Comets Felled by the Senators

by Mark Caswell, Jr.

Apr 11, 2015

It took extra hockey, a shootout to be exact, but the Utica Comets fell to the Binghamton Senators 3-2 Friday night at the Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena.

Brandon DeFazio (1-0-1) and Hunter Shinkaruk (1-0-1) scored for the Comets, while Joacim Eriksson made 35 saves in the loss. Cal O’Reilly did not register for a point for the first time in 14-games, which is a 2014-15 season high in the American Hockey League.

After a scoreless first period, the Comets wasted little time in the second period. Off of a face-off to the left of Senators’ goaltender Chris Driedger, Alexandre Grenier found Shinkaruk all alone in the slot for the game’s first goal just 50 seconds into the period.

Cashing in on a Comets turnover, Cole Schneider ripped a shot over the glove of Eriksson to tie the game at 1-1.

With 8:13 left the Comets re-took the lead once again. On the power play, Alex Friesen sprung Brendan Gaunce and DeFazio in on a two-on-one. Gaunce sauced a pass over a sprawled out Senators’ defender to DeFazio who one-timed it home. The goal was DeFazio’s first goal on the road since November 21 vs. Rochester.

Skating four-on-four just over three minutes later, the game was once again knotted. A two-on-one opportunity for the Senators. Eriksson turned aside the original shot from Derek Grant, but Buddy Robinson was there to pop the rebound into the empty net.

After a scoreless third period and overtime, the teams headed to a shootout. The Senators scored in the second round, and that is all they would need to seal up the win.

The Comets will wrap up their three-in-three weekend tomorrow afternoon as they take on the Syracuse Crunch at the Utica Memorial Auditorium at 3pm.