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Utica Week in Review: March 9th
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Jeremy Davis
Mar 9, 2016, 19:49 ESTUpdated:
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Photo credit: Lindsay A. Mogle / Utica Comets
The Utica are a difficult group to predict. There have been long series of lulls in their play, extended losing streaks and the occasional disappointing effort. Then there are periods of sheer dominance, hot streaks that last for weeks and seemingly unstoppable waves of offensive possession.
The last couple of weeks, I would have been totally understanding if the former came to pass – the Comets lost their top scorer to a trade, then their new top scorer to a call up. Most recently, they lost their new third place scorer to an injury. Then they go into a three-in-three weekend in which they would play the AHL’s runaway top team not once, but twice. They should be dead in the water, ripe for the picking.
You won’t believe what happens next.
No, no, I hate click bait. They won all the games. That’s what happened.

The Games

March 4th vs Toronto: 4 – 0 Win
The Utica Comets came out of the gates firing on all cylinders Friday night, striking twice in the first period, on their way to defeating the Toronto Marlies 4-0 at the Utica Memorial Auditorium. Joe Cannata stopped all 33 Marlies shots to send the American Hockey League’s top offensive team off with their first shutout loss of the season.
Darren Archibald (2-0-2), Ronalds Kenins (1-1-2), Alex Friesen (0-2-2) and Andrey Pedan (0-2-2) lit up the scorer’s sheet with multi-point efforts, and Alexandre Grenier (1-0-1) scored his 11th of the season in the win. The Comets league-leading home penalty-killing unit went a perfect 4-for-4 to improve their success rate to 91.7% at The AUD.
From the Utica Comets post-game report.
March 5th vs Springfield: 2 – 1 Win
The Utica Comets jumped out to a 2-0 lead and then held off the Springfield Falcons onslaught Saturday night to win 2-1 at the Utica Memorial Auditorium. The game came down to a matter of inches, as the Falcons had a goal waved off due to a high with 24 seconds remaining on the clock.
Taylor Fedun (0-2-2) and Alex Friesen (0-2-2) recorded multi-point nights for the Comets, while Chris Higgins (1-0-1) and Ronalds Kenins (1-0-1) handled all the scoring for Utica. Richard Bachman made 21 saves on 22 Falcons shots to secure the Comets victory.
From the Utica Comets post-game report.
March 6th at Toronto: 5 – 4 Win
Despite holding a 4-1 lead entering the third period, the Utica Comets needed Darren Archibald’s goal with 63 seconds left in the game to edge the league-leading Toronto Marlies by the score of 5-4 at the Ricoh Coliseum on Sunday afternoon. With the win the Comets ended their season series with a 3-3-0-2 record, and eight out of a possible 16 points, against the Marlies.
Travis Ehrhardt (1-1-2), Jordan Subban (1-1-2), Darren Archibald (1-1-2), Brandon Prust (0-2-2), and Alexandre Grenier (1-1-2) posted multi-point games, while Joe Cannata turned aside 32 of the Marlies 36 shots for his second win of the weekend.
From the Utica Comets post-game report.

Roster Report

It’s hard to put too much stock into last weekend’s lines. Already dreadfully short on centre depth, the loss of Zalewski forced the Comets into some odd combinations, including Chris Higgins playing centre. These are some of the lines combos, but there were plenty of in game changes made.
Roster Information:
The big news on the roster front is that the Comets acquired T.J. Hensick the other day in a trade, dealing Blair Jones to the Charlotte Checkers. Hensick is a legitimate AHL first line centre, so this is big news for the Comets, who are still in good position for the playoff push. You can read more about that deal – and what it means to the Comets – here.
In other news, the Comets signed Kellen Jones to a PTO. He briefly played on a line with Blair Jones, necessitating first initials on the jerseys, which always reminds me of the Sedins when I see it… Good times. Anyways, that’s over now, because Blair Jones is gone. Deal with it.
Injury Update:
For the first time in months, Blair Jones will not be part of the injury report. Poor fella, finally got healthy and now he’s gone.
Not healthy though is Mike Zalewski, the feel good story of the season. The New Hartford native was run over by one of those damned dirty Marlies, Sam Carrick, and hasn’t returned to play since. Meanwhile, Carrick got off scott free – rather than getting suspended, he went on to score a couple of goals against the Comets two nights later. Those Comets really are Vancouver’s affiliate, I tell ya.
Wacey Hamilton, an excellent energy player, and one of the few natural centremen on the team, is also sidelined. This is a big blow to the Comets – Hamilton’s offensive numbers are modest, but he is the team’s best faceoff man and likely gets more shorthanded minutes than any other forward.
Finally, Jon Landry is out week-to-week. Landry originally joined the Comets on a PTO, earning an AHL contract just recently. He’s spent most of his time in Utica with Jordan Subban on a high octane defence pairing that attacks first and asks questions later. They also ran the second unit power play together.

The Stats

Skaters:
#
Player
GP
G
A
P
+/-
Sh
PIM
25
D. Archibald
3
3
1
4
+3
7
4
8
A. Friesen
3
0
4
4
+3
8
2
15
R. Kenins
3
2
1
3
+3
8
0
28
A. Grenier
3
2
1
3
-1
7
5
37
A. Pedan
3
1
2
3
+4
6
10
2
T. Ehrhardt
3
1
2
3
+4
5
2
7
J. Subban
3
1
1
2
+2
8
0
26
B. Prust
3
0
2
2
0
2
0
34
C. Bancks
3
0
2
2
+3
2
2
27
T. Fedun
3
0
2
2
-1
4
0
21
C. Higgins
3
1
0
1
-3
9
2
11
J. Negrin
3
0
1
1
-2
2
0
24
C. Cassels
3
0
1
1
+1
1
0
36
†
W. Hamilton
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
14
†
M. Zalewski
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
20
†
J. Landry
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
5
D. Shields
2
0
0
0
+1
3
0
22
B. Jones
3
0
0
0
0
6
6
6
A. Sautner
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
13
B. Marino
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
19
G. Hanson
2
0
0
0
+2
2
0
10
*
B. Gaunce
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
16
J. LaBate
3
0
0
0
0
6
2
18
K. Jones
2
0
0
0
0
3
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
1-0-0
1
22
.955
1.00
35
J. Cannata
2
2-0-0
4
69
.942
2.00
Richard Bachman was solid this week, while it was Joe Cannata’s turn to be a little leaky. Granted, he was playing against the Marlies, who are scary, and he also had a shutout in the same week (also against the Marlies), so it’s kind of a draw, really.
Joe Cannata last lost in regulation on January 23rd. Since then, he is 7-0-1, with a 1.99 goals against average and a .935 save percentage in eight starts. He’s in playoff mode already.
Prospects:
Alex Friesen has been relatively quiet since his return from the NHL, but last weekend he managed to put up four assists. He’s sixth on the Comets in points.
Ronalds Kenins knows the score in Vancouver – everything is terrible and they could take a look at anybody, anytime. If Linden Vey got another chance, why not him (okay, it would actually be like his fourth chance…). That’s the only explanation for Kenins putting up 14 points in his last 11 games. Being held off the scoresheet on Sunday ended a seven-game point streak for the Latvian Locomotive (we can call up that again now).
Alex Grenier seems to be similarly motivated, with six goals and 14 points in his last 13 games, after collecting no points in his previous ten games. Grenier’s year can easily be categorized as disappointing, as his numbers at the AHL level have seemingly plateaued in a year that many of us hoped would have him banging on the door for an NHL call up. In a confusing twist, I’d have to say that in the one game that Grenier played in the NHL this year, he looked the best out of all the Utica call ups. I do still believe that the Canucks are only a single injury away from giving him another call.
Andrey Pedan had a goal and two assists on the weekend, on the heels of being named Player of the Week in the last edition of the Utica Week in Review. Clearly he’s heard about the Nikita Tryamkin business and wants to join him in Vancouver. Wouldn’t that be a sight…
On the complete opposite end of the height spectrum is Jordan Subban. The 5-foot-9 defender had a goal and an assist, continuing to lead all Comets defencemen in points. Unlike some of these other guys, I don’t think we’ll be seeing Subban in the NHL this season, but that’s alright. He’s the youngest of the bunch at 21 years old, and probably has the most to work on in terms of playing a “responsible game”. No rush.
Cole Cassels collected a point on the weekend! Rejoice! He set up Darren Archibald’s game winning goal against the Marlies on Sunday, giving some high importance to this rarest of occurrences. Archibald did most of the work, but Cassels’ contribution was a necessary factor in the goal. Now if we can just see some of that more than once a month, we’ll be set.
Mike Zalewski had no points in one game, although that one game was more like five minutes… That’s about all the time Sam Carrick waited before taking Zalewski’s head off on Friday. He hasn’t skated since.
Ashton Sautner had no points in one game last weekend. As far as I can tell, the two games that Sautner missed were of the healthy variety. Sautner’s scratches are likely more a result of being a rookie, needing to bulk up a little, and Utica having some modest defensive depth. He’s still have a fairly success rookie campaign.
Brendan Gaunce is in the NHL, and so he did not play in the AHL last weekend. That’s how it works.
Team Level:
The Comets were outshot by the Marlies on both Friday and Sunday, which isn’t surprising given how dominant Toronto has been this year. Utica did outshoot Springfield 32-22 on Saturday.
The Comets were 3-for-13 on the power play last weekend, which is much better than usual. Some modest man advantage success bumped them all they up to 25th in the league, converting at 15.2 per cent. This is why they brought in T.J. Hensick, an actual power play producer. Hopefully we’ll see the benefits of that addition this coming weekend.
Utica killed off 11 out of the 12 shorthanded situations they found themselves in, which is even more impressive considering that they did most of it without Mike Zalewski and all out it without Wacey Hamilton and Brendan Gaunce. Chris Higgins and Brandon Prust have been huge in this regard. The Comets’ penalty kill is eighth in the league, with a 84.9 per cent success rate. At home however, they league the AHL, killing a clean 92 per cent of man disadvantages.
Leaders:

Player of the Week

It would be nice to always give the Play of the Week honours to Canucks prospects, since they’ve been driving the bus in Utica for most of the season, but this time around Darren Archibald just flat out earned it.
Archibald scored three goals on the weekend, all of them against the typically stingy Marlies. His first two weren’t too shabby, but it was the third goal that takes the cake.
Not only was this goal a masterpiece of hard work and perseverance, but it killed a Marlies comeback. After leading 4-1 in the third period on Sunday, the Comets allowed three goals and looked to be headed to overtime on their heels, until Archibald put them in their place with 63 seconds remaining in regulation.
Archibald began this season in the ECHL before making his triumphant return to Utica about 20 games into the season. He was originally signed to an NHL deal by the Mike Gillis regime in 2012, and spent a bit of time in the NHL with the Tortorella led Canucks.
He’s now a fan favourite in Utica, though more for his infectious upbeat attitude and rough and tumble style of play, rather than his goal scoring ability. The man even had the gall to take on NHL all-star Jon Scott recently.

Looking Ahead

For the third straight weekend, the Comets will play a three-in-three set. This time though, all three games will be on the road.
It begins on Friday in Rochester, where the Comets will take on the Americans, who sit at 4th place in the North Division. They’ll be looking to make up ground on the Comets. Utica has handled the Amerks well this season, winning five of the six matchups.
On Saturday the Comets will take on the Devils in Albany. The Devils sit in second place in the North Division, and a regulation win there will bring Utica closer to the top of the division. These two teams have faced off six times this season, with Albany taking four of the games.
The Comets will complete the three-in-three on Sunday in Providence. The little Bruins have a record that is pretty darn close to identical to the Comets’ record. It’s only the second time this season that these two teams will meet. In the last matchup, the Comets ventilated Malcolm Subban for five goals, including a Hunter Shinkaruk hat-trick – suffice it to say that the offence will have to come from somewhere else this time.

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