COMETS DEFUSE ROCKET TO WIN THIRD STRAIGHT
Jan 10, 2018Laval, QUE. – The Utica Comets defeated the Laval Rocket by a score of 5-1 Wednesday night at Place Bell.
Chris Terry scored first to give Laval a 1-0 lead at the 7:12 mark of the first period, blasting a one-timer by Thatcher Demko. Nikita Scherbak and Adam Cracknell registered the assists. Marco Roy responded 1:18 later by tipping a shot from Guillaume Brisebois past Rocket goaltender Michael McNiven. Vincent Arseneau also picked up an assist. Philip Holm scored the eventual game winning goal with a power play strike 1:13 later. Reid Boucher and Cole Cassels tallied the assists. Adam Comrie extended the lead to 3-1 with a power play goal just 10 seconds into the man advantage. Patrick Wiercioch and Dylan Blujus collected the assists.
Andrew Cherniwchan continued the onslaught with a goal two and a half minutes into the second period. Jalen Chatfield had the lone assist. Cassels buried a power play goal to make it 5-1 to put the game out of reach with 3:31 to go in the third. Wiercioch and Comrie collected the assists.
Demko made 36 saves, including 28 in the final two periods, to improve his record to 13-6-5. McNiven stopped 25 shots. His record falls to 5-6-1. The Comets power play went 3-4, while the penalty kill did not allow a goal in five attempts.
The Comets return to action Friday night as they faceoff with the Syracuse Crunch in game five of the Galaxy Cup series. Puck drops at 7 p.m. at the Adirondack Bank Center. Fans are encouraged to utilize the ticket exchange website, StubHub!. The game can be heard on 94.9 KROCK and viewed on AHL Live.
The 2018 AHL All-Star Classic will be hosted at the newly renovated Adirondack Bank Center at the Utica Memorial Auditorium. The two-day event includes the AHL All-Star Skills Competition on Sunday, January 28, followed by the AHL Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Ceremony on Monday, January 29 and the 2018 AHL All-Star Challenge later that evening. The Skills Competition and the All-Star Challenge will take place in downtown Utica; all other events during the All-Star Classic will take place at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York. For tickets to the two-day event, visit empirestatetix.com.