Comets Pour it On Rochester; 8th Straight Win

The Utica Comets (42-19-6-1) came one step closer to clinching a berth in the AHL playoffs on Wednesday night in front of a near capacity crowd at the Utica Memorial Auditorium.  The Comets, first place in the Northern division of the Western Conference, skated past rival Rochester 5-1 to come ever so close to clinching a playoff spot. It was Utica's 8th straight win, a franchise record.

The Comets needed three things to happen in order to clinch their first Calder Cup playoff spot tonight. First, the Comets must win in regulation, which they did. Secondly, the Toronto Marlies must lose in regulation to the Chicago Wolves, which they did 2-1, and lastly, the Adirondack Flames must lose, in any fashion, to the Texas Stars. That game started at 8:30 and is currently in the 2nd period with Adirondack trailing 3-2.

Game Summary

Sven Baertschi (2-0-2) found the back of the net twice for his 13th point in 12 games as a Comets. Ben Hutton (1-0-1) scored his first professional goal in his professional hockey debut, while Hunter Shinkaruk (1-0-1) scored his fifth goal in just as many games to give the Comets the early advantage. Cal O’Reilly (0-1-1) also attributed to tonight’s success and extended his point-streak to a career-high 11 games with his 44th assist of the season.

After outshooting the Americans 19-6, the hard work finally paid off at the tail end of the first period. Adam Clendening kept the Comets power play alive as he fed it off to Brendan Gaunce at the corner boards. What followed was a couple of ideal passes that led to Shinkaruk banging it in on the left side for the power-play goal and the 1-0 lead at 17:33. Nicklas Jensen received the secondary assist on the play.

The Comets continued to throw them at the Americans rookie goaltender Anthony Peters immediately into the start of the second stanza. After receiving a pass from Alex Biega, Hutton found his spot just above the slot and snapped one home for his first point in the American Hockey League that gave the Comets their second goal of the night.

Just over two minutes later the Comets found themselves on another power play and Baertschi found his first goal of the game on a one-timer that flew past the glove hand of Peters for their second power-play goal of the game and their third unanswered goal.

Rochester had their turn on the power play with less than 30 seconds left in the period and found a goal directly off the faceoff in the Comets zone. Dan Catenacci was credited with the Americans’ only goal of the game as he tipped it through the legs of Joacim Eriksson.

With the start of the third period came a goaltending change as Rochester swapped Peters for untested rookie Sam Marotta.

Naturally, just 20 seconds into the start of the third, the Comets found their fourth of the game after O’Reilly dished a no-look pass to the right dot. Alexandre Grenier received the pass and snapped it to the short side to make it 4-1. Clendening also received an assist on the play.

Marotta continued to stop most of the Comets in his AHL debut, but a one-on-one with Baertschi was too much for the netminder to handle. The Switzerland native deked Marotta out of position and backhanded the puck in for a final score of 5-1. Cory Conacher received an assist as well as Alex Friesen who tallied his second of the game.

The Comets hit the road this weekend.  They're heading to Hamilton, Ontario to face the Bulldogs at 7 p.m..  They return home to face Hamilton on April 7th at the Aud.