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Utica Week In Revew: October 19th
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Jeff Veillette
Oct 19, 2015, 21:23 EDTUpdated: Invalid DateTime
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You may have noticed that Josh’s prospect articles have been missing the AHL. Well, that’s because they get their own piece! This week, we look back at the first two games that the Utica Comets played, though, if we’re being honest, you’re not missing much by having not seen them.

The Games

Utica @ Rochester (2-1 Loss)
The Utica Comets season did not get off on the right foot as they fell 2-1 to the Rochester Americans Saturday night at the Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial. Amerks’ goaltender Linus Ullmark stole the show with 38 saves, several of the highlight-reel variety.
Nicklas Jensen (1-0-1) scored the Comets lone goal of the game, and Joe Cannata made 20 saves in the loss.
It took over 22 minutes for the scoreless tie to be broken. A neutral zone turnover sprung the Amerks on a half-ice two-on-one. Tim Schaller and Justin Bailey exchanged a pair of passes before Schaller wristed a shot on net. Cannata was there to stop the first two chances before Jerry D’Amigo chipped the puck over the sprawled out goalie.
Just 14 seconds later Nevins doubled the Amerks lead. Cannata stopped Nevins initial shot from the top of the crease, but had no answer for the quick rebound. Matt Ellis and Jean Dupuy both picked up their fourth points of the season with assists on the goal.
The Comets finally got on the board 5:53 into the third period. Michael Zalewski slid a pass to Hunter Shinkaruk who, from his knees, one-touched a pass to Jensen at the top of the circle. Jensen unleashed a wrist shot that screamed over the glove hand of Linus Ullmark.
The Comets penalty-killing unit went a perfect 4-for-4, while the power play went 0-for-3. Jensen and Taylor Fedun fired from everywhere, and led the Comets with six shots.
Utica @ Hartford (3-0 Loss)
Release from UticaComets.com:
The Utica Comets are still in search of their first win after dropping their second game of the season by the score of 3-0 to the Hartford Wolf Pack at the XL Center on Saturday night. Wolf Pack goaltender Magnus Hellberg pitched a 30-save shutout en route to his second win of the season.
The home team kicked off the game’s scoring 8:20 into the first frame when Richard Nejezchleb potted his first goal of the season. Off of a three-on-two rush, Cannata turned aside Chad Nehring’s shot from the short side before Calle Andersson chipped the rebound to the slot for the eventual tally.
The Pack doubled up their lead 7:35 into the third period. Adam Tambellini, on a breakaway, slipped a shot through the legs of Cannata for his second goal of the season. Brian Gibbons picked up an assist on the play.
Nehring added an empty-net goal from center ice with 2:44 to play to put the game away.
The Comets penalty-killing unit went a perfect three-for-three, running their season total to seven-for-seven. Joe Cannata made 25 saves in the loss.

The Stats

Pos#NameGPGAPTS+/-SOGPIM
D
2
T. Ehrhardt
1
0
0
0
-1
0
0
D
3
A. Biega
2
0
0
0
-2
2
0
D
4
E. McEneny
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
D
6
A. Sautner
1
0
0
0
-2
0
0
D
7
J. Subban
1
0
0
0
-1
2
2
C
8
A. Friesen
2
0
0
0
0
3
0
LW
9
H. Shinkaruk
2
0
1
1
0
4
0
LW
10
B. Gaunce
2
0
0
0
-3
6
2
D
11
J. Negrin
2
0
0
0
0
4
0
LW
12
J. Kurtz
1
0
0
0
-1
1
0
C
14
M. Zalewski
2
0
1
1
1
0
2
LW
15
R. Kenins
2
0
0
0
-1
4
2
RW
17
N. Jensen
2
1
0
1
0
8
0
C
18
L. Vey
2
0
0
0
-4
3
0
C
22
B. Jones
2
0
0
0
0
6
0
RW
24
C. Cassels
2
0
0
0
-2
2
0
D
27
T. Fedun
2
0
0
0
0
9
0
RW
28
A. Grenier
2
0
0
0
-3
7
2
D
32
M. Stewart
1
0
0
0
0
1
15
LW
34
C. Bancks
2
0
0
0
-1
2
0
D
37
A. Pedan
2
0
0
0
-1
5
2
The great resource that is Josh’s CHLStats.com estimates Utica’s Fenwick close at 53.66%, ninth best in the AHL. They’ve averaged 9.5 more shots per game than their opponents but have been hurt by their league-worst shooting percentage of 1.45%. It goes without saying that they’re due for a regression to the mean soon; two games is too early to declare them unlikely to ever score again.
Between the pipes, Joe Cannata stopped 45 of 49 shots and posted a 0.918 save percentage.

Player of the Week

As mentioned above, the Comets have been outshooting their opponents but not getting the expected results, so we’ll give this to Nicklas Jensen for having the second-most shots on the team and scoring their only goal over the two weeks. Needless to say, we’re hoping next week’s POTW will be better.

Looking Ahead

The Comets will face the Amerks once again this week, taking on Rochester on Wednesday night. This will be their home opener, and the start of a homestand that sees them also face the Hershey Bears on Friday and Syracuse Crunch on Saturday. The latter two games will be tricky ones; the affiliates of Washington and Tampa Bay are full of quality talent who can really turn on the jets when they need to, though Hershey’s early-season goaltending struggles might be happening at just the right time for the Comets to get in some target practice.
Photo via UticaComets.com

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