

Courtesy: UticaComets.com

Welcome back to our weekly edition of the Comets Militia report, where we give you all the details, rumours, analysis and statistics of those weird as sh*t Comets down in the AHL. With a heavy load this weekened due to a back-to-back-to-back, it was surprising to see the Comets finish out with 6 of 8 points and have seemingly put their losing streak behind them.

Continue past the jump for all your information on the farm team!

The Statistics

The Comets won 3 of their games this week to jump 1 spot in the league, they are still in 2nd in the conference and 4 points behind Oklahoma City for 1st in the West. Their goal differentials saw some improvement, while their shooting percentage is still below average. Their PK remains elite as they are 2nd in the league, but still can’t put pucks in the net.

Friday’s 4-2 Win @ Adirondack

[ Comets Review ] [ Highlights ]

Tom Sestito was hurt in the previous week so he did not play; Mike Zalewski came in the line up in his place.

Saturday’s 3-2 Win @ Adirondack

[ Comets Review ] [ Highlights ]

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The Comets were fatigued in this game, but was no excuse as Adirondack was as well. The Comets had the early lead but Adirondack pulled ahead until the 3rd period when Mike Zalewski tied up the game before scoring the game-winning goal too. The Comets decided to play the same goaltender in back-to-backs again.

Sunday’s 7-4 Win vs Binghamton

[ Comets Review ] [ Highlights ]

This was one of the craziest Comets games in a long time. Utica was chasing Bingo early after a couple of quick goals and were trailing until the 3rd when the levee broke and the Comets scored 4 times. Both teams had penalty shots and approximately a couple hundred penalty minutes were handed out. A list of all Comets who were in a fight in just this game include: D. Archibald, B. DeFazio, C. Bancks, A. Pedan, N. Jensen, and D. Archibald (again). Brendan Gaunce continues to really stand out this year, scoring once again, and likely providing more offence than was anticipated from him.

Wednesday’s 1-2 Loss vs Rochester

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[ Comets Review ] [ Highlights ]

With the Buffalo/Winnipeg trade that went down Wednesday, Rochester had to pull Joel Armia out of the line up at the last minute. Despite that, the Comets were outplayed in a low event game and weren’t able to walk away with any points.

The Players

Name Pos GP G A PTS +/- PIM PPG SOG SoG/G Sh% 21 Dustin Jeffrey C 40 14 20 34 7 14 0.85 78 1.95 17.95% 16 Cal O’Reilly C 47 4 30 34 -5 8 0.72 61 1.30 6.56% 24 Brandon DeFazio RW 46 14 13 27 5 58 0.59 113 2.46 12.39% 6 Bobby Sanguinetti D 39 10 13 23 20 6 0.59 82 2.10 12.20% 28 Alexandre Grenier RW 38 10 10 20 3 53 0.53 87 2.29 11.49% 10 Brendan Gaunce LW 46 6 14 20 6 15 0.43 98 2.13 6.12% 17 Nicklas Jensen RW 34 10 8 18 -11 19 0.53 100 2.94 10.00% 9 Hunter Shinkaruk LW 46 6 9 15 -5 20 0.33 94 2.04 6.38% 3 Alex Biega D 41 3 12 15 -2 16 0.37 73 1.78 4.11% 41 Will Acton C 35 7 7 14 -4 13 0.4 68 1.94 10.29% 25 Darren Archibald LW 42 6 7 13 7 73 0.31 76 1.81 7.89% 36 Wacey Hamilton C 31 4 9 13 4 25 0.42 42 1.35 9.52% 8 Alex Friesen C 32 5 7 12 9 41 0.38 53 1.66 9.43% 15 Ronalds Kenins LW 36 5 7 12 6 23 0.33 61 1.69 8.20% 37 Andrey Pedan D 33 2 10 12 5 105 0.36 60 1.82 3.33% 34 Carter Bancks RW 36 6 4 10 9 33 0.28 52 1.44 11.54% 4 Kane Lafranchise D 24 2 8 10 2 4 0.42 33 1.38 6.06% 26 Frank Corrado D 21 4 4 8 3 17 0.38 50 2.38 8.00% 14 Mike Zalewski LW 26 3 5 8 2 6 0.31 29 1.12 10.34% 40 Peter Andersson D 32 2 3 5 10 18 0.16 41 1.28 4.88% 29 Kent Huskins D 23 1 3 4 3 2 0.17 10 0.43 10.00% 2 Travis Ehrhardt D 25 1 3 4 1 18 0.16 25 1.00 4.00% 27 Tom Sestito LW 10 1 0 1 -2 20 0.1 11 1.10 9.09% 11 John Negrin D 19 0 1 1 2 4 0.05 17 0.89 0.00% 18 Patrick Kennedy RW 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 7 1.75 0.00%

The Goalies

Name GP Min GA SO GAA W L OT SA SVS SAV% Jacob Markstrom 22 1298:48:00 43 4 1.99 14 6 2 624 581 0.931 Joe Cannata 1 59:00:00 2 0 2.03 0 1 0 24 22 0.917 Joacim Eriksson 26 1490:17:00 61 0 2.46 14 6 4 705 644 0.913

Jacob Markstrom is currently 3rd in the AHL save percentage. His position changes every game.

The Transactions

Patrick Kennedy has been recalled from the ECHL to play in Utica. Bit of a surprise as there is a glut of forwards, but Tom Sestito is hurt.

Brandon McMillan was acquired off of waivers from the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday. McMillan will start with the Canucks, however it is not unreasonable to expect him to be in Utica before long, helping the Comets make a Calder Cup run.

The Schedule

The schedule for the next week is a mixed bag; there are no back-to-backs, and the games come against two weaker opponents, then Willie Desjardins’ old team. The Comets are visitors in 2 of the games, so that does work against them.

The News





