The Utica Comets | Final Thread | THANK YOU, UTICA!

[Bad Goalie]

Nolan Stevnes is stopped on a clean shot from the slot, which when you watch the replay, he shot 100% directly into Houser's glove. The guy never moved on the shot and the puck went directly into his glove!

 

[Bad Goalie]

Rochester is ramping it up and the Comets tendency to miss pass or fail to take them is showing up as they keep trying to just clear the zone and are having some trouble doing it.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Wesley with every chance to get the puck out coming around behind his net, but instead of shooting it off the boards and out he tried to deke the Amerk coming at him turned it over. Mikey had to stop a breakaway and the Comets get penalized.

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

 

[Bad Goalie]

Amerks work the puck for a set play and Mikey snuffs it out.

6 on 4 by the Amerks now.

Comets just sitting.

Comets crease is a mess and Mikey keeps it out.

Penalty coming and it looks like Eliot is going. Question is whether or not the Amerks get one as well. Mersch does.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Amerks misplay it and go back to their own end. Penalty is over. John Stevens gets control out across the blueline and aims a long shot from the neutral zone towarsd the empty net and it's in!!!!!!!!!!!!

G______O_____A_____L

This time an empty net goal was a really big deal.

Comets fail to clear at the boards and Rochester gets a walk to the net.Mikey a stop, but the rebound is knocked back in. There goes the shutout and it was the fault of his own people.

 

[Bad Goalie]

The 400 on hand end this one with the chorus so often echoed through out this building over the past 8 years.

UTICA! UTICA! UTICA! UTICA! UTICA! UTICA! UTICA!

 

[Bad Goalie]

The Comets win this one 3-1.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Final score -

Utica Comets 3 Rochester Americans 1

SOG:
Amerks - 9 9 16 = 34
Comets - 11 12 14 = 37

PP:
Amerks - 0/2
Comets - 1/4

Arseneau (4) from Cameron (2) and Eliot (4)
Woo (3) from N. Stevens (12) and Tucker (6)
J. Stevens (6) from McKenzie (8) and Tucker (6)

3 Stars:
1)Vincent Arseneau (Utica Comets) 1 G
2) MikeyDiPietro (Utica Comets) 33/34
3) Jett Woo (Utica Comets) 1 G

The Comets finished the season with a sparkling 12W/2L record on home ice.

Tonight was a bittersweet victory. It was a well deserved hard fought victory. It was also the last time the Utica fan base will cheer on a Vancouver based hockey team. The Comets were reborn 8 years ago. The city and the surrounding area embraced that moment with glee. From the middle of the 2014-15 season to tonight's game the number of people allowed int0 the building bought every ticket. Sold out season after season. Season ticket sales had to be stopped at around 3,500 in order to have some tickets to sell to the general public. However, when the box office opened to sell those extra seats, the line went forever as the people bought up most of the tickets for the rest of the season. In spite of the lack of commitment from the Vancouver management, the teams were supported and embraced by the fan base win or lose. The Comets were Utica's team and the city took the players in and treated them as their own. The players to a man will tell anyone that asks that if you have to play in the AHL there is no better place to park your skates.

So long Vancouver. Thanks for bringing hockey back to the Mohawk Valley. The support the city gave to your kids has lit up the minor hockey world and made this city a coveted location for NHL teams to park their prospects.

 

[THRILLHOIAF]

COMETS HARVEST: A Final Goodbye to the City of Utica

What a final game as Vancouvers affiliate.

Wish the barn was full for this one. Would've loved to hear the crowd on the Arseneau and Woo goals.

Cheers, once more, for everything you've done for Vancouver fans with your recaps BG.

 

[Bad Goalie]

COMETS HARVEST: A Final Goodbye to the City of Utica

What a final game as Vancouvers affiliate.

Wish the barn was full for this one. Would've loved to hear the crowd on the Arseneau and Woo goals.

Cheers, once more, for everything you've done for Vancouver fans with your recaps BG.

Thank you, it has been my pleasure.

You have to know I love doing it. I only hope the Jersey fans will be as receptive.

 

[VanJack]

In their 52 year history, the Canucks top AHL-IHL-CHL farm team reads like a Greyhound bus schedule.....Fredericton, Hamilton, Kansas City, Seattle, Tulsa, Milwaukee, Seattle, Dallas, Rochester and Syracuse. Yep, for brief periods there actually was a top Canuck farm in team in Syracuse and Rochester.

More recently, the journey has taken Canuck farmhands from Manitoba, to Chicago and finally to Utica. As a long time Canuck observer, I can safely say there's never been a city or a community that embraced the Canucks prospects, coaches and player personnel like Utica, N.Y. And there probably never will be again.

The Canucks and the AHL will probably be fine in Abbotsford, with a fairly new rink that seats 8,000...And for the first time in team history fans in the Lower Mainland of B.C. will be able to follow the baby Canucks in person.

But there never will be another Utica. A shout-out to the fans, posters and all those passionate Comet followers in the Mohawk Valley. You'll all be seriously missed.

 

[mathonwy]

Utica... the pleasure was all ours.

 

[Grantham]

Archi at the end of the video is so fitting, almost made me shed a tear. He really was the heart and soul and gave everything for Utica.

I feel sad, as this day sort of snuck up on me. I don’t want it to end, and it feels like a good friend leaving.

Lots of love to all you Utica faithful. I know I’ll still be cheering you on!

 

[David Bruce Banner]

Thanks for all the insight Bad Goalie!
It was great having someone on the ground there who knew what they were talking about.

 

[krutovsdonut]

Tonight will be the Comets final home game of the season. After eight seasons it will also be the final time that I go to the Aud and watch the Comets wearing the Blue & Green. There are some Canucks fans that would like to go back to the old colors and the retro skate jersey but I think the current Canucks/Comets colors are the best in hockey.

I am excited to move on to the next chapter of AHL hockey in Utica. The stability of a new ten year agreement with New Jersey with a mutually agreed to opt-out after year seven allows Comets fans to relax and not have to worry about the team leaving every other year as the six year agreement with Vancouver was essentially three, two year agreements.

I believe the change is in the best interest of each organization. Vancouver will have their AHL prospects closer to home which will be easier for call ups and better exposure to the local fanbase. Comets fans will have an easier time following the prospects as they advance to the NHL with an east coast partner in addition to the stability that comes with the new agreement.

The Vancouver Canucks will always be my favorite west coast NHL team and I will continue to follow the team and especially the guys that got their start in Utica. I will forever be grateful that they took a chance on our small city so many miles away and that they stayed long enough for Utica to prove that we have a place in this league. The eight years of support we showed for the Canucks prospects was instrumental in finding another NHL team to trust us with their prospects.

I wish the new team in Abbotsford well and hope you guys get a chance to see them play in person. Show your support through both the successful and lean years because ultimately that is what keeps AHL hockey in your city.

Good luck and hopefully we get to play each other in the Calder Cup Finals next year

i just wanted to thank you for your informative and insightful comments over the years. this is a typical great post by you to end on. good luck with the devils. i sincerely hope you do not need it.

i think the canucks will regret cutting loose utica. it is a great development environment and easily the best we've had since the moose, plus the bonus of all the bus travel. i also think the strategic value of having a foothold in the east and a pulse on the ahl and prospects there is underappreciated.

going way back to milwaukee and fredericton i have never been happy with canuck farm teams. utica is the first time i think i have ever felt like we had the right first class platform. i hope i am wrong and abbotsford thrives.

 

[Catamarca Livin]

M

i just wanted to thank you for your informative and insightful comments over the years. this is a typical great post by you to end on. good luck with the devils. i sincerely hope you do not need it.

i think the canucks will regret cutting loose utica. it is a great development environment and easily the best we've had since the moose, plus the bonus of all the bus travel. i also think the strategic value of having a foothold in the east and a pulse on the ahl and prospects there is underappreciated.

going way back to milwaukee and fredericton i have never been happy with canuck farm teams. utica is the first time i think i have ever felt like we had the right first class platform. i hope i am wrong and abbotsford thrives.

Utica was great as it was the best supported farm team, though to be fair Winnipeg was well run before Jets came back to town.

 

[krutovsdonut]

M


Utica was great as it was the best supported farm team, though to be fair Winnipeg was well run before Jets came back to town.

yep. the moose were great except for the travel.

 

[Jyrki21]

Echoing everyone else's sentiment – I've loved this affiliation and am sorry to see it go.

I'll be back!

 

[4Twenty]

Jersey are getting an amazing resource in this Utica fan base.

Im happy for Utica though. Jersey has been drafting a lot and I’m guessing you’ll be seeing a lot more nhl prospects roll through.

 

[VanJack]

Utica is like the Cooperstown of hockey in New York State. Maybe it's the fact that Slapshot was filmed at the Aud, and Reggie Dunlop; the Hansen brothers and Ogie Ogelthorpe will live on in hockey celluloid forever.

But the passion for pro hockey in the Mohawk Valley is on display every game and every season. It was on my bucket-list to head east and watch the Comets at the Aud....but sadly I waited too long.

And of course because the Canucks farm team is now in the Western Conference, the Utica Devils won't be coming west to play at the Abbotsford Entertainment Center unless it's in a Calder Cup final. Wouldn't that be something!

The closest I got was watching the Comets and the old Chicago Wolves, who were briefly the Canucks AHL affiliate, when they came west to play the Abbotsford Heat.

So I'll be raising a glass to Utica and the AHL. May their marriage in 'hockey heaven' last forever.

 

[Bad Goalie]

5/14/21

Utica Comets at Rochester Americans 7:05 pm EDT

The Utica Comets era in Utica has ended, but the season still goes on this weekend. Not a lot of top prospects left from either team, but they are still the Comets and have to finish the season. Their road record has been poor to say the least. They were 12-2 at home. 3-8-0-1 on the road.

Forwards:
Baertschi/J. Stevens/Anas
Alexandrov/Jasek/N.Stevens
McKenzie/Focht/McGing
Arseneau/Cameron/Keppen

D-pairs:
Tucker/Wesley
Staios/Woo
Teves/Eliot

Goal - Fitzpatrick

Scratches:
Cranley(BU)
Washkurak
Dickinson
Kaspick
Briesbois (I)
Kielly (I)

 

[Bad Goalie]

Three early stops in a net front scramble and he sits on the 3rd for a whistle.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Comets to the PK. 2 minutes into the game.

Wesley 2 for interference.

Jasek gets a SH breakaway and as slow as molasses in January goes to the backhand and misfires and misses the net.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Comets kill it and Fitz makes a stop waiting for the 5th Comet to arrive. The Amerks get 2 more chances and nothing comes of it, puck out of play.

This game is all Rochester for the first 5 minutes. Fitz another save.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Comets having trouble even finding a guy to pass the puck to let alone try to make a pass.