Utica Week in Review: March 21st – 27th
By Jeremy Davis
8 years ago
Photo credit: Lindsay A. Mogle / Utica Comets
The Comets have been doing a lot more sinking than swimming lately, but they did manage to scrounge a few points out of last week’s trio of games. Saturday’s blowout win over Binghamton ended a five-game losing streak and was just their second win in their last nine games. Meanwhile, Jonathan Drouin and a reinvigorated Syracuse Crunch are hot on their tail in the AHL standings.
The Comets have been suffering in the goals column lately, and a five goal performance on Saturday was a welcome development. Still, there isn’t much to report in terms of Canucks prospect production. That said, they did get some contributions from a couple of new internal arrivals.
The Games
Wednesday, March 23rd vs Syracuse: 3 – 1 Loss
The Utica Comets extended their losing streak to four game after losing 3-1 to rival Syracuse Crunch, in a chippy affair Wednesday night at the Utica Memorial Auditorium. The regulation to the Crunch was the Comets first of its kind on home ice to their Galaxy Cup rivals. The Galaxy Cup series now rests at 4-3-0-0, in Utica’s favor.
Alex Freisen (1-0-1), Ashton Sautner (0-1-1), and Ronalds Kenins (0-1-1) each recorded a point for the Comets, while Joe Cannata made 15 saves in his first regulation loss in 10 games.
From the Utica Comets post-game report.
Friday, March 25th vs Hershey: 2 – 1 Overtime Loss
After suffering a 2-1 overtime loss to the Hershey Bears on Friday night at the Utica Memorial Auditorium, the Utica Comets grabbed just three points during their season-high five-game home stand.
Jordan Subban (1-0-1), Carter Bancks (0-1-1), and T.J. Hensick (0-1-1) each recorded a point for the Comets in the loss. Richard Bachman kept the Comets in the game with some spectacular saves, stopping 29 shots for Utica.
From the Utica Comets post-game report.
Saturday, March 26th at Binghamton: 5 – 1 Win
The Senators did not do a highlight package for Saturday’s game, so here’s an gif of a Ronalds Kenins goal from really far away:
For good measure, here are links to the other goals from Kellen Jones, Curtis Valk, T.J. Hensick, and Jon Landry.
The Utica Comets offense exploded for five goals in a 5-1 win over the Binghamton Senators at the Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena on Saturday evening. The win snapped the Comets five game losing streak and reduced their magic number to 17 points for the coveted third playoff spot in the North Division.
Kellen Jones (1-1-2), and Curtis Valk (1-1-2) enjoyed multi-point nights, while Ronalds Kenins (1-0-1), T.J. Hensick (1-0-1), and Jon Landry (1-0-1) also added goals. Joe Cannata made 35 saves in his 18th win of the season.
From the Utica Comets post-game report.
Roster Report
Lines:
Roster Moves:
The Comets have been on a PTO spree of late, and their lineup has been patched together with a slew of scraps and leftovers that should make any Utica/Vancouver fan nervous.
Following Wednesday’s game, the Comets got some reinforcements from within, as Alexandre Grenier was returned by the Canucks, and Utica called up Curtis Valk from the ECHL. I bemoaned last week that the Comets had neglected to use the players stashed in the ECHL to this point, and Valk was the best of the options available down in Kalamazoo. He had himself a solid week, so hopefully we’ll be seeing plenty more of him down the stretch.
In other news, Evan Rankin has been released from his PTO. He played in three games and recorded no points.
Injury Update:
The Utica infirmary is still packed full of bodies, much like that of its parent club.
Mike Zalewski returned to action last night against Rochester (the game will be covered in next week’s recap) after missing 11 games with a concussion. Wacey Hamilton has been skating with a non-contact jersey, but his return date is unknown.
Darren Archibald, John Negrin, and the recently signed Kellan Lain are also out with injuries. Brandon Prust is technically on the roster, but will not return this season after heading home to rehab his ankle injury.
The Stats
Skaters:
| # | Player | GP | G | A | P | +/- | Sh | PIM | |
| 15 | R. Kenins | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 6 | ||
| 17 | T. Hensick | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 2 | ||
| 18 | K. Jones | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 | ||
| 38 | C. Valk | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | ||
| 34 | C. Bancks | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 | ||
| 8 | A. Friesen | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | ||
| 7 | J. Subban | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0 | ||
| 20 | J. Landry | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | ||
| 16 | J. LaBate | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | ||
| 6 | A. Sautner | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||
| 39 | M. Bubela | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 28 | * | A. Grenier | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | |
| 27 | T. Fedun | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2 | ||
| 23 | M. Pereira | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | ||
| 2 | T. Ehrhardt | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | ||
| 24 | C. Cassels | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | ||
| 13 | B. Marino | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | ||
| 5 | D. Shields | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 19 | G. Hanson | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | ||
| 55 | E. Rankin | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | ||
| 21 | * | C. Higgins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 4 | W. Wrenn | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 25 | † | D. Archibald | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 37 | * | A. Pedan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 11 | † | J. Negrin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 26 | † | B. Prust | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 36 | † | W. Hamilton | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 14 | † | M. Zalewski | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 10 | * | B. Gaunce | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
† Missed game(s) due to injury/illness; * Missed game(s) due to NHL call up.
Goalies:
| # | Goalie | GS | Record | GA | SA | Sv% | GAA |
| 32 | R. Bachman | 1 | 0-0-1 | 2 | 31 | 0.935 | 1.94 |
| 35 | J. Cannata | 2 | 1-1-0 | 3 | 53 | 0.943 | 1.52 |
For the first time in months, a Comets goalie started consecutive games – thankfully, it was Joe Cannata, whose numbers have been superior to Richard Bachman’s for the vast majority of the season. I can’t say for sure what Travis Green’s reasons were for breaking the rotation, whether it was merit based on because Bachman was fighting some ailment, but I do hope it continues. With so much of the AHL schedule involving games on consecutive nights, there’s no need for Cannata to start every game. However, a Cannata-Bachman-Cannata rotation could improve the Comets’ goaltending in the long run – a necessary improvement for a team that regularly struggles to score goals.
Note: Bachman started last night, so it doesn’t seem like my Cannata-heavy rotation suggestion will be taking effect – at least not yet.
Prospects:
There wasn’t a ton of offense last week, with the majority coming in the Saturday game, but a number of prospects made some contributions.
Ronalds Kenins and Curtis Valk both tallied a goal an assist last week. After a brief point drought, Kenins is back to putting up numbers, with four points in his last six games. Kenins has long since surpassed his 2014-15 AHL point total, when he had 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in 36 games; he has 20 points (four goals, 16 assists) in 34 games this season. Kenins also had a team high 10 shots on net across three games last week.
Valk’s two points were the first two in his AHL career. This is his third AHL call up, though his first two resulted in just a single game each. He played both his games last week at centre, first between a pair of energy players, before having Alex Grenier assigned to his wing on Saturday.
Alex Friesen and Jordan Subban each scored once. Friesen and Subban have played roughly the same amount of games, but Subban is ahead in most offensive categories. Subban has 34 points (11 goals, 23 assists) in 59 games to Friesen’s 26 points (10 goals, 16 assists) in 57 games. The major difference between the two though: Subban is a rookie defenceman, while Friesen is a centre in his fourth professional season. Hmm.
Joe LaBate, Ashton Sautner, and Alex Grenier each had one assist last week. The Comets lineup has become so messed up that it’s extremely difficult to tell which is the top line (since we don’t have TOI to go on). An argument could be made that Joe LaBate has seen some first line time of late, playing with presumptive first line centre T.J. Hensick, as well as time with presumptive first line winger Alex Grenier. LaBate and Grenier flanked the new guy, Curtis Valk, on Saturday night, and that set up appears to be carrying forward into this week.
Sautner is an interesting case this season. He’s a relatively frequent healthy scratch, which instantly makes the uninitiated presume he is lagging behind. However, in the games he does play, he has frequently been paired with a high minute defenceman like Andrey Pedan or Taylor Fedun and sees a decent amount of ice time at even strength. We recently ranked him as the Canucks’ 14th best prospect, and in that article I noted that some of his contributions may be missed by his rather pedestrian box car numbers. Without on-ice statistics, this area of a player’s game is substantially more difficult to assess.
Team Level:
The Comets were outshout 85-81 cumulatively last week, though context paints a clearer picture. Utica outshot Syracuse 29-18 in a close game (Utica trailed by one goal until a Syracuse empty netter with 15 seconds remaining), though score effects helped a bit in a third period where the Comets outshot the Crunch 18-3.
Shots were pretty even in the game against Hershey, where the Comets trailed 31-27. Utica was outshot 36-25 by Binghamton, but this included a 14-6 third period in favor of Binghamton – a period in which the Comets held a lengthy five-goal lead.
The Comets were 1-for-16 on the power play last week, which is terrible – though not terribly unexpected. Their season conversion rate continues to drop – it’s now at 27th in the AHL, at 14.6 per cent.
On the bright side, they did kill 11 of 12 penalties, continuing their strong play short handed. Their kill rate is up to 85.8 per cent on the year, which is sixth in the AHL, and continues to be atop the league at home, with a kill rate of 91.2 per cent at the AUD this season. They also scored their 13th shorthanded goal of the campaign on Saturday, which ties the league lead in that category.
Leaders:
Player of the Week
The week’s recipient of the acclaimed Player of the Week honour is Curtis Valk, who just recently received an AHL call up and followed it up with his first career AHL goal. He also added an assist to make it a multi-point night.
We at Canucks Army have an inexplicable infatuation with Curtis Valk (no other player on a minor league contract would get an article dedicated to an AHL call up). He’s speedy, skilled and tenacious, though his small stature is likely always going to be a stumbling block.
That said, if Valk can find the back of the net in Utica, it will be difficult – if not impossible – for the offensively challenged Comets to let him go back down to Kalamazoo this season. A strong finish to the year will put him in a good position to start next season in Utica.
That’s where he probably should have been anyways were it not for a knee injury that kept him out of the game for an entire calendar year. He’s torn up the ECHL in two separate stints, proving that he’s ready for the next level. ECHL players are very difficult to evaluate, so seeing him in the AHL will give us a much better opportunity to track his progress and predict where he might go in the future.
Looking Ahead
The Comets played last night against Rochester, and will have two more games this weekend.
On Friday, they will host the Springfield Falcons. This is the fourth and final meeting of the season between the clubs, with Utica taking two of the previous three matches. This really is a team that Utica should be beating – the Falcons are dead last in the Eastern Conference.
On Saturday the Comets get back on the road, visiting Binghamton to take on the Senators for the third straight week. Binghamton sits in the North Division’s basement with 60 points in 67 games heading into Tuesday night. The Comets have defeated them three times in five meetings so far, with one of their losses being in the shootout while icing what might have been their worst lineup of the season. The Comets have three games remaining against Binghamton (including this Saturday) and need to make them count.
Including this weekend, the Comets have just nine games remaining, and all nine of them are against teams below them in the standings. They’ll play the Atlantic Division’s worst team (the Falcons) once, then the North Division’s worst team (the Senators) three times, and its second worst team (the IceCaps) twice. That leaves three games against the Syracuse Crunch, a team nipping at their heels for a playoff spot. Those three games are of vital importance to the Comets, but they also can’t afford to pass up an opportunity to grab some points from games against the Eastern Conference’s minnows.
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