CanucksArmy Utica Comets Pre-Game: Game #41, Vs Bridgeport Sound Tigers

Game #41

Vs Bridgeport Sound Tigers

Friday, January 11th, 2019

7:00 pm Eastern/4:00 pm Pacific

The second overall Bridgeport Sound Tigers, (New York Islanders affiliate) will roll into Utica today to take on the 12th ranked Comets for game number 41 of the season. The Tigers are sporting a record of 21-11-4-2 coming into today’s contest, giving them 48 points on the season. The Comets, for their part, have a record of 20-17-2-1, giving them 43 points so far this year.

The Bridgeport rookie crop is led in scoring by Otto Koivula with 12 goals and 13 helpers in 34 games to give himself 25 points on the season. Koivula’s 25 points were also enough to have him sitting atop the active scoring leaders for Bridgeport with Michael Dal Colle up with the parent Islanders. Sebastian Aho sits second with three goals and 21 assists, giving him 24 points in 34 games. Chris Bourque rounds out their top three with seven goals and 16 assists to give himself 23 points in 36 games.

Jonathan Dahlen is still the Comets rookie points leader, though he’s gone a bit cold of late with just one point over his last 10 outings. Dahlen has eight goals and 10 helpers on the year, giving him 18 points in 36 games. Fellow rookie Lukas Jasek also has 18 points, but in 32 games with his seven goals and 11 helpers.

Reid Boucher still sits atop the Comets scorer’s pile with 17 goals and 17 assists to give himself 34 points in 28 games. Tanner Kero sits second with his 15 goals and 18 helpers in 40 games, giving him 33 points. Zack MacEwen rounds out the top three with 14 goals and 15 assists to give himself 29 points in 39 games.

The Comets power play currently sits 15th overall in the AHL after scoring 36 times on 182 opportunities, giving them a 19.8% success rate with the man advantage. Their penalty kill was the league’s 11th best, giving up 29 goals while down a man 165 times for an 82.4% success rate.

Bridgeport will bring the AHL’s 16th best power play into today’s action after scoring 35 goals while having the man advantage 184 times this season for a success rate of 19.0%. Their penalty kill is the 24th ranked unit in the AHL after giving up 37 goals while being shorthanded 176 times for a 79.0% success rate.

The Comets have gone 6-4-0-0 over their previous 10 games, while Bridgeport has a record of 5-3-1-1 over that same span. The Sound Tigers are coming off of a 3-2 loss to the Binghamton Devils, while the Comets last played to a 6-3 loss to the Toronto Marlies.

Bridgeport will bring a road record of 9-10-2-1 into today’s game, while the Comets are showing a home record of 9-9-0-0 on the season.

The Comets have been outscored by a 139-127 margin this year, while Bridgeport has scored 119 times and have given up 116 goals to their competition.

In the Comets last game, we saw the following players scratched with injuries:

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

The following players were healthy scratches last game for the Comets:

Jagger Dirk, Tanner MacMaster, Colton Saucerman, and Vincent Arseneau.

Today’s game will be the first of two meetings between the two clubs this season. They squared off twice last season, playing in back-to-back games with each team coming away with a win. In their first battle last season, the Sound Tigers won 7-6 in overtime, while in game two it was the Comets coming away with a 2-1 shootout win.

The Comets roster looks a lot different than it did when these clubs last played each other as Utica got points from Reid Boucher, Cam Darcy, and Zack MacEwen over those two games, but also from Michael Chaput, Jordan Subban, Jayson Megna, Joe LaBate, Patrick Wiercioch, and Michael Carcone, who scored the shootout winner in the second game.

The Comets also had a little bit of roster news as defender Craig Wysomirski has been released from his PTO, (professional tryout offer) with the club.

As always, stay tuned for the CanucksArmy post-game report following today’s contest.