CanucksArmy Utica Comets Pre-Game: Game #40, Utica Comets At Toronto Marlies

Game #40

At Toronto Marlies

Wednesday, January 9th, 2018

7:00 pm Eastern/4:00 pm Pacific

 

The 11th overall Utica Comets will grapple with the 17th overall Marlies (Toronto affiliate) in Toronto today at 7:00 pm Eastern/4:00 pm Pacific for game number 40 of the season. The Comets will bring a record of 20-16-2-1 into today’s action, giving them  43 points on the season. The Marlies, for their part, have gone 17-14-3-2 this year to give themselves 39 points.

The Comets have given up 133 goals this season while scoring 124. The Marlies have been outscored by a 131-126 margin this year.

Utica has gone 6-3-1-0 over their previous 10 games, while the Marlies are showing a record of 6-4-0-0 over that same span. The Marlies last played to a 5-0 loss to the Charlotte Checkers, while the Comets are coming off of a 5-1 victory over the Cleveland Monsters.

Utica has gone 11-7-2-1 on the road this season, while the Marlies have a home record of 8-9-2-0 this year.

The Comets rookie crew are currently led by Jonathan Dahlen with eight goals and 10 helpers in 35 games. Carl Grundstrom is the active points leader for the Toronto rookies with nine goals and 14 helpers, giving him 23 points in 34 games.

Reid Boucher is the top dog in Utica with 17 goals and 16 assists, giving him 33 points in 27 games. Tanner Kero is coming off of a hat-trick, bringing him to 13 goals and 18 assists, good for 31 points in 39 games. Zack MacEwen rounds out the top three with 14 goals and 15 assists, giving him 29 points in 38 games this year.

Chris Mueller is the big cheese in Toronto, putting up 19 goals and 19 helpers in 34 games, giving him 38 points on the season. Jeremy Bracco sits second with seven goals and 26 assists, giving him 33 points in 35 games. Canucks property, Sam Gagner rounds out the top three with nine goals and 20 assists, giving him 29 points in 29 games with the Marlies.

Olli Juolevi, (knee, out for regular season) Richard Bachman, (Achilles’ injury, out for season) Jalen Chatfield, (lower body injury, month-to-month) Ashton Sautner, (facial injuries, month-to-month) Brendan Woods, (lower body injury, indefinite) Dylan Blujus, (injured, day-to-day).

Tanner MacMaster, Jagger Dirk, Lukas Jasek, and Jonah Gadjovich.

The Comets will be going for their fifth straight win today after dropping a 10-1 decision to the Syracuse Crunch in their last loss.

The two clubs have squared off three times this season, all in October. The Comets currently hold a two-games-to-one advantage in the series. The road team has won all three contests this year with the Comets outscoring the Marlies by a 15-14 margin.

Trevor Moore – Three games, three goals, two assists.

Adam Cracknel – Three games, one goal, four assists.

Pierre Engvall – Three games, two goals, two assists.

Reid Boucher – Three games, five goals, one assist.

Tanner MacMaster – Three games, one goal, three assists.

Tanner Kero – Three games, zero goals, four assists.

This series has seen four goaltenders suit up as the Comets have used both of Richard Bachman and Ivan Kulbakov, while the Marlies have used Jeff Glass and Kasimir Kaskisuo between the pipes. Kulbakov has both wins in the series so far.

The Comets hold the edge in the special teams for the series, going 4/14 with the man advantage, good for 28.6%. They have given up a pair of goals in the series while down a man 12 times for an 83.3% success rate. The Marlies PP ran at 16.7%, while their PK was operating at 71.4% in the previous three games.

In other Comets news, we saw some more roster moves this week. First up, was the signing of defenceman Cliff Watson to a PTO, (professional tryout offer). Watson played six games for the Comets last season after signing a PTO in early December. He will give the coaching staff another lefty and an eighth healthy body to work with on the backend.

The other news was the recall of Adam Gaudette to Vancouver. The parent club summoned the pivot after Gaudette put up two goals and one assist, all in one game, during his three-game stint with the club since being returned to Utica on January second.

Stay tuned for the CanucksArmy post-game report following today’s game.