Parent Records Hat Trick, Comets Cruise to 5-1 Win
Feb 28, 2026Belleville, ON – The Comets headed to Belleville for the second of two against the Senators this weekend and won by a score of 5-1.
The trend of allowing early goals continued for Belleville as Marc McLaughlin struck just 2:11 into the game on a shot through traffic from the high slot which snuck past Senators’ goaltender Mads Sogaard to give the Comets a 1-0 lead with Nathan Legare and Topias Vilen picking up the assists. The Comets headed to the power play a few minutes later when Belleville defenseman Lassi Thomson was called for tripping, but the Sens killed it off. The Senators’ best chance of the period came shortly thereafter when Scott Harrington fed Xavier Bourgault at the top of the crease, but Jakub Malek was there to make the stop. The Comets nearly made it a 2-0 game towards the end of the period when Jack Malone fed Shane Lachance back door, but his backhand shot dribbled just past the far post and stayed out.
The Senators started the second period on the power play after Dmitry Osipov was called for boarding with 39 seconds left in the first, but the Comets were able to kill it off. The Senators would get on the board at the 6:52 mark when Carter Yakemchuk wheeled behind the Comets’ net and let a shot go from the left circle that beat Malek glove side to tie the game at one. It was Yakemchuk’s eighth of the year with Hayden Hodgson and Dennis Gilbert recording the assists. The Comets responded a little past the halfway mark of the period on a nice transition play as Matyas Melovsky glided into the offensive zone, made a cross-ice pass to Calen Addison who set up Xavier Parent on the doorstep for his 11th of the year which made it 2-1 at 11:18. The Comets got their second power play of the game when Belleville forward Jamison Rees was called for tripping and would capitalize when Xavier Parent scored his second of the period from the left circle on a nice set up from Calen Addison and Topias Vilen at 13:46 to make it 3-1. Just nine seconds later, Jonathan Gruden walked into the zone on an odd-man rush and fired a shot from the left circle that broke through Sogaard which made it a 4-1 Comets’ lead on Gruden’s sixth of the year. The Comets headed back to the power play towards the end of the period when Tyler Boucher was called for slashing, and it was Xavier Parent again, finishing a backdoor pass from Topias Vilen to make it 5-1 and completing the hat trick at 18:55. It was Parent’s 13th of the year and the Comets’ first hat trick since January 22nd of last season.
The Senators would get another early power play opportunity to start the third when Shane Lachance was called for tripping, but the Comets killed it off and Jakub Malek made some of his best stops of the game, several of which came from the league’s top scorer in Arthur Kaliyev who also rang one off the post. The Senators pushed the pace in the third and threw a total of 10 shots at Malek, who turned aside all of them. The feistiness picked up later in the third as a few misconducts were assessed to each side, and the teams combined for 54 penalty minutes in the game. No scoring took place in the third as the Comets made it back-to-back wins against the Senators and another five goals on the board.
The Comets outshot the Senators 35-28 and went 2-for-3 on the power play while going 4-for-4 on the penalty kill.
The Comets are back home on Tuesday at 7 pm against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. For tickets or more information, fans can visit uticacomets.com/tickets or call 315-790-9070.