while down a man 167 times for a success rate of 83.2%.

The Sens have gone 31/165 on the power play for an 18.8% success rate, while their penalty kill has allowed 39 goals while down a man 177 times for a 78.0% success rate.

The Bellevillians are led in scoring by Drake Batherson and his 13 goals and 28 helpers, giving him 41 points in 33 games. That has him sitting one point behind Reid Boucher for first in the AHL. Josh Norris sits second with 20 goals and 15 assists, giving him 35 points in 36 games, while Alex Formenton rounds out their top three with 19 goals and nine assists to give himself 28 points in 35 games.

Norris is also the Sens’ rookie leader, while Brogan Rafferty holds that title for the Comets with five goals and 28 assists, giving him 33 points in 38 games.

Reid Boucher leads everyone in the AHL with 22 goals and 20 assists, giving him 42 points in 33 games this year. Rafferty holds down second place with his 33 points, while Nikolay Goldobin is sitting third with 13 goals and 19 assists to give himself 32 points in 32 games. For what it’s worth… Kole Lind and Sven Baertschi also have 32 points this season.

This will be the third game of the season and second of four this month between the two clubs. The Comets took the first two games 4-3 and 3-2 respectively.

The Comets might have better special teams overall, but the Sens have had the edge in the series, going 3/10 on the man advantage while shutting down eight of the Comets 10 power-play opportunities.

Nikolay Goldobin and Brogan Rafferty have been the biggest point producers so far in the series with four points each. Kole Lind and Alex Formenton have each put up three, while Carter Camper, Michael Carcone, Josh Norris and Logan Brown have all managed two points in the series.

Zane McIntyre has the two wins against the Sens, allowing five goals and sporting a goals-against-average of 2.50 along with a save percentage of 0.917%.

Joey Daccord has taken both losses for the Sens while posting a 3.64 GAA along with a 0.870% save percentage for his efforts.

It wasn’t a long stay in Utica for TheBigFella as Zack MacEwen had a quick turnaround with a one-game stint with the team. Zack has been up with the big club but not seeing much action, so the team got him into a quick game while they were waiting to take on the Sabres in Buffalo. The team announced his recall this morning.

It is also possible that the team could be without Sven Baertschi today as the veteran wasn’t able to finish yesterday’s contest after what Trent Cull called being “knicked up.”

The two clubs will get after it today in Utica at 7:00 pm Eastern/4:00 pm pacific. As always, stay tuned for your CanucksArmy post-game report following today’s action.