2/17/21
Syracuse Crunch (1-1-1-0) @ Utica Comets (2-1-0-0)
Forwards:
McGing/J. Stevens/Dakota Joshua
Baertschi/Lind/Anas
Gadjovich/Focht/Lockwood
Walker/Jasek/N. Stevens
D-Pairs:
Tucker/Santini
Woo/Reinke
Eliot/Wesley
Goal - Gillies
This game is over. The Comets won 5-2. This is my review and some added side lights.
The Crunch are without prolific scorer Alex Barre-Boulet and Ross Colton. Both were recalled by Tampa Bay and are on the Taxi Squad.
The Crunch inserted 18-yr old Declan McDonnell and 19-yr old Cole Schwindt. Rookie D-man Dmitry Semykin will play LW. McDonnell was the last player selected in the 2020 draft by the Lightning at #217.
The Comets are without Curtis McKenzie. His wife gave birth to their first child, a daughter. Congrats to the the happy new parents.
Start of the game was delayed as the ice crew replaced a pane of glass.
Gilles gets his 2nd start after having been sidelined since game 1 with an upper body injury.
No report on Teves with any injury so he is must be a healthy scratch for the 2nd straight game.
It's reported that there are a slew of scouts in the building tonight. Benning got something brewing with a Comet as a throw-in?
Period 1 is underway
The Crunch are awarded a breakaway. Gillies stands tall to start the game!
Now a 2 on 1 and Gillies makes another big stop to keep the Comets in this one very early on.
The Comets D is slow. They are getting caught on plays in the neutral zone in which an opponent gets the puck and skates to the Comets end and the defender is either even or has an angle and a few strides later the guy is open for a shot with that defender reaching from behind or even too far back to even .
Dakota Joshua and John Stevens get loose on a 2 on 1. Josh to Stevens and back to Josh and as he is about to release a shot his hand is slashed and the shot isn't actually made. No call.
At he other end Gillkies makes back to back save in close.
Baertschi and Anas loose 2 on 1. Anas hits Baertschi and he's got a clear shot, but tries to pass it back across to Anas and the play is broken up. He has to shoot that puck, If he had rear peripheral vision he would have noticed Lind coming right down the middle all alone. He has 2 good options and he chose the lone bad one. The right play was to shoot the damned puck!
Lockwood skating down the right wing boards. He's got a shot, but keeps going and then almost at the goalline fires a bad angle shot, but Gadjovich is in the crease and tips it in.
G_____O______A_______L!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comets lead 1-0.
That goal is the typical kind of goal that he scores, tip ins or garbage bangers, almost always in an arc around the crease.
Lind and Anas have both made perfect centering passes from the end boards into an untended slot but there has been no Comet anywhere to be found. This line had better understand that anytime one of them is on the end boards they are going to try and throw the puck into the crease and whomever is closest needs to bust ass into the slot.
Comets to the PP
Nothing comes of it.
Period 1 comes to an end
1-0 Utica
SOG:
9-7 Utica.
Period 2:
2 0n 1 to start the period and Gillies is big again.
Gillies a brain dead move behind his net. Just gives the Puck to a Crunch coming along behind the net. He takes the puck along the boards and throws it ion the dot for a quick shot. It's directly into Gilles' 6-hole and hold on. Gillies has been brilliant in terms of rebounds tonight. It's almost been 1 and done on any Syracuse shots.
In his own end Wesley has a consistent tendency as soon as he gets the puck if he doesn't have a Comet right there he just fires it out and it's instant icing. This guy doesn't seem to have the word pass in his mindset.
Woo at this point has been playing a very simple effective game. He takes the body, knocks the skater off the puck, takes him wide, or strips him of the puck. Once he gets the puck he is making a quick accurate pass to either his partner or a forward which starts the breakout.
Baertschi makes a bad play at his own blueline that Raddysh turns into a breakaway, but misses the net.
Cull has really been using the McGing/J.Stevens/Joshua line a lot. They have been a forechecking dirvish and are driving the Crunch nuts while getting chances of their own.
Anas working hard in the corner. Gets the puck and is aggressively physically hounded working his way up the boards, but he manages to get the puck up the wall to Santinis who doesn't hesitate to whip it towards the net with Lind lingering out front. The puck goes through maybe 3 guys on its way and slips into the far corner for goal #2.
Y-----E-------S!!!!
Santini with his 1st of the year.
2-0 Comets.
Comets now to the PK.
Doing a good job so far.
Joshua steals the puck at the offensive blue line and is tripped.
4 on 4.
The Comets penalty ends and they go to the PP.
Anas holds it in. Works down to the circle, backs off towards the boards while surveying his options, and then rifles a tape to tape pass to Walker at the back door and it's an easy bang-bang tap in.
S==C==O==R==E!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comets stretch the lead out to 3-0.
I'm beginning to think Josh Wesley has a brain lock. He knows nothing but shoot immediately when the puck arrives to him at the offensive blueline. He shoots it wide, into shin pads, gives it directly to the keeper. He is killing any possible offense. So he ices it from his end and shoots automatically in the offensive zone. Crazy!!!!
5:02 left in the 2nd and the Comets back to the PK. Focht for crosschecking on top of the slot.
Comets doing a great job on this kill. Joshua and J. Stevens up front and Tucker and Santini on D. (Jasek and Lockwood and Baertschi and N. Stevens have been forwards with Reinke and Woo doing most of the alternating with Tucker and Santini, but Eliot and Wesley have been out there.)
As this one comes to an end Focht steps out of the box and the puck arrives to meet him. He's off on a breakaway but he's stopped. He might have been hooked just a little at the last minute and it effectively disrupted his effort. He is a step too slow most of the time. Skates well but is missing that zip on the 1st couple of strides. If he had it, he would have been home free and nobody could have arrived from behind to cause him any trouble and the goal or miss would have been 100% on him.
O-h-h-h, a 150 ft stretch pass to Baertschi is just offsides.
2nd comes to an end and it's 3-0 Utica. The worst lead in hockey.
SOG:
6-4 Crunch. I wonder who is counting the shots. It seems to me I have seen a whole lot more saves than that.
There was a very good between period interview with Carter Bancks from his home in Alberta. Carter retired after the pandemic ending of the 2020 season. He expressed his love for the city and people of Utica and said it has been his second home and he can't say enough about how well he was treated here. The guy always wore his heart on his sleeve. He was one of the hardest working hockey players I have ever seen. He was misused in his last couple of seasons and as a result became a target of criticism for his play. He was moved to center and then moved up the line to #3 and often #2 center. He was a grinding 4th line energy/forechecking wing and a a very good one. He was also a top PK guy. In that role he was indispensable.
Period 3
Comets go to the PP at the 19:28 mark. The Syracuse goon Witkowski gets 2 for slashing. He's been quiet tonight. Hope this doesn't wind him up.
So much for thatv PP. 2 good shots from the dot by Bart, but the keeper had a clear sight line.
Wesley is an idiot. "On MY stick. Must shoot it." Fires the puck like it was a live grenade instantly into the other end a mere stride from the red line with no pressure. ICING
OH MY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
JOSHUA!!!!! What a goal! his one is a highlite reel biggie.
Stevens gained control after the face off and hit McGing instantly on the boards between the blueline and the circle. He was hit immediately and as he was falling hit Joshua breaking out of the zone with a tape to tape pass. Joshua speeds up the ice. It became a 2 on 1 and i can't remember who k joined him and I'm not going to rerun the game to find it, but it's not necessary because he used him as a decoy and crashed to the net himself. The keeper knocked his own net off a second or so before Dakota beat him for goal #4.
4-0 Comets
Wesley to the box for cross checking. Tucker deflects 2 shots and then a cross ice pass. His efforts go for naught as the Comets can't clear and the Crunch break the shutout.
Woo had a chance to prevent this, but became instrumental in causing it. He got the puck out high on the LW. with his back to the boards and nothing but trouble looking across the ice and pressure on him. Instead of backhanding the puck to the boards he tried to force it across the ice on his forehand. It was intercepted and turned into a goal.
4-1
Time of the goal 7:40.
Comets under siege. Can't clear the zone. Can't make a pass. Frazzled.
CRUNCH SCORE AGAIN!!
4-2. Goal scored at 10:33 by the D-man Semykin playing forward.
Comets have done this many times before over the years when playing the Crunch. No lead against them has ever been safe.
Bearv down Boys.
Another big Crunch shift. The boys are in trouble.
Here they come again!
It's all Crunch now. SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another penalty, Back to the PK. Woo 2 for tripping.
Comets are really ontheir heels. 6:14 to go. That's an eternity especially with the next 2 a man down.
Noiw they are just sitting in the box. They were so effective earlier by being aggressive on the PK. The 'cuse are taking too much time, being too patient and the puck gets out on a pass off one of their own skates. Now they misplay a pass and it's out of the zone. Crunch too careful, too cute and killed their own PP.
4 minutes to go.
Comets back to good pressure. Keep disrupting the play and dumping it back into the Crunch zone.
Empty net with 2:20 to go. 1.53 and the puck is tied up in the Comets zone. All kinds of strenuous board work all around the rink from the left side boards all the way to the right side boards.
They have killed a minute on the boards!
1:30 to go
1:12 to go
1:00 to go and the Crunch are called for icing.
The Comets woke up when they had to.
Puck is sent out of the zone. Gadjovich picks up the loose puck and storms down the right side. Between the RW boards and the top edge of the circle he slides a backhand into the open net.
G______O______A_______L
5-2 and that's mere icing on this one.
Comets win it 5-2
SOG
Crunch - 19
Comets - 20
Gadjovich (2) form Lockwood (1) and Tucker (1)
Santini (1) from Anas (5) and Baertschi (3)
Walker (1) from Anas (6) and Reinke (3) PP
Joshua (1) from McGing (1) and J. Stevens (1)
Gadjovich (3) from N.Stevens (2) and Jasek (3) EN
I've got nothing on the 3 stars.*
*Three Stars:
1st - Jonah Gadjovich (Utica Comets) 2G
2nd - Sam Anas (Utica Comets) 2A
3rd - Nathan Walker (Utica Comets) 1G
I'll give an Honorable Mention to Dakota Jushua (1G) and a tenacious forecheck.