New Jersey Devils: Utica Comets Just Can’t Stop Winning
By Nick Villano
The Utica Comets haven’t lost. They are nine games into the season, and they finally felt a little adversity. They were facing a Laval Rocket team that already brought some controversy. Last week, the Comets Twitter account got in a little tiff with the league when they asked about Cole Caufield. That likely gave the Rocket a little extra motivation coming into Saturday night’s contest.
The Rocket went down early in the game, but they eventually took the lead 3-2. The Canadiens fans were all over that after this week’s debacle. It didn’t last long. Joe Gambardella scored his second goal of the game and his sixth goal of the season to tie the game. From there, Graeme Clarke scored his third of the year to give them the lead and Marian Studenic scored on the empty net to seal it.
It was the ninth win in a row to start the season for Utica; a franchise record. Despite having the least amount of games played in the league, the Comets are in first place. The second-place Rochester Americans are still four points behind them with two more games played.
When will the Comets lose? They keep switching players with the New Jersey Devils. The Devils made claims on Alex Holtz, Jesper Boqvist, Tyce Thompson, and Colton White. So, for those scoring at home, that is their second-leading scorer, their young phenom who has five goals in four games, one of their top shutdown defensemen, and a player with a point per game average. Despite all of this, the Comets keep winning.
It’s surprising the success has come so quickly for the Comets. Beyond the ever-changing roster, the team just moved from Binghamton to Utica. The entire team had to move its roster across the state of New York, and it’s now further away from the Devils than it was before. Also, the Comets got a new coach in Kevin Dineen. He brought on a winning culture.
The Comets are seeing some of the AHL vets really step up this season. Chase De Leo is leading the team in points thanks to putting up 11 assists in nine games. Fabian Zetterlund is third behind Jesper Boqvist. Joe Gambardella is leading the team in goals with six, and a lot of his goals came in the clutch.
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The Comets will eventually lose a game. That will be a sad day, however, this run has been amazing. Everything the Comets are doing is going right. It’s been a lot of fun, and if you aren’t paying attention to the Devils’ AHL team, you absolutely should.