Utica Comets Week in Review: November 28th – December 4th

7 years ago

Photo credit: Lindsay A. Mogle / Utica Comets

Another week has gone by in Utica, and it was one more week that has demonstrated that the best prospect in Utica is the one between the pipes. Thatcher Demko has been a force to be reckoned with, and it seems that he only gets better with each passing game.

Up font there hasn’t been much to write home about, though Canucks fans can at least take solace in the fact that Jake Virtanen scored his first NHL goal, and Andrey Pedan has finally been getting rewarded for his strong play.

The Games

Wednesday, November 30th vs. Rochester: 2 – 1 Loss

After a scoreless first period, the Comets fell behind by two goals in the second period. The first came from Cole Schneider, and the second from former Comets captain Cal O’Reilly.

In the third period, the Comets managed to muster a single goal: it was Evan McEneny’s first AHL goal, coming off a slapper from the point.

Friday, December 2nd at Albany: 2 – 1 Win

Not much goal scoring was done in this game, but both Comets goals came from Canucks prospects, so there’s that. Both goals came within the last two minutes of the first period, and both by players coming flying down the left wing. First Andrey Pedan jumped up into the rush and firing a wrister past Ken Appleby. Just over a minute later, Jake Virtanen skated end to end and fired one past the Devils netminder for his first career AHL goal.

Demko held Albany of the scoreboard on all but one shot, which came off the stick of Rod Pelley late in the second period. Demko was perfect before and after that, and the Comets escaped with a 2-1 win – their first ever regulation win against the Albany Devils.

Saturday, December 3rd vs. Albany: 3 – 1 Win

The Comets couldn’t generate anything in the first period against the Devils, despite have a lengthy powerplay that included over two minutes of 5-on-3 time after Albany took eight minutes in penalties in the span of a minute and a half.

The Comets didn’t get on the board until midway through the second period, and after all that power play time, they ended up scoring shorthanded, with Darren Archibald barreling his way to the net and knocking the puck past Mackenzie Blackwood.

Albany tied the game up with a shorthanded goal of their own near the end of the second period. Captain Carter Bancks scored twice 1:26 apart in the latter half of the third period, both on the power play.

Roster Report

Lines:

Keen eyes may have noticed that Jordan Subban was missing from Saturday’s lineup. He’s not battling an injury, so it was indeed a healthy scratch, through Travis Green would quibble with the terminology:

Fair enough. This is the AHL after all, not the NHL, resting players is a regular occurrence. Damn near every player on the roster has had a “healthy rest” at least once.

Roster Moves:

No players have moved up or down between the NHL and AHL, nor between the AHL and ECHL within the Canucks organization. That may change soon in the wake of the injury to Philip Larsen last night.

The one roster move that has been made in the last few days is that Allan McPherson has been released from his PTO. If you have no idea who that is, don’t feel bad – despite being on the Comets roster for nearly a month, McPherson never got into a single game due to the fact that he was injured the entire time.

Injury Update:

I could run through the injuries by myself, or I could just let Ben Birnell do it for me:

As of today, Valk and Negrin both dressed against the Marlies, so they seem to have worked through their injuries for now.

The Stats

Skaters:

#		Player	Pos	GP	G	A	P	+/-	Sh	PIM
34		C. Bancks	LW	3	2	0	2		3	4
25		D. Archibald	LW	3	1	1	2		4	0
48		C. Robak	D	3	0	2	2		12	2
20		C. Kunyk	C	3	0	2	2		2	0
37		A. Pedan	D	3	1	0	1		8	2
4		E. McEneny	D	3	1	0	1		7	0
18		J. Virtanen	RW	3	1	0	1		5	8
38		C. Valk	C	3	0	1	1		10	2
18		M. Carcone	LW	3	0	1	1		2	4
7		J. Subban	D	2	0	0	0		7	0
71		B. Rendulic	RW	3	0	0	0		5	0
28		A. Grenier	RW	3	0	0	0		4	2
19		C. Cassels	C	3	0	0	0		3	2
5		D. Shields	D	2	0	0	0		3	0
36		W. Hamilton	C	3	0	0	0		2	2
24	†	D. Hulak	LW	2	0	0	0		2	2
41		C. Billins	D	2	0	0	0		1	0
43	†	T. Nilsson	D	1	0	0	0		1	0
9		Y. Laplante	LW	1	0	0	0		1	0
6	†	A. Sautner	D	2	0	0	0		0	0
11	†	M. Roy	LW	0	0	0	0		0	0
8	†	J. Negrin	D	0	0	0	0		0	0
14	†	M. Zalewski	C	0	0	0	0		0	0
21	†	P. DeSimone	C	0	0	0	0		0	0

† Missed game(s) due to injury/illness; * Missed game(s) due to NHL call up.

Goalies:

#	Player	GS	Record	TOI	GA	SA	Sv%	GAA
30	T. Demko	3	2-1-0	178.82	4	75	0.947	1.34
32	R. Bachman	0	0-0-0	0.00	0	0	N/A	N/A
35	M. Garteig	0	0-0-0	0.00	0	0	N/A	N/A

Thatcher Demko started all three games last weekend, and why wouldn’t he? Demko rocked a .947 save percentage across those three games, stopping 71 of 75 shots sent his way. Still, he only won two of the three games, as the Comets came up short in terms of run support.

It’s hard to say whether Michael Garteig is going to get anymore starts – it probably depends on the length of Bachman’s injury. If that were to extend for another couple of weeks, we’ll likely see Garteig spotted in on back-to-backs.

Team Level:

The Comets converted on just three of 21 power play opportunities last week (14.3 percent), which is a bit below their usual conversion rate. The 5-on-3 time that they failed to capitalize on only makes it more disappointing.

On the bright side, the Comets did not allow a power play goal against all week, as their penalty kill was a perfect 14-for-14. It was the first time this season that the Comets had gone back-to-back games without allowing a power play goal, let alone three straight games, and just the third, fourth, and fifth times this season that the penalty kill has been perfect for an entire game. Five games out of 21 without allowing power play goals is a pretty terrible rate, but at least they’re trending in the right direction. Their PK is now at 77 percent (prior to tonight’s game against the Marlies), easily the highest it has been all season.

In terms of shots, the Comets directed more pucks on net than their opponents in two of the three games last week, with the most impressive showing being the first period against Rochester in which they put up 18 shots.

Player of the Week

With three games to work with last week, no Comet managed to gather more than two points, with the team as a whole tallying just five goals all week. Yet they still managed to win twice, so obviously the real hero is Thatcher Demko and his larger than life .947 save percentage.

Demko’s start to his professional career was a little bumpy, but in recent weeks he’s looking like the goalie who was voted the best netminder in the NCAA in his final season there. Is it just a coincidence that Demko’s hot streak came out right as he defaulted into the starter’s job? I’m not sure, but he sure is making the most of it.

Here’s a selection of some of Demko’s saves from Saturday’s game against Albany:

Looking Ahead

The Comets are back in action tonight against the dreaded Marlies. They’ve been thwomped thrice already by the Marlies this season, being outscored by a margin of 14-5 across those three games. If there’s a bright side, it’s that the Marlies are stumbling a little bit of late, have won just three of their last ten games.

On the weekend, the Comets will head to Binghamton to take on the Ottawa Senators’ affiliates, the Senators. They’re dead last in the AHL’s eastern conference, and no longer have Curtis Lazar to score late game winners in the final minutes.

On Saturday, the Comets return home to play host to their arch-rivals, the Syracuse Crunch.