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Comets Take Down Amerks with Four Unanswered Goals

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March 20, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL) Utica Comets Utica, N.Y. - The Utica Comets didn't disappoint the home crowd after defeating the Rochester Americans 4 -2 Friday night in their first game at The Utica Memorial Auditorium since March 4th . The Utica Comets captured another two points to put them at a total of 81 before heading out on the road to finish their three-in-three weekend.

Alexandre Grenier (1-1-2), Darren Archibald (1-0-1), Sven Baertschi (1-0-1) and Brendan Gaunce (1-0-1) all found goals for the Comets during Friday night's victory. Bobby Sanguinetti (0-3-3) and Cal O'Reilly (0-2-2) both found their way on to the scorer's sheet with a combined total of five assists.

Despite outshooting the Americans 16-9 in the first stanza, the Americans were the only ones to find the back of the net in the opening period. Evan Rankin slipped a shot past Eriksson after a faceoff in the Comets zone at 18:02 with assists from Brady Austin and Michael Pelech.

The Americans found their second goal with only 12 seconds left after Justin Kea just beat Alex Biega into the zone. With Biega on his trail, Kea protected the puck and one handed it in through Eriksson's legs for the 2-0 lead.

The Comets answered in a hurry once they hit the ice for the second period. Archibald received a pass inside the slot from Brandon DeFazio and popped it past Andrey Makarov to get the Comets within one just 12 seconds after the second period puck drop. Mike Zalewski received credit for the secondary assist.

At 6:17 Baertschi recorded his seventh point in seven games after a slap shot from the left point ripped past Makarov for the equalizer and the power-play goal. Both Bobby Sanguinetti and Cal O'Reilly chipped in on the play.

Utica found their third unanswered goal on a two-on-one opportunity that resulted from a smart heads-up play from Alexandre Grenier who jumped out of the penalty box just at the right time. With Gaunce rushing in on the left wing, Grenier fed the puck across the slot and Gaunce banged it into the mesh to put the comets up 3-2 at 12:52. Saguinetti also received credit on the play.

The Comets continued to cause havoc in the crease as the teams entered the third period. One minute after a hooking penalty was called Drew Bagnall, Grenier tipped in a wrist shot from Sanguinetti for their second power-play goal of the game that gave the Comets a final score of 4-2.

With Friday night's victory over the Americans, the Comets now have a 12-point lead over their North Division foe, the Hamilton Bulldogs.

The Comets will continue their three-in-three weekend with a game in Syracuse tomorrow evening. The 7 p.m. match-up at the Oncenter War Memorial Arena will be their second to last meeting with the Crunch this season.

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Comets Take Down Amerks with Four Unanswered Goals

New Guys Lift the Comets to Fourth Straight Victory

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March 21, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL) Utica Comets Syracuse, N.Y. - A three-goal third period propelled the Utica Comets to a 4-2 victory over the Syracuse Crunch Saturday night at the War Memorial at OnCenter.

The new guys were the story for the Comets as Sven Baertschi (2-0-2) continued his torrid better than a point-per-game pace with the Comets, and Cory Conacher (1-0-1) scored his first goal with Utica. Goaltender Joe Cannata made 29 saves in his second American Hockey League start, and first AHL win of the year.

After a scoreless first period, the Crunch started the game's scoring 5:41 into the second period. Bobby Sanguinetti blocked a shot from Jake Dotchin to the side of the net. Sanguinetti went to bat the rebound away, but got tangled up with goaltender Joe Cannata. Tanner Richard beat Sanguinetti to the puck and poked it past the sprawled out Cannata. Dylan Blujus recorded the secondary assist.

However, the Crunch's lead would be brief. Jeremie Blain rifled a shot on net that Allen York denied, but Baertschi was there for the rebound and golfed it into the Crunch's net. Alex Friesen also picked up an assist on the play.

Just two minutes into the third period the Comets took the lead for good. Conacher broke into the Crunch's zone, dropped a pass to Alex Friesen, who returned the pass right away. A flick of the wrist later gave the Comets the 2-1 lead.

After Frank Corrado rang a shot off the post, Cal O'Reilly gathered up the puck and slid a pass to Hunter Shinkaruk who was all alone in front. After he faked a pass to a Comet on the back door, Shinkaruk extended the Comets lead to 3-1 with a quick backhand shot.

Jonathan Marchessault cut the Comets lead in half with a power-play goal with just 4:33 to play in the third period. Richard and Blujus picked up their second points of the night with assists.

With just 45 seconds left the Comets emphatically slammed the door on this one. Alex Grenier broke Friesen out of the Comets zone, and into a two-on-one rush. After taking the pass, Baertschi fired the puck into the gaping net for exclamation point.

The Comets have won four straight games, and have now recorded points in five straight games.

The Comets wrap up their three-in-three weekend tomorrow afternoon in Rochester to take on the Amerks. Puck drop is set for 3:05pm from the Blue Cross Arena.

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New Guys Lift the Comets to Fourth Straight Victory

Comets Rally for 4-2 Win over Amerks

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March 20, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL) Rochester Americans (Utica, NY)... Despite scoring twice in the final two minutes of the first period, the Rochester Americans allowed four straight goals from the Utica Comets in a 4-2 loss to their North Division rival Friday night at the Utica Memorial Auditorium. The game was the first of two in three days between the intrastate foes, who will close out the weekend on Sunday with an afternoon matchup in Rochester. The loss drops the Amerks to 2-3-1-1 against the Comets this season and 25-31-5-1 overall.

Evan Rankin recorded his 100th AHL point with a goal and Justin Kea scored the first goal of his American Hockey League career in the loss. Brady Austin and Michael Pelech, who was playing in his 400th professional game, each picked up assists. Andrey Makarov earned his second straight start for the Amerks and finished with 33 saves on 37 shots, including stopping all 16 Utica shots he faced in the first period.

Bobby Sanguinetti (0+3), Cal O'Reilly (0+2) and Alex Grenier (1+1) all posted multi-point nights for the hometown Comets, while Joacim Eriksson turned in a 20-save effort to pick up the win. Darren Archibald, Sven Baertschi and Brendan Gaunce also scored for Utica, which rallied back from a two-goal deficit to extend its current winning streak to three games.

Makarov was tested early on when a goal-mouth scramble almost ended up in the net, but he was able to locate the puck through traffic and immediately smother it. Minutes later, Makarov was forced to come up big again after O'Reilly sent a centering feed toward the low slot that would have trickled over the goal-line if he didn't reach back and snag it at the last second.

Utica controlled most of the first period and outshot Rochester 16-9, but a pair of late goals in the final 1:54 and several more big saves by Makarov throughout the opening frame quickly turned a scoreless affair into a 2-0 lead in favor of the Amerks.

Rankin got things going for Rochester when he deflected Austin's shot past Eriksson to give the Amerks a 1-0 lead with his fourth goal of the season at 18:06. The Amerks added their second goal of the period just 1:36 later on a tremendous individual effort from Kea, who caused a turnover inside the Utica blueline and converted for his first career AHL goal. The rookie forward stripped the puck of a Comets defenseman, and while fighting off his attacker, slipped a back-hander through the legs of Eriksson with his one free hand to send Rochester into the intermission up by a pair.

After giving up two goals late in the first, Utica came out firing on all cylinders in the second period and stormed back to score three straight unanswered goals, beginning with Brandon DeFazio setting up Archibald for his ninth of the season just 12 seconds in. DeFazio won a loose puck battle behind the Rochester net and zipped a no-look pass to a wide-open Archibald, who one-timed the offer to the top of the net to bring the Comets within a goal.

The Comets, who failed to capitalize on their first two power-play opportunities, made good on their third chance as Baertschi beat Makarov with a slap-shot from the point that founds its way through traffic. Sanguinetti and O'Reilly would earn the assists on Baertschi's 10th goal of the season to even the score at two apiece.

Utica took its first lead of the night at 12:52 of the middle frame after Gaunce steered in a cross-ice feed from Grenier off a 2-on-1 fastbreak. Using Austin as a decoy, Grenier outwaited the rookie defenseman and floated a pass to Gaunce for the tap-in and a 3-2 advantage.

The Comets struck again on the power-play midway through the third period as Grenier put the game out of reach, redirecting Sanguinetti's wrist shot inside the left post to make it 4-2. Rochester pulled Makarov with under a minute remaining for the extra attacker, but the Amerks wouldn't come any closer.

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Comets Rally for 4-2 Win over Amerks

Comets Strike Quickly in Third to Blast Crunch

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March 21, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL) Syracuse Crunch SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Hunter Shinkaruk scored the game-winning goal for the Utica Comets (38-19-6-1) 4:01 into the third period in a 4-2 victory over the Syracuse Crunch (37-18-8-0) Saturday at the War Memorial Arena.

Heading into the final frame tied at one, Utica scored two goals in a two minute span to pull ahead of Syracuse for good. Former Crunch forward Cory Conacher tallied the first goal, two minutes into the period, his first since being traded from the New York Islanders organization at the NHL trade deadline. Peter Andersson and Alex Friesen notched the assists. Conacher played 36 games with the Crunch in 2012-13 and recorded 28 points.

Shinkaruk floated the game-winning backhander past Crunch goalie Allen York two minutes after Conacher's marker to put the Comets up 3-1. York stopped 33 shots in his first regulation loss for Syracuse in six appearances this season.

"We gave ourselves an opportunity because [York] played well, but we gave up way too much, especially versus the rush," head coach Rob Zettler said about the two goals allowed early in the third period. "It ended up hurting us because we weren't aggressive with the puck."

Jonathan Marchessault closed the Crunch deficit to one with a power-play goal 15:27 into the third period, his 18th of the season, to extend his team-leading points total to 51. Tanner Richard and Dylan Blujus tallied the assists, the second point for each in the game.

Richard opened the scoring with a power-play marker at 5:41 of the second period when he poked at a rebound off of a Jake Dotchin right-point shot until it slid past Comets goaltender Joe Cannata. Richard's 12th goal of the season came with 26 seconds left on a power-play following an Alexandre Grenier hooking minor. Blujus's two assists move his season total to 15. Dotchin's assist is his 11th of the season and third point in March (1g, 2a).

Sven Baertschi tied the game 1:10 after Syracuse took the lead with a left-circle snap into the back of the net. Baertschi added an empty-net goal for his 12th goal of the season and fifth against the Crunch. He netted a hat trick with the Adirondack Flames on Feb. 10 before being traded to the Canucks organization at the NHL trade deadline.

The Crunch went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill and extended their season-long streak to 18. Richard's second-period power-play marker broke a streak of 11-straight penalty kills for the Comets. Syracuse finished 2-for-3 on the power play.

Syracuse plays its final game of its second-consecutive three-in-three Sunday at Springfield. The Crunch have split six contests with the Falcons, but have points in five meetings (3-1-2-0).

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Comets Strike Quickly in Third to Blast Crunch

Comets Announce Roster Moves

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March 20, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL) Utica Comets Utica Comets Director of Hockey Operations Pat Conacher announced today that the team has signed defenseman Ben Hutton to a professional tryout contract (PTO), and that goaltender Pat Nagle has been released from his PTO. Also, the Vancouver Canucks have reassigned goaltender Joe Cannata to the Comets from the Ontario Reign of the ECHL.

Hutton, 21, recorded 21 points (9 goals, 12assists) and 14 penalty minutes with the University of Maine this season. In 108 career total NCAA games for the Black Bears, Hutton notched 65 points (28 goals, 37 assists) and logged 40 penalty minutes. Hutton was named a Second Team All-American, and to the Hockey East First Team and was also the recipient of the Bob Monahan Award (top defenceman in New England) following a career season in 2013.14.

The 6'3" 200-pound native of Prescott, Ontario was selected by Vancouver 147th overall in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft.

Nagle, 27, appeared in one game for the Comets where he stopped 25 of the Syracuse Crunch's 28 shots in a loss. In 28 games with the ECHL's Fort Wayne Komets this season Nagle owns a 2.35 GAA alongside a 0.910 save percentage and a 20-5-1-1 record.

Cannata, 25, currently ranks third in ECHL goaltenders in goals-against average (2.02) and in save percentage (0.927). He has allowed just 42 goals in 21 games with Ontario and has posted a 12-6-0-2 record with a shutout. He was the starting goalie in the ECHL All-Star game.

The Wakefield, Mass. native appeared in 28 games with the Comets last season and went 11-12-1-3 with a 2.83 goals-against average and a 0.907 save percentage. He finished the season strong by winning seven of his last nine starts with just a 2.08 goals-against average.

A sixth-round selection (173rd overall) of the Canucks in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, Cannata played four years at Merrimack College from 2008-12, where he appeared in 122 career games posting an overall record of 59-46-16 with seven shutouts, a 2.47 goals-against average and a save percentage of .915.

For a complete schedule of Utica Comets games, as well as ticketing information, visit http://www.uticacomets.com.

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Comets Announce Roster Moves

Comets Braithwaite Suspended Indefinitely

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March 19, 2015 - Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) The Major Arena Soccer League today issued a statement and announced suspensions following events that took place surrounding Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals Sunday in Independence, Missouri.

Missouri Comets defender Andre Braithwaite will be suspended indefinitely by the league for his head-butt as teams were shaking hands after the game. He can apply for reinstatement following the 2015/16 season. The Comets released him immediately following the game.

Comets defender Brian Harris, who was given a red card for a reckless slide tackle with 12 seconds remaining in the game, will be suspended for the first three games of the 2015/16 season.

Comets defender John Sosa, who was given a red card for verbal abuse, will be suspended for one game to be served at the beginning of the 2015/16 season.

"The MASL cannot condone physical play or actions where the intention is to cause harm to other players," said MASL Commissioner Kevin Milliken. "These incidents have taken the spotlight off what was a competitive series between two of the league's top teams, and marred what had been an outstanding season by the Missouri Comets."

Following Game 2 of the Baltimore/Missouri series there was an implication by a coach of improper communication between an owner and a referee prior to the game. After reviewing the allegations and watching the video of the game, the league did not find any merit to the allegations. Behavior of others surrounding this game is still being investigated.

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Comets Braithwaite Suspended Indefinitely

March 28 Is Military Night at the Aud

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March 20, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL) Utica Comets The Utica Comets will honor the men and women who have served, and continue to serve, our country with Military Night on Saturday, March 28. It is a night dedicated to raising funds and awareness for the Veteran's Outreach Center.

The Comets will wear special blue camouflage sweaters that will be sold during a live auction immediately following Saturday night's game.

The Comets are also offering military service members, including veterans, a special $12 ticket for any available seat to Saturday's game, against the Rochester Americans, when they show a valid military ID at the box office.

The National Guard will have a weapons display and games on the concourse for fans to compete and learn more about these branches of the military.

The UCD/ CNYVOC was formed to provide and conduct charitable, educational, social service, and housing services for veterans in need. CNYVOC is in the process of creating a resourceful, one stop facility in Utica for veterans residing throughout Central New York. When complete this facility would offer, among other services, transitional housing for homeless veterans with permanent housing for disabled and elderly veterans, plus a wide variety of other services.

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March 28 Is Military Night at the Aud

Blain Reassigned to Utica

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March 18, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL) Utica Comets Utica Comets Director of Hockey Operations Pat Conacher announced today that the Vancouver Canucks have reassigned defenseman Jeremie Blain to Utica from the Comets ECHL affiliate, the Kalamazoo Wings.

Blain, 22, has appeared in 12 games this season with the Comets and recorded two assists and two penalty minutes. He recorded six penalty minutes in six games with Utica during the 2013-14 campaign.

In Kalamazoo this season, the Blain has collected four goals and 20 assists in 38 games. Blain spent the majority of last season with the Kalamazoo Wings and recorded 15 points (three goals, 12 assists) in 25 games.

The 6'2", 192-pound defenseman was originally selected by the Edmonton Oilers in the fourth round (#91 overall) in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.

For a complete schedule of Utica Comets games, as well as ticketing information, visit http://www.uticacomets.com.

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Blain Reassigned to Utica


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