The Utica Comets Bounce Back With 3-1 Win Over Belleville

Game Two

VS Belleville Senators

Saturday, October 6th, 2018

4:00 pm Pacific/7:00 pm Eastern

The Belleville Senators rolled into Utica today to take on the Comets for game two of the 2018/19 season. The Comets dropped their season opener with Toronto, 7-3 yesterday, while the Sens will be seeing their first taste of action today.

As Belleville has yet to play a game this year, I will be providing some of their numbers from last season, while the Comets info will be based on yesterday’s game.

Belleville finished last season with their power play operating at a 13.4% rate, scoring just 40 times with 312 opportunities. Their penalty kill finished with a 77.7% effective rate after allowing 72 goals while shorthanded 323 times.

The Comets went 2-6 on the power play yesterday, giving them a 33.3% effective rate, but they also gave up a pair of shorthanded goals, one of them into the empty net. Their penalty kill gave up one goal while being down a man five times in the game, good for an 80.0% effective rate.

Last season, the Sens were lead in points by defenceman, Ville Pokka. Pokka finished the season with seven goals and 26 helpers, to give himself 33 points in 69 games on the campaign. He was followed up by Filip Chlapik, who tallied 11 goals and 21 assists, giving him 32 points in 52 games. Jim O’Brien rounded out their top-three with 13 goals and 16 assists to give himself 29 points in 60 contests.

Pokka will be plying his trade in the KHL this season with Avangard Omsk. O’Brien is still around, as is Chlapik.

For the Comets, it should come as no surprise that Reid Boucher is beginning the season as their leading scorer. The man knows how to bring the offence, picking up a pair of goals in game one. Zack MacEwen picked up where he left off last season and grabbed a goal and an assist yesterday to sit second, while Tanner MacMaster finished with a pair of apples to grab the third spot.

I have said it before, but I always seem to come away impressed by MacMaster. When he first joined the team at the end of last season, I was concerned about his size. He seemed to get bumped off of the puck a little too easily for my liking. That only seemed to last a few games though, as he adjusted to the pro level.

He has shown the ability to provide offence, as well as drive play. He can play up and down the lineup and move from the wing to the middle, and that is where I would like to see him used. There aren’t a lot of options down the middle in Utica and I feel like MacMaster could be a playmaker there who could shore things up a little. He does some solid work on the defensive side as well. Could he be found money of sorts for the organization? I think this season will go a long way towards answering that question. I for one, feel like there could be a pretty solid season on the way from Tanner MacMitts.

Wacey Hamilton (injured), Guillaume Brisebois (injured, day to day), Jagger Dirk, Dylan Blujus, Vincent Arseneau, Lukas Jasek, Jonah Gadjovich, Kole Lind, and Michael Carcone.

19 Tanner MacMaster – 11 Cam Darcy – 24 Reid Boucher (A)

16 Brendan Gaunce – 10 Tanner Kero – 54 Jonathan Dahlen

25 Darren Archibald – 17 Adam Gaudette – 52 Petrus Palmu

34 Carter Bancks – 21 Brendan Woods – 15 Zack MacEwen

48 Olli Juolevi – 5 Jalen Chatfield

64 Jesse Graham – 26 Jaime Sifers (A)

6 Ashton Sautner – 2 Evan McEneny

32 Richard Bachman

31 Ivan Kulbakov (Backing Up)

Well, once again, AHLTV was experiencing some growing pains as half of the first period had no sound and we lost our video stream briefly as well. As such, you are getting another condensed recap of the first period.

The Sens were carrying the play early, spending a fair bit of time in the Comets zone, but Richard Bachman was bouncing back from last night’s loss and he was holding the fort.

Captain, Carter Bancks dished a pass to Zack MacEwen and The Big Fella got his shot off but was denied by Sens netminder Mike McKenna. Stuart Percy followed up with a goal for the Sens, but the net had been dislodged behind Bachman well ahead of the puck going in…no dice Belleville.

Jesse Graham had his good moments in yesterday’s contest and he was showing well at times in the opening period again, sending a nice stretch pass to Jonathan Dahlen, who saw his chance denied. Tanner MacMaster had a good game yesterday as well and we saw him get decked at the Comets’ line in this one, but MacMitts jumped right back up and was back in the play.

The Comets started to get some pressure of their own with roughly six minutes remaining. Jonathan Dahlen, in particular, had a dogged shift in the Sens’ zone where he was hounding the puck before a turnover lead to his scoring chance that McKenna turned aside.

Jalen Chatfield is a wizard with his stick, in terms of protecting pucks and clearing them. He made a nice play out of a scrum in front of Bachman and calmly cleared the puck out of harm’s way. I like Chatfield’s game more every time I see him play.

Darren Archibald followed up with a big shift, ripping a shot that McKenna just got a toe on, before getting another chance and putting it wide of the net. Zack MacEwen was also looking dangerous in the offensive zone. There is clearly a little more jump in MacEwen’s step to start this season.

Richard Bachman played a solid period of hockey in the first frame, showing some presence of mind as he found an Adam Tambellini shot through traffic for a save.

Evan McEneny was whistled for slashing at the 17:27 mark and Trent Cull rolled his penalty killers over the boards. The two Brendan’s, Woods and Gaunce did some great work along with Olli Juolevi and Chatfield on the backend. Bachman had to come up with a stretch save that looked like it will have him singing the high notes for the next week to keep the game knotted at zero. The Comets came up with a good kill.

Joe LaBate was looking like he was looking like he wanted to engage in some fisticuffs as the period wound down, but could find no takers.

Bachman had to come up with one more save before the period ended. The Sens showed an 11-8 advantage on the shot clock after one.

The second period got off to a busy start as Bachman made a big kick save on Logan Brown early before former Comets forward, Joe LaBate grabbed a rebound and put his new club up 1-0. Boston Leier picked up his first helper of the year on the play, while Stuart Percy did the same.

The Comets weren’t in that hole for very long, however, as Jonathan Dahlen was doing Jonathan Dahlen things just 10 seconds later when he sent a backhand pass from behind the net to set up a Brendan Gaunce goal. The goal was the first of the year for Gaunce, who was having a good game today. Dahlen earned his second helper of the year on the play.

Richard Bachman followed up by whipping out the mitt to glove down a Julius Borgman offering before the Comets were hemmed into their own end for a shift.

In a case of the big and littles we saw Petrus Palmu take a puck hard to the net in the Sens zone before Zack MacEwen followed up with a heavy shift in his own end of the ice, dishing out the hits.

Cam Darcy let fly with a shot that was denied by McKenna before a Boucher offering was also turned aside. Richard Bachman followed up with back-to-back saves on LaBate. There was some good back and forth in the middle fame.

Gabriel Gagne unloaded a point shot that was gobbled up by Bachman before we saw Dahlen and Gaunce nearly hook up for another goal similar to their first one, but McKenna said, no. Jalen Chatfield followed up with a point shot that was soaked up by McKenna as well. The Comets kept it coming as Palmu let fly with a point shot and Archibald and Woods went to work with their shovels looking for a goal. Once again, McKenna said, no.

We saw some line juggling by Comets coach Trent Cull in the middle frame that saw Bancks, Gaudette and MacEwen line up together, while Archibald, Woods and Palmu worked as a unit.

Joe LaBate was sent off for high-sticking at the 18:53 mark and the Comets power play went to work. Boucher had a shot gloved down before he beat McKenna for his third goal of the season. MacEwen won a faceoff to Juolevi, who dished to Boucher for the goal. That was Juolevi’s first AHL point, while TheBigFella grabbed his second assist and third point of the season.

The period finished with Brendan Woods beating the tar out of Filip Chlapik and he ended up being given two minutes for interference, five for fighting, a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct. That’s right, folks. The Comets had a seven-minute kill to deal with.

The Sens showed a 14-13 advantage on the shot clock in the middle frame.

The Comets started the final frame with a massive penalty kill to get through with Brendan Woods hitting the showers early. The club had roughly six and a half minutes of shorthanded time to kill and they managed to get it done. Bachman made big saves early and late on this kill and Darren Archibald absolutely schooled the Sens in penalty killing 101. Archibald was putting in the work on this one.

With Woods out for the game, Trent Cull had to juggle his lines a bit for the rest of the way.

I notice that Petrus Palmu was making a habit of throwing his fire hydrant of a body around in this one a fair bit. He can bring a heavy game if he has to. Jonathan Dahlen was showing a knack for separating himself from his check and getting into lanes to accept passes. On one occasion, he slipped his check, took a stretch pass, and got in behind the Sens defence, but put his shot over the net.

I know that I talk about Zack MacEwen a fair bit in this space, but the kid is bringing it this season. He has underrated hands, in my opinion, and he has no problem dishing out the hits. MacEwen was not shy about crushing a few Sens into the boards in this one.

Speaking of physical play, Ashton Sautner seems like a mild-mannered dude, but you wouldn’t know that when he’s on the ice and being belligerent to his opponents. He is becoming quite adept at crosschecking the bejesus out of guys without getting dinged for penalties. Sautner has been bringing the nasty this year.

Jalen Chatfield and Olli Juolevi have been paired together so far this year and the pair is working well. If I didn’t know any better, I would think that playing with Juolevi is bringing out a more offensive side of Chatfield. He started to jump into the rush more last season, later in the year, but he is doing it on the regular now. I am enjoying that defensive pairing.

Dahlen and MacEwen found themselves on the ice together with the puck heading into the Sens zone, MacEwen showed some hustle to get to the puck in deep before dishing a sweet pass to Dahlen for a scoring chance. McKenna gobbled up the Dahlen offering and said, no.

Utica started to put on the pressure and had some nice sustained time in the offensive zone. Cam Darcy had a glorious chance to score on a sprawling McKenna, but the pivot missed the net with his shot. The two clubs had some good back and forth the rest of the way before Bachman turned aside a point shot and followed that up with a great save with a crowd all up in his face. Bachman had a tough loss yesterday, but he bounced back in a big way today.

With just under two minutes remaining in regulation, the Sens used their timeout and summoned McKenna to the bench for the extra man. Evan McEneny was doing some nice work defensively for the Comets while the Sens had the extra attacker, this one wasn’t going to get away from the team.

Darren Archibald salted the game away when he took a feed from MacEwen and put it in the empty net. The goal was Archibald’s first of the year, while MacEwen picked up his third helper of the year and Carter Bancks earned his first.

The Comets followed up yesterday’s shelling from the Marlies with a 3-1 win today. They showed an 8-7 advantage on the shot clock for the third period but were outshot 32-29 for the game.

The Three Stars in the building today were:

3rd Star: Brendan Gaunce. One goal.

2nd Star: Reid Boucher. One goal.

1st Star: Richard Bachman. 31 saves.

3rd Star: Zack MacEwen: TheBigFella had another good game today. He picked up his third assist in two games and has a goal as well. He was physical today along with showing some nice hands to set up plays. He hasn’t seen any penalty kill time yet, which I would like to see, but Trent Cull has enough options for that role that Zack may have to wait for time on the kill. I also wonder if he may be better suited in a different role on the power play. Sure, he’s a big body for the net front, but he also has a shot that the team could maybe take better advantage of if he was setting up in a different spot on the PP.

2nd Star: Richard Bachman: Bachman took his lumps in yesterday’s loss. I saw a lot on Twitter about him not being a good enough goalie to play in Utica. I’m not sure that is a fair thing to hang on him. He bounced back today and played well. He made several saves in scramble situations, showing poise and focus. We all want to see Thatcher Demko get healthy and back between the pipes, but Bachman can get the job done until he is ready to go.

1st Star: Darren Archibald: Sure, his goal was an empty-netter, but this 1st Star is all about the work that Archibald put in on that seven-minute penalty kill. He was a beast. Two seasons ago, Archibald was the Comets leading scorer and I think that if he can stay healthy this season, that he could possibly hit 20-plus goals again this year. He is a shining example for the younger players in the organization as a player who paid his dues in the ECHL and ended up earning another NHL contract. He has been persistent in his career, and that is what you want your younger players to see, day in and day out.

VS Charlotte Checkers

Friday, October 12th, 2018

7:00 pm Eastern/4:00 pm Pacific