COMETS HOST CRUNCH IN HOME OPENER
Oct 16, 2019UTICA COMETS (2-0-0-0) vs. SYRACUSE CRUNCH (2-0-1-0)
Adirondack Bank Center, 7 p.m.
Watch Live: AHLTV | Listen Live: 94.9 K-ROCK
Follow and Interact Live: Twitter | Hashtag: #SYRvsUTI
Tonight’s Game: The Comets open up the home portion of the schedule with Game One of the Galaxy Cup series against the Syracuse Crunch. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.
Last Game: Reid Boucher scored twice and Lukas Jasek earned the overtime winner as the Utica Comets defeated the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins by a 4-3 margin on Saturday night at Mohegan Sun Arena. Carter Bancks also scored for Utica. Zane McIntyre stopped 37 shots to pick up the win in net.
Head-to-Head: This is the first of 12 meetings between the North Division rivals this season. Syracuse claimed last year’s season series, going 7-4-0-1 against the Comets. Taylor Raddysh led all active players with 15 points (6-9-15) in the series last year, while Reid Boucher paced the Comets with nine points (3-6-9) in 10 games against the Crunch. The Comets are 14-8-2-2 at home against Syracuse over the last five seasons.
Scouting the Crunch: Syracuse comes in with a record of 2-0-1-0 and sits in third place in the North Division. They most recently beat the Cleveland Monsters 6-3 last Saturday. Cal Foote leads the way offensively with four points, followed by Cory Conacher with three points. Louis Domingue is the top netminder with a record of 1-0-1, a 2.90 goals-against average, and .909 save percentage.
On Fire: Reid Boucher will look to continue his fast start to the season Boucher netted two goals in last Saturday’s win and now sits 15 goals back of Darren Archibald’s record for most career goals with the Comets. The veteran forward has five points (4-1-5) in two games this season.
Welcome Back: Nikolay Goldobin and Sven Baertschi showed well in their returns to Utica. Goldobin tallied an assist on the power play to go along with two shots on goal, while Baertschi recorded assists on the game-tying and game-winning goals. It was Baertschi’s first game for Utica since the 2015 Calder Cup Finals and Goldobin’s first since the 2017-18 season.
Power Outage: The Comets power play has struggled to start the season. Through their first two games, Utica is only 1-10 on the man advantage. They will face a tough test again tonight as Syracuse has yet to surrender a power play goal this season.
Home Sweet Home: The Comets open up the home portion of their schedule with a four-game homestand. Utica has not won their opener since the 2015-16 season when they topped Rochester 4-2. The Comets are 2-3-0-1 all-time in their home openers and went 20-15-3-0 at the Adirondack Bank Center last season.
Next Game: The Comets go right back at it Friday night against the Charlotte Checkers. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. Fans are encouraged to utilize the ticket exchange website, StubHub! and arrive early for our Opening Weekend Oktoberfest on the Plaza. The game can be heard on 94.9 KROCK and viewed on AHLTV.