December 27, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL) Utica Comets In a 6-3 final decision against the Lake Erie Monsters at The Utica Memorial Auditorium on Saturday night, the Comets closed out the month of December with a 7-0-3-0 record with a total of 17 points out of a possible 20.

Brandon DeFazio (3-0-3), the first star of the game might be able to open up his own hat store after tonight's hat trick just moments into the second period. Hamilton (1-1-2), Darren Archibald (1-1-2) and Dustin Jeffrey (0-2-2) also contributed to the Comets second victory this season over the Monsters.

The Comets came out hard and fast and their efforts showed up quickly on the scoreboard just moments into beginning of the first period. At 6:45 DeFazio received a short pass directly between the hashmarks from Darren Archibald. DeFazio snapped the rubber off of the blade of his stick only to bury it top shelf past Flames goaltender Roman Will for the 1-0 lead for his first goal of the night. Travis Ehrhardt received the secondary assist on the play.

Just 18 seconds into the second stanza, the Monsters and the fans at The AUD realized DeFazio's wheels hadn't stopped turning. After a quick bout of shots taken on Will, the Czech Republic native was unable to control every re-bound outside of his crease. As the puck popped out of his possession for the third consecutive time, DeFazio found the puck to his right side and emptied in to the mesh for his second goal of the night to make it 2-0. Dustin Jeffrey and Andrey Pedan both received assists after their shot attempts.

And just moments later at 3:46, hats began to hit the ice.

After pick-pocketing one of the Lake Erie defensemen at the blue-line, DeFazio rushed into the offensive zone on a breakaway. In one swift move to deke Will in the opposite direction, DeFazio shot the puck and lifted it past Will's blocker side for the hat-trick goal, and his twelve of the season, which is just shy five goals of the 17 he scored last season for the Comets.

Even with the 3-0 lead, the Comets weren't letting up on the Cleveland hockey club. At 15:31, Carter Bancks fed a cross-ice saucer pass to Hamilton in a play that might be best explained as 'too close for comfort.'

Hamilton popped the puck in past Will's right side and immediately took the net with him as he crashed into the boards. With the net coming off after the puck had crossed the line, Hamilton was credited with the fourth Comets goal of the night to make it a four nothing game. John Negrin was credited with the secondary assist.

After letting in three goals in the second period, the Monsters thought it was time for a goaltending change for the start of the third period. Sami Aittokallio replaced Will in net for his first game since Dec. 13.

It only took 6 minutes into the final period for the Comets to bury one past the new opposing goaltender. After a pass to Brendan Gaunce from Alex Biega near the top of the circle, Gaunce pinpointed his target and sniped the puck over Aittokallio's glove for a power-play goal to give the Comets the five nothing lead.

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DeFazio's Hat Trick Powers Comets