CEDAR PARK, Texas After falling behind 4-0, the Utica Comets made the closing periods interesting for the Texas Stars by getting to within one score, but their comeback bid came up just short that was deterred by a Curtis McKenzie goal as they wound up falling, 5-3, on Saturday night.

Travis Morin proved to be too much for the Comets to handle as he led the Stars with a three-goal hat trick to drop Uticas record to 11-19-2-2 and improve Texas to 23-10-2-3.

Morin fired in all of his three goals in back-to-back-to-back occurances to kick the game off with his first coming off a feed from Colton Sceviour.

Less than four minutes later, Morin netted his second goal of the night as he cut across the ice and fired a wrist shot past Comets goaltender Joe Cannata from the top of the circle.

Morin finished his hat trick 4:53 into the second period with his league-leading 23rd goal of the season when he tucked a wrist shot just under the crossbar to give the Stars a 3-0 lead. The goal was Morins 50th point of the season, and was the first short-handed goal the Comets have given up.

Cannatas night would end just under 10 minutes later when Sceviour fired an off-angle shot from the boards that snuck through his pads. The goal would set the stage for Mathieu Corbeils American Hockey Leagues debut.

With Corbeil holding Texas down by stopping all 17 shots he saw in 23:42 minutes of relief action, the Comets charged back into contention off three unanswered goals by Cal OReilly, Alex Grenier and Brandon DeFazio.

The one-goal deficit would be as far as the Comets would get before McKenzie sealed the deal with 45 seconds to play on an empty-netter.

The Comets visit San Antonio tonight at 8 before returning home to take on the Albany Devils on Friday at The Aud at 7 p.m.

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Comets can’t overcome 4-0 deficit in AHL loss