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Comets Hit 7th Sell Out

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February 1, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL) Utica Comets The Utica Comets have announced that tonight's game against the Rockford IceHogs is SOLD OUT.

This marks the second consecutive sellout and the seventh sellout for the Comets this season. It is the second time the Comets have sold out both games in a weekend. The previous weekend to sell out both games was Dec. 27 vs. Binghamton and Dec. 28 vs. Hamilton.

Tonight's sellout will give the Comets sellouts in three out of their last four home games, and four sell outs in their last five home weekend dates. After tonight's game, 79,947 people will have walked through the Utica Memorial Auditorium's doors to attend a Comets game. The season average of 3,331 per game is 87.3 percent of The AUD's capacity.

Tickets still remain for games on Saturday, Feb. 15 against Rochester, Wednesday, Feb. 26 vs. San Antonio and Friday, Feb. 28 vs. Adirondack. All games will start at 7 p.m.

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Comets Hit 7th Sell Out

Gameday: Comets vs. Rockford

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February 1, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL) Utica Comets UTICA COMETS (16-20-2-4) @ ROCKFORD ICEHOGS (20-21-4-2)

Utica Memorial Auditorium, 7 pm

Radio: 94.9 K-Rock

Tonight's Game: The Comets are rolling with a point in each of their last six games as the Rockford IceHogs are in town for the first time in franchise history. The Comets have moved to within eight points of eighth place in the Western Conference with a 16-0-2-4 record on the season.

When They Last Met: Tonight is the first meeting between the Comets and IceHogs.

Comets Outlook: On Pink The Rink night at The AUD, 3,815 hockey fans packed the building as the Comets defeated the rival Syracuse Crunch from just up the NYS Thruway. Brandon DeFazio, Pascal Pelletier and Darren Archibald each scored for Utica, who moved to 16-20-2-4 on the season. Joacim Eriksson, who was just 65 seconds away from his fourth career AHL shutout, made 31 saves on 32 shots for the victory.

IceHogs Outlook: The IceHogs dropped a 4-1 decision to the Rochester Americans last evening at Blue Cross Arena. Philippe Lefebvre scored Rockford's only goal as Rochester netminder Matt Hackett made 23 saves to earn the victory. Colton Gillies, Brayden McNabb, Alex Hutchings and Kevin Sundher each scored for the Americans, while defenseman Mark Pysyk led the way with two assists. Jason LaBarbara made 29 saves on 33 shots for Rockford.

This Thing Pascalled Love: Pascal Pelletier continues to rack up the points as he finished with two (1-1-2) against Syracuse on Friday. Pelletier is now tied for fifth in the AHL with 30 assists this season and is in sole possession of 14th with 38 points. Pelletier will see familiar colors tonight, as he played one season with Rockford in 2008-09, where he recorded 55 points (29-26-55) over 71 games.

Joacim And Get It: CCM/AHL Player of the Week Joacim Eriksson has earned points for Utica in nine of his past ten starts, including eight victories. The Galve, Sweden native has moved into the league's top 20 in both save percentage (.915) and wins (12). Eriksson has been in net for 68.4 percent (26 of 38) of Comet points this season.

3rd Rock From The Andersson: Utica defenseman Peter Andersson has earned a positive rating in each of his past six games to take over the team lead in plus/minus this season, at +9. Andersson has also already exceeded his career high in scoring, with 11 points (1-10-11) over 36 games played.

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Gameday: Comets vs. Rockford

Comets hold off Titans

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GREENTOWN Round 2 was just as much of a thriller. It was the ending that was different this time around.

Two weeks to the day after a come-from behind victory over Eastern in the opening game of the Howard County Tourney, Taylor once again saw itself staring up at a deficit and clawing away to get back on even ground.

The Comets, however, weathered the Titans surge this time around, holding on for a 53-48 Mid-Indiana Conference win.

Just a heck of a good game, and of course its even better that we came out on the winning side of the scoreboard, Eastern coach Mike Springer said.

Eastern (2-7, 1-2 MIC) jumped out to a double-digit lead over the first 16 minutes and managed to hold off Taylors second-half surge to earn its first conference win.

There was five minutes to go in the game and Taylor was running on us, Springer said. I said, Fellas, its going to come down to toughness. Our kids did a great job of moving the ball and handling the pressure those last five minutes when they were coming after us. Showing that mental and physical toughness made me happier than it did to get the win.

Twice in the final stanza, Taylor (3-7, 0-3) made it a three-point game, but each time Eastern made plays to make sure the Titans got no closer. When KeShawn Stablers free throw made it 42-39 with 5:49 showing, the Comets responded with back-to-back hoops from Noah Cope and Tristen Moyers. When Calvin Wheelers pull-up, 20-plus-footer swooshed through to make it 51-48 with :07 to play, Moyers answered by hitting both ends of a double bonus at the other end with :3.5 remaining.

When youre 1-7 and youve got one senior and youve got to play a team thats already beat you, and then youve got to turn around and play Tipton and Hamilton Heights, your kids can go in the tank, but we didnt, Springer said. We only had two practices this week thanks to Mother Nature, but we had the two best practices weve had this year.

The Comets showed few signs of rust early, opening the game on an 8-0 run and going up by as many as 13 points (15-2) on the way to a 21-10 lead at the first stop. Eastern knocked down four of its first five shots, including 3-of-3 from downtown, ripping the nets at a 56 percent clip in the first frame (9-of-16).

Comet sharpshooter Braden Gibson netted eight of his 14 total points in the first eight minutes. His back-to-back 3-balls put Eastern up 11-2 just 2:30 into the game.

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Comets hold off Titans

Gameday: Comets vs Syracuse

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January 31, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL) Utica Comets UTICA COMETS (15-20-2-4) vs. SYRACUSE CRUNCH (17-19-2-4)

MIX 102.5""s "Pink the Rink' Night brought to you by GPO Federal Credit Union

Utica Memorial Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Radio: 94.9 K-Rock

Tonight's Game: The Comets host the Syracuse Crunch for the second time this season as the second of their three game homestand. Utica has amassed a point in five straight games entering tonight's action, dating back to Jan. 18 against Hamilton.

When They Last Met: The Comets earned their first point of the season in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Crunch at The AUD. Colin Stuart scored Utica's only goal, while Comet netminder Joacim Eriksson stole the show with 32 saves on 33 shots. Syracuse winger Nikita Kucherov scored the lone goal in regulation for the Crunch. Benn Ferriero beat Syracuse goaltender Cedric Desjardins in the shootout, but the Crunch were victorious in six rounds as Cedric Paquette potted the game winner. Desjardins finished with 19 saves through 65 minutes of play and saved five of six in the shootout.

Comets Outlook: The Utica Comets forced their third straight game to overtime, but failed to extend their winning streak to five games as they dropped a 3-2 shootout decision to the Lake Erie Monsters. Forward Benn Ferriero improved his scoring streak to nine games with a goal and an assist, while Patrick Mullen also lit the lamp for the Comets. AHL Player of the Week Joacim Eriksson turned aside 34 of 36 shots as he earned his team a point for the eighth time in his past nine starts.

Crunch Outlook: The Crunch dropped a 4-0 decision against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Wednesday evening at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza. Eric Hartzell turned aside all 20 Crunch shots he faced on the evening. Penguin captain Tom Kostopolous led the way offensively for the Penguins with a goal and an assist, while defenseman Simon Despres added two assists of his own. Paul Thompson, Harry Zolnierczyk and Denver Manderson also scored for WBS. Goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis made 21 saves in a losing effort for Syracuse.

The Tooth Ferri: Winger Benn Ferriero has recorded points in each of his last nine games, dating back to Jan. 9 against Oklahoma City. Ferriero, remains in possession of the longest active scoring streak in the AHL, four games shy of Vladislav Namestnikov's season long streak of 13 games. The Essex, MA native has collected 12 points (6-6-12) over his current run.

Sanford and Eriksson: CCM/AHL Player of the Week Joacim Eriksson has earned points for Utica in eight of his past nine starts, including seven victories. The Galve, Sweden native is now over .500 for the season at 11-10-1-2. Eriksson has amassed a .940 save percentage and a 1.74 goals against average over his past nine appearances.

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Gameday: Comets vs Syracuse

Comets and Woolly Mammoths

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New evidence suggests that a comet collision might have been the trigger for the Younger Dryas, contributing to North America's megafauna extinction. UC Santa Barbara's James Kennett, professor emeritus in the Department of Earth Science, posits that such an extraterrestrial event did occur killing off woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths and saber-tooth tigers 12,900 years ago.

Originally published in 2007, Kennett's controversial Younger Dryas Boundary (YDB) hypothesis suggests that a comet collision precipitated the Younger Dryas period of global cooling, which, in turn, contributed to the extinction of many animals and altered human adaptations. The nanodiamond is one type of material that could result from an extraterrestrial collision, and the presence of nanodiamonds along Bull Creek in the Oklahoma Panhandle lends credence to the YDB hypothesis.

More recently, another group of earth scientists, including UCSB's Alexander Simms and alumna Hanna Alexander, re-examined the distribution of nanodiamonds in Bull Creek's sedimentological record to see if they could reproduce the original study's evidence supporting the YDB hypothesis. Their findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

"We were able to replicate some of their results and we did find nanodiamonds right at the Younger Dryas Boundary," said Simms, an associate professor in UCSB. "However, we also found a second spike of nanodiamonds more recently in the sedimentary record, sometime within the past 3,000 years."

The researchers analyzed 49 sediment samples representing different time periods and environmental and climactic settings, and identified high levels of nanodiamonds immediately below and just above YDB deposits and in late-Holocene near-surface deposits. The late Holocene began at the end of the Pleistocene 11,700 years ago and continues to the present. The researchers found the presence of nanodiamonds is not caused by environmental setting, soil formation, cultural activities, other climate changesor the amount of time in which the landscape is stable. The discovery of high concentrations of nanodiamonds from two distinct time periods suggests that whatever process produced the elevated concentrations of nanodiamonds at the onset of the Younger Dryas sediments may have also been active in recent millennia in Bull Creek.

"Nanodiamonds are found in high abundances at the YDB, giving some support to that theory," Simms said. "However, we did find it at one other site, which may or may not be caused by a smaller but similar event nearby."

Read more at University of California of Santa Barbara.

Woolly Mammoth and comet images via Shutterstock, merged and morphed by Robin Blackstone.

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Comets and Woolly Mammoths

Comets come up short in overtime this time

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UTICA The Utica Comets forced their third straight game to overtime, but failed to extend their winning streak to five AHL games as they dropped a 3-2 shootout at the Utica Memorial Auditorium against the Lake Erie Monsters on Tuesday night.

Utica forward Benn Ferriero improved his scoring streak to nine games with a goal and an assist, while Patrick Mullen also lit the lamp for the Comets. Reigning AHL player of the week goalie Joacim Eriksson turned aside 34 of 36 shots as he earned his team a point for the eighth time in his past nine starts.

The Comets skated out to a 2-1 first period lead before being held scoreless over the next two periods and came up short in overtime.

Utica got off on the right foot as they struck first for the 19th time this season. Mullen made his return to the lineup known in a big way, as he buried a Ferriero feed at the back post for a power-play goal at the 10:40 mark of the first. Cal OReilly also picked up a helper on the play.

Lake Erie answered exactly one minute later as Mark Olver scored his tenth goal of the season. Forward Andrew Agozzino picked up the lone assist on the play, his 18th helper of the season.

The Comets regained the lead at the 14:44 mark of the period, as Ferriero redirected home a Peter Andersson shot from the point to make it 2-1. Ferrieros goal gives him six goals over his past six games, while Andersson now has points in four of his last five. Alex Biega picked up the secondary assist, his tenth point of the season.

Utica remains undefeated in regulation when they lead after the first period, moving to 6-0-1-3 in those situations. The Comets grabbed 1-0 and 4-3 overtime victories over Abbotsford last weekend, but could not secure their third straight overtime win.

The Comets host the Syracuse Crunch on Friday night at the Auditorium in Pink The Rink Night in support of breast cancer awareness. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.

The game is sold out.

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Comets come up short in overtime this time

Shootout Unkind to Comets

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January 29, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL) Utica Comets The Utica Comets forced their third straight game to overtime, but failed to extend their winning streak to five games as they dropped a 3-2 shootout decision to the Lake Erie Monsters.

Utica forward Benn Ferriero improved his scoring streak to nine games with a goal and an assist, while Patrick Mullen also lit the lamp for the Comets. AHL Player of the Week Joacim Eriksson turned aside 34 of 36 shots as he earned his team a point for the eighth time in his past nine starts.

The Comets got off on the right foot as they struck first for the nineteenth time this season. Mullen made his return to the lineup known in a big way, as he buried a Ferriero feed at the back post for a power-play goal at the 10:40 mark of the first. Cal O'Reilly also picked up a helper on the play. The assist extended Ferriero's point streak to nine games, still an active AHL high. Ferriero is four games shy of the league best this season, held by Syracuses' Vladislav Namestnikov.

Lake Erie answered exactly one minute later as Mark Olver scored his tenth goal of the season. With the marker, Olver extended his team high point total to 29 points to date. Forward Andrew Agozzino picked up the lone assist on the play, his 18th helper of the season.

The Comets regained the lead at the 14:44 mark of the period, as Ferriero redirected home a Peter Andersson shot from the point to make it 2-1. Ferriero's goal gives him six goals over his past six games, while Andersson now has points in four of his last five. Alex Biega picked up the secondary assist, his tenth point of the season.

Lake Erie collected the only goal of the second period as Guillaume Desbiens beat Eriksson just five seconds after a tripping minor to Benn Ferriero had expired. Colin Smith and Stefan Elliott each collected assists on the play and for the third time this season, the Comets and Monsters would head to the third period tied at two.

Despite an active third period that saw a total of 27 shots on net, neither team was able to score and the Comets would play more than the scheduled 60 minutes for the third game in a row. Ferriero was not able to create deja, deja vu for Utica as he was unable to find an overtime game winner for the third straight game.

After Lake Erie scored on each of their first two shots in the shootout, courtesy of Colin Smith and Joey Hishon, Cal O'Reilly rifled one off the crossbar that bounced straight downward but failed to cross the goalline. After a pair of Eriksson saves, Pelletier failed to extend the shootout as he hit the right post and the Comets fell to 1-3 in shootouts this season.

Utica remains undefeated in regulation when they lead after the first period, moving to 6-0-1-3 in those situations. Utica defenseman Peter Andersson remains hot as he extended his point streak to three games with an assist on Ferriero's goal. The Kvidinge, Sweden native amassed a positive rating for the fifth straight game and now leads the team at +7 on the season.

The Comets look to make it six straight games with a point as the Syracuse Crunch make the short trip down the Thruway for a Friday night encounter at The AUD. Friday is Pink The Rink night for the Comets and the team will be wearing specially themed jerseys in support of breast cancer. Puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m.

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Shootout Unkind to Comets

Comets Corner with Kent Huskins

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January 28, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL) Utica Comets Last week, we sat down with Cal O'Reilly, one of the more recent additions to the Comets roster, and someone who has made a noticeable impact since joining the team. Today, we'll transition from learning about a key forward to a key defenseman, Kent Huksins, who has stood his ground on the blue line this season, serving as a key facet of the Comets defensemen.

While Huskins may not be tallying goals and assists game after game, he has, without a doubt, made an impact since signing with the Comets on November 4th. Huskins brings a level of depth and experience to a relatively young group of Comets defensemen. A native of Almonte, Ontario, Huskins was a member of the 2007 Stanley Cup Champion Anaheim Ducks and has played over 300 games at the NHL level, recording 68 total points (13-55-68). "Being on the cup-winning Ducks team in 2007 was undoubtedly the highlight of my hockey career," Huskins said. "I'll always be extremely thankful to the Ducks organization for the opportunity to be a part of that team...the experience was truly surreal."

With rookies such as Henrik Tommernes and Frank Corrado serving as key forces of the Comets defense, it is without a doubt that Huskins serves as a role model for a lot of the younger guys on the team. "Frank's a great player and definitely has a very bright future in the NHL ahead of him," Huskins explained. "I've actually been really impressed with all of our defensemen. I wouldn't be surprised to see all of them in the NHL one day." When asked if the guys do see him as a role model, Huskins replied modestly, "I don't know about a role model. They definitely joke a lot about me being an "old man" though."

Even though the Comets are currently riding a four-game winning streak, the road hasn't always been easy. "I think the biggest challenge we faced in the first half of the season was frustration from working extremely hard and not seeing much in terms of immediate results," Huskins explained. "There were a lot of games where we felt like our levels of effort and execution were really high, but we kept coming up short on the losing end. Through all the tough losses though, the coaches have done a great job of teaching and the guys have stuck together and continued to work, so hopefully that continues to serve us well in the second half." Despite the ups and downs, Huskins has enjoyed his experience thus far in Utica, thanking the fans for always staying loyal, patient and supportive.

As the Comets enter the heart of the second half of the season, they will look to Huskins to stay solid on the blue line and continue to feed off of his experience and knowledge on the ice.

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Comets Corner with Kent Huskins

Comets’ Eriksson selected as AHL player of the week

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UTICA The American Hockey League announced Monday that Utica Comets goaltender Joacim Eriksson has been selected as the CCM/AHL Player of the Week for his accolades last week.

In three starts, Eriksson went 3-0-0 with a 1.31 goals-against average, a .953 save percentage and one shutout to help the Comets extend their winning streak to a team-best four games.

After a two-week stint in the National Hockey League with the parent Vancouver Canucks franchise, Eriksson returned to the Utica lineup last Tuesday night and stopped 22 of 23 shots as the Comets edged visiting Chicago, 2-1. Utica then headed west for a two-game series in Abbotsford, and Eriksson was outstanding in Friday nights 1-0 overtime victory, stopping all 36 shots he faced for his third shutout of the season. He then made 23 saves on Saturday night as the Comets earned another overtime win, 4-3 over the Heat.

Eriksson has won seven of his last eight decisions (7-1-0, 1.72, .940) and is now 11-11-1 with a 2.63 GAA and a .911 save percentage in 24 appearances on the season. A 23-year-old native of Gavle, Sweden, Eriksson is in his first season of play in North America after winning a Swedish league championship with Skelleftea in 2013. Signed as a free agent by Vancouver on June 17, 2013, Eriksson made his NHL debut with the Canucks on Jan. 15.

In recognition of his achievement, Eriksson will be presented with an etched crystal award prior to an upcoming Comets home game.

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Comets’ Eriksson selected as AHL player of the week


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