Tag: Utica Comets

UTICA COMETS (28-9-5-0 – 61 Points) vs.
TORONTO MARLIES (22-12-2-1 – 47 Points)

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2022

	1	2	3	OT	FINAL
UTICA	0	1	1	–	2
TORONTO	2	2	2	–	6

GAME SUMMARY    |    GAME SHEET |    PHOTOS    |      SCRUMS

SCORING SUMMARY

Utica: F. Zetterlund (18) PP (R. Russo, J. Gambardella), A. Holtz (17) (C. De Leo, M. Vukojevic)
Goaltender: A. Schmid (25/31) L    

Toronto: N. Ritchie (1) PP (J. Anderson, B. Seney), A. Steeves (13) (J. Anderson, B. Seney), J. Blandisi (5) (N. Robertson, J. Duszak), J. Kopacka (4) (B. McMann), J. Blandisi (6) (C. Dahlström), B. McMann (11) (M. Hollowell, B. Seney)
Goaltender: E. Källgren (32/34) W     

ON THE SCORESHEET

• Nick Ritchie opened the scoring on the power play at 12:34 of the first period in his first game with the Marlies.
• Alex Steeves scored on the power play at 17:53 of the first period. This was Steeves’ third power play goal of the season. He has 24 points (13 goals, 11 assists) in 26 games this season.
• Joseph Blandisi scored at 3:12 of the second period and 8:14 of the third period. He has points (4-6-10) in six of his last seven games.
• Jack Kopacka scored at 4:23 of the second period. He has eight points (4 goals, 4 assists) in 28 games this season.
• Bobby McMann scored at 14:58 of the third period and earlier had the lone assist on Kopacka’s second period goal. He has 16 points (11 goals, 5 assists) in 28 games this season.
• Joey Anderson recorded the primary assists on Ritchie and Steeves’ first period goals. He has points (1-2-3) in consecutive games.
• Brett Seney collected the secondary assists on Ritchie and Steeves’ first period goals and McMann’s third period goal. He has nine points (1 goal, 8 assists) through his last six games. This was his fifth three-point game of the season.
• Nick Robertson registered the primary assist on Blandisi’s second period goal. He has five points (2 goals, 3 assists) in five games.
• Joseph Duszak picked up the secondary assist on Blandisi’s second period goal. He is tied for second overall amongst defencemen in assists (26).
• Mac Hollowell recorded the primary assist on McMann’s third period goal. He has points (1-2-3) in his last three games played. Hollowell has 14 points (3 goals, 11 assists) in 23 games this season.
• Erik Källgren stopped 32 of 34 shots he faced. This was his fourth consecutive win. He is 13-6-0 on the season with a 0.913 save percentage.

OF NOTE

• The Marlies are on a six-game point streak (5-0-1-0) and have outscored their opponents 26-13.
• This was Greg Moore’s 50^th win as head coach of the Marlies.
• This is the second game this season Toronto has recorded six goals, both against Utica.
• Toronto went 2-for-3 on the penalty kill and 2-for-5 on the power play. Toronto is 15-7-1-0 when scoring on the power play and 10-6-2-1 when allowing a goal on the penalty kill. Toronto has recorded two power play goals in seven games this season.
• Utica had a 34-31 edge in shots in all situations. Nick Robertson and Alex Steeves led the Marlies with five shots on goal. Toronto is 15-8-2-1 when outshot by their opponent.
• The Marlies are 12-7-1-1 against North Division opponents and 2-1-0-0 against the Comets. Toronto’s last game against Utica was on Jan. 5 in a 6-4 home win. Toronto has outscored Utica 14-11 through three games. 

RECORD WHEN Scoring first                            16-1-1-1 Leading after                           11-1-2-1 Leading after 2                        16-1-2-1 At home                                   11-5-1-1 February                                  3-0-0-0 Wednesday                              4-3-0-1

MARLIES LEADERS *Amongst active players Goals               14 (J. Anderson) Assists            26 (J. Duszak) Points              34 (B. Seney) PPG                 5 (J. Anderson) Shots               87 (A. Steeves) +/-                    +13 (B. Seney) PIMS                55 (R. Clune)

POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH GREG MOORE

On Toronto’s power play (2 goals):

Power play looked sharp, along with the overall team game in terms of our puck play, looked really clean. You could tell that they were anticipating where to go with the puck before they got it and the mindset of everybody using each other and using all five guys on the ice.

On Joseph Blandisi:

He’s been really good. He’s been scoring a lot lately, he’s really, really competitive. He works really hard, does a lot of little things well defensively, makes it hard on other guys and the other team. He closes quickly, plays inside of contact and finishes his hits. He brings a lot of energy, not only physically but verbally on our bench.

On Nick Ritchie:
He played great. Obviously, a goal there to get us started. He was a presence for us on the power play. Good strong wall plays on breakouts. For a big guy he moves really well, sees the ice really well and has really subtle hands to make small area plays and make his teammates better.

JACK KOPACKA (1 GOAL)

On Toronto’s forecheck:
It’s a big part of our game plan. We have a lot of skilled players on our team, a lot of guys with a lot of speed and we can get behind their D and work the cycle game. We’ve got big bodies as well as skilled players that can make plays out of the corners and we’re having a lot of success.

On the team’s attitude:
We’re going good right now, but you got to keep it going. I think we have a lot to prove to ourselves going into trying to make a playoff push. It’s going to be exciting.

UPCOMING GAMES:
*All times Eastern Standard Time

February 18 at Belleville – 7:00 p.m.
February 19 vs. Belleville – 4:00 p.m.
February 21 vs. Laval – 3:00 p.m. (Scotiabank Arena)
February 23 vs. Laval – 7:00 p.m.
February 26 at Rochester – 3:05 p.m.

UTICA COMETS (18-2-3-0 – 39 Points) vs.
TORONTO MARLIES (13-10-1-1 – 28 Points)

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5, 2022

	1	2	3	OT	FINAL
UTICA	1	2	1	–	4
TORONTO	1	3	2	–	6

GAME SUMMARY    |    GAME SHEET |    PHOTOS    |      SCRUMS

SCORING SUMMARY

Utica: F. Zetterlund (9) (R. Walsh, A. Talvitie), C. De Leo (6) PP (A. Greer, R. Walsh), C. White (3) (R. Schmelzer), B. Flynn (5) (N. Okhotiuk, C. De Leo)
Goaltender: M. Mitens(25/30) L

Toronto: A. Steeves (8) (C. Douglas, M. Hollowell), M. Hellickson (1) (M. Abramov, C. Krys), B. Seney (12) (F. Král), J. Anderson (9) (B. Seney, M. Hellickson), M. Abramov (3) (B. Seney, J. Anderson), J. Anderson (10), EN, SH (J. Blandisi, M. Hellickson)
Goaltender: E. Källgren (32/36) W

ON THE SCORESHEET

• Alex Steeves opened the scoring at 15:13 of the first period. He has 15 points (8 goals, 7 assists) in 16 games this season.
• Matt Hellickson scored at 1:49 of the second period and later added the secondary assists on Anderson’s second and third period goals. This was Hellickson’s first professional goal.
• Brett Seney scored at 5:25 of the second period and later added the primary assists on Anderson’s second period goal and Abramov’s third period goal.He has 22 points (12 goals, 10 assists) in 23 games this season with the Marlies.
• Joey Anderson scored at 15:04 of the second period and added an empty net goal at 18:37 of the third period. He also had a secondary assist on Abramov’s third period goal. This was Anderson’s second shorthanded goal of the season and his third career three-point game.
• Mikhail Abramov scored the game-winning goal at 9:01 of the third period and earlier added the primary assist on Hellickson’s second period goal. He has points (2-2-4) in his three consecutive games.
• Curtis Douglas had the primary assist on Steeves’ first period goal. Douglas has four points (1 goal, 3 assists) in his last four games.
• Mac Hollowell recorded secondary assist on Steeves’ first period goal. He has points (1-5-6) in his five consecutive games.
• Chad Krys picked up the secondary assist on Hellickson’s second period goal.
• Filip Kràl had the lone assist on Seney’s second period goal. He has six assists in his last six games.
• Joseph Blandisi registered the primary assist on Anderson’s third period goal. He has three points (1 goal, 2 assists) in his last two games.
• Erik Källgren stopped 32 of 36 shots he faced.

OF NOTE

• Toronto went 2-for-3 on the penalty kill and 0-for-0 on the power play. Toronto is 5-4-0-1 when not scoring on the power play and 5-5-1-1 when allowing a goal on the penalty kill.
• Utica had a 36-31 edge in shots in all situations. Ryan Chyzowski, Carl Dahlström and Brett Seney led the Marlies with three shots on goal. Toronto is 10-7-1-1 when outshot by their opponent.
• The Marlies are 8-7-1-1 against North Division opponents and 1-1-0-0 against the Utica Comets.

RECORD WHEN Scoring first                            9-1-0-1 Tied after 1                              3-2-0-0 Leading after 2                        10-1-1-1            January                                   2-1-0-0 Wednesday                              1-2-0-1 2 Goal Game                            3-1-0-0

MARLIES LEADERS Goals               12 (B. Seney) Assists            18 (J. Duszak) Points              22 (B. Seney) PPG                 4 (J. Ho-Sang) Shots               62 (B. Seney) +/-                    +10 (B. Seney) PIMS                50 (R. Clune)

POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH GREG MOORE

On today’s start:

It was a good start. We’ve mentioned it almost every time that last few games how important it is to get off to a strong start and not feel like you’re playing from behind. We’ve been changing up our routine on how we’ve been preparing whether it’s our staff, our players, mixing it up to get a new feel. It seems to be working so far and hopefully something we can build on.

On the line of Mikhail Abramov, Brett Seney and Joey Anderson:
(Anderson and Seney) have played really well together before. Today obviously to see them all have success on the scoresheet is really good to see. As the year builds and you start putting lines back together that been better before, they’ll usually start building more chemistry the more time they have with one another. They’re the type of guys that when they’re on the bench they’re talking to each other a lot about a lot of details, ironing things out in different zones.

On the team’s performance:
We feel that we have gotten better with every game since the break. We’re building in the right direction. Today was probably one of our most complete games in terms of effort, energy for 60 minutes, execution of the game plan that we set out against the opponent that we’re playing. It’s good. This is the time of year that we need to start seeing that consistency and today we saw that.

MATT HELLICKSON (1 GOAL, 2 ASSISTS)

On his first professional goal:
It was awesome. It felt great to finally get the monkey off the back. I jumped on the ice and the puck was in the O-zone. I think it was Abramov who had it out of the corner and passed it up to Chad (Krys) and I’m a leftie so I was calling for it and thankfully Chad heard me and got the puck, took a look up at the net and saw some space and just tried to put it there and thankfully, it went in.

MAC HOLLOWELL (1 ASSIST)

On today’s game:
We definitely got the start that we wanted to get again which is huge for our team moving forward. As the game went on, we had a lead there and we got just trying to defend it more than play which is what got us to the lead. We had to keep our foot on the gas pedal and keep moving forward.

On Utica’s play:

They come hard and they don’t stop. They’ve got a lot of skill on each line, all four lines forecheck, crash and bang in on our D. That was the biggest thing just getting back and getting first touch and getting pucks in our forwards’ hands.

UPCOMING GAMES:
*All times Eastern Standard Time

January 10 vs. Springfield – 7:00 p.m.
January 12 vs. Belleville – 7:00 p.m.
January 15 at Hershey – 7:00 p.m.
January 16 at Lehigh Valley – 3:05 p.m.
January 19 at Hartford – 7:00 p.m.

TORONTO MARLIES (5-4-0-0 – 10 Points) vs.
UTICA COMETS (6-0-0-0 – 12 Points)
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2021
1 2 3 OT FINAL
TORONTO 1 1 0 – 2
UTICA 1 1 3 – 5

SCORING SUMMARY
Toronto: A. Steeves (4) (J. Ho-Sang, K. Semyonov), A. Steeves (5) (Unassisted),
Goaltender: M. Hutchinson (24/27)
Utica: C. De Leo (2) PP (N. Schnarr, R. Russo), J. Gambardella (1) (A. Greer), N. Foote (1) PP (R. Walsh, J. Boqvist), G.
Clarke (1) EN (C. De Leo), J. Gambardella (2) EN (Unassisted)
Goaltender: A. Schmid (24/26)
ON THE SCORESHEET

• Alex Steeves scored at 5:49 of the first period and unassisted 19 seconds into the second period. He has points (5-1-
  6) in his first four professional games. This is Steeves’ second multi-goal game of the season. He is tied for second
  overall in goals (5) amongst all rookies.
• Josh Ho-Sang recorded the primary assist on Steeves’ first period goal. This was his first assist of the season. He
  has points (4-1-5) in four consecutive games.
• Kirill Semyonov had the secondary assist on Steeves’ first period goal. He leads the Marlies in assists (8) and is tied
  for sixth overall.
• Michael Hutchinson stopped 24 of 27 shots he faced in his first start with the Marlies this season.
  OF NOTE…
• This is Toronto’s first game against the Utica Comets under their new affiliation with the New Jersey Devils.
• Toronto went 3-for-5 on the penalty kill and 0-for-3 on the power play.
• Utica had a 29-26 edge in shots in all situations. Alex Steeves led the Marlies with five shots on goal.
• The Marlies are 4-3-0-0 against North Division opponents and 0-1-0-0 against the Utica Comets.
  RECORD WHEN
  Tied after 1 2-1-0-0
  Tied after 2 1-1-0-0
  Not scoring on the power play 1-4-0-0
  Allowing a power play goal 2-3-0-0
  Outshot by opponent 2-3-0-0
  Saturday 2-2-0-0
  MARLIES LEADERS
  Goals 6 (J. Ho-Sang)
  Assists 8 (K. Semyonov)
  Points 9 (K. Semyonov)
  PPG 2 (J. Ho-Sang)
  Shots 22 (J. Anderson)
  +/-: +6 (K. Semyonov, A. Steeves)
  PIMS 36 (R. Clune)
  POSTGAME QUOTES
  HEAD COACH GREG MOORE
  On tonight’s game:
  This loss stings a bit. I thought our team played a really good game. I think we had three or four posts in the second
  period and another one in the third. The team did a lot of good stuff. We found our game today. We had a great start,
  which is something we’ve been struggling with the team being ready at the beginning of the game. We started to get into
  some penalty trouble at the end of the first which is something that we’ve discussed a lot. We’ve got to make sure we
  clean it up out of our game because when we’re playing top opponents who are undefeated, we can play with them, we
  can win hockey games but if we’re going to continue to take penalties especially the stick infractions, it just puts us behind
  a little. Overall the effort, the compete, our offensive and defensive structure, the energy and just the whole process of
  how the guys played today was the right way. It was just one of those games. Sometimes you do everything that you can
  and the bounces just don’t go in your favour but we should feel pretty proud of how we played today.
  ALEX BIEGA
  On tonight’s game:
  I think it was a good test for our group being in a high energy building like that. For the most part, we had a really solid
  game. A couple of bounces here and there could have gone the other way but for the most part, pretty happy with two
  points on the road and we just have to take what we have to get better at in this week in practice and execute next week.
  RECENT TRANSACTIONS
  November 6: Recalled goaltender Joseph Woll from loan by Toronto (NHL)
  November 4: Loaned defenceman Matthew Hellickson to Newfoundland (ECHL)
  November 4: Returned defenceman Kristiāns Rubīns on loan from Toronto (NHL)
  November 4: Recalled defenceman Kristiāns Rubīns from loan by Toronto (NHL)
  UPCOMING GAMES:
  *All times Eastern Standard Time
  November 13 at Chicago – 8:00 p.m.
  November 14 at Chicago – 4:00 p.m.
  November 17 vs Laval – 7:00 p.m.
  November 20 vs Lehigh Valley – 4:00 p.m.
  November 21 vs Cleveland – 4:00 p.m.