January 4, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL) Utica Comets UTICA COMETS (11-16-1-2) @ TORONTO MARLIES (18-11-2-1)

Ricoh Coliseum, 5 p.m.

Radio: 94.9 K-Rock

Tonight's Game: The Utica Comets take to the road for the first time in 2014 as they travel north of the border to faceoff with the Toronto Marlies. The Marlies are currently the only divisional foe Utica has not defeated this season, with Toronto winning their only past meeting, 5-2 on Nov. 5.

When They Last Met: Behind a three point night (2-1-3) from defenseman TJ Brennan, the Marlies defeated the Comets 5-2 on Nov. 5 at The AUD. Sam Carrick (1-1-2), Wade MacLeod (0-2-2) and Spencer Abbott (0-2-2) each recorded multi-point games for the Marlies, while Benn Ferriero and Alexandre Grenier led the way for the Comets with a goal apiece. Drew MacIntyre was the goaltender of record for Toronto with 19 saves, while Joacim Eriksson took the loss for Utica, with five goals allowed on 29 shots.

Comets Outlook: Kellan Lain and Pascal Pelletier each found the back of the net, but it was not enough as the Comets dropped a 5-2 decision to the Rochester Americans. Despite tying their home season high with 35 shots on net, the Comets could not solve Matt Hackett, who finished with 33 saves and the victory. In net for his fourth consecutive start, Joe Cannata made 21 saves in the loss to fall to 3-8-0-1on the season.

Marlies Outlook: Toronto is also in the second half of a back-to-back, after they fell last evening by a 6-3 scoreline to the Syracuse Crunch at Ricoh Coliseum. Carter Ashton, Andrew Crescenzi and Mike Duco found the back of the net for the Marlies, while goaltender Drew MacIntyre picked up the loss with 31 saves on 37 shots. Brett Connolly led the Crunch with three points (1-2-3) and center Vladimir Namestnikov potted two goals.

Pelletier Leads The Way: Pascal Pelletier found the back of the net for the second straight game to maintain his point-per-game pace. The center from Labrador City, NL now has 27 points through 27 games played, the only Comet player scoring at a point-per-game clip. Pelletier's 20 assists are tied for sixth in the AHL.

Quadruple Dog Darren: Utica forward Darren Archibald has recorded points in each of his last four games played, extended with his assist on Pelletier's goal. Archibald has collected five points (3-2-5) over the four games and has also picked up two fighting majors and eight shots on goal throughout the streak.

All Good Things Must Come To An End: The Comets power-play scoring streak on home ice finally came to a close at ten games, as they failed to score with the man-advantage against Rochester. The Comets went 0-5 against the Americans. The last time the Comets were unable to score a power-play goal on home ice was Nov. 16 against the Texas Stars.

Go here to read the rest:

Gameday: Comets at Toronto