The Utica Comets (AHL) suffered a loss in their first game of the week but followed that up with two straight commanding wins over the Belleville Senators. In doing so, the Comets continue to shrink the gap between them and the Senators for sixth place in the North Division.

In other news, rookie forward Matyas Melovsky received an entry-level contract from the New Jersey Devils’ organization on Monday. The Devils announced a two-year, entry-level contract for the young forward beginning in 2026-27. Melovsky, 21, was on an AHL deal this season and has 13 points in 35 games. He did miss a chunk of the year with injury.

For last week’s review click here.

Weekly Results

Hershey 6, Utica 3; Feb. 25

The Comets’ week started off on the wrong foot as they dropped a 6-3 decision to Hershey on Wednesday. Utica got behind fast and found themselves down 4-1, and then 6-2, before ultimately falling 6-3. This all despite outshooting Hershey 40-27.

The Utica goal scorers in the contest were Nathan Légaré, Kyle Criscuolo, and Josh Filmon. Marc McLaughlin kept up his strong form after returning from injury with two assists. Jakub Málek was pulled after only making nine stops on 13 shots. Nico Daws came in and played well, stopping 12-of-13.

Utica 5, Belleville 3: Feb. 27

Utica got back in the win column on Friday as they took down the Belleville Senators 5-3. Utica jumped out to a 5-0 lead before Belleville got three goals back late.

Jack Malone, Shane Lachance, and Kyle Criscuolo all scored in the game’s first period. Malone also assisted on Lachance’s 10th of the season. Xavier Parent added his 10th of the season in the second and Angus Crookshank got his team-leading (tied) 15th on the power play in the third period. Following that, Belleville scored three goals in the games final nine minutes to make the score look a bit more presentable.

Three Comets had multiple points in the game: Dennis Cholowski (two assists), Crookshank (goal, assist), and Malone (goal, assist). Nico Daws got the start and built on his relief appearance from Wednesday stopping 23-of-26. Utica was actually outshot in the game 26-20.

Utica 5, Belleville 1; Feb. 28

Utica ended their week with a second straight win in consecutive days against Belleville. This time, in a 5-1 decision, Utica outshot Belleville 35-28 and relied on two power play goals to take down the Senators.

Marc McLaughlin continued his heater opening the scoring for the Comets. Belleville did respond to begin period two, but following that, the Comets scored four unanswered, all in the second period, to end the game. Three of those goals were scored by Xavier Parent as he picked up a hat trick and Jonathan Gruden added one as well.

Parent’s three goals pushed his season total to 13. Joining Parent in having a multi-point game was Calen Addison (two assists), McLaughlin (goal, assist), and Topias Vilén (three assists). Jakub Málek responded in a big way after being pulled earlier in the wee by stopping 27-of-28 in the win.

Statistics Update

Xavier Parent had a massive week for the Comets. He had four points, including the hat trick, over the back-to-back set with the Senators. On the season, Parent now has 24 points in 43 games. The 24-year-old has been a strong undrafted find and flashed some across a five-game sample in the NHL this year. However, he is on pace to have his worst scoring output since joining the AHL full time in 2023-24.

Marc McLaughlin just keeps on producing since returning from his preseason injury that caused his season debut to be delayed until February. Through his first eight games back he has nine points (four goals, five assists). He had four points in the three games this week. McLaughlin, acquired in the Cody Glass trade, had 30 points in 66 AHL games in 2022-23 in by far his best offensive AHL season. The 26-year-old is currently having the best run of his 193-game AHL career.

Nico Daws had himself a nice week. He stopped 35-of-39 across two appearances this past week. Daws, who is already 25 years old, has slowly started losing time to Jakub Málek. He has a career-low 0.886 save percentage on the season.

Standings Update

Utica has slowly started to creep up the standings in recent weeks. Based off points percentage, Utica is now 29th in the league. As far the playoff race goes, Utica’s 18-25-5-4 record is good for 11 points back of the fifth-placed Rochester Americans for the final playoff spot in the North Division.

Upcoming Schedule

The Comets have a huge week upcoming with four games. The slate begins on Tuesday at home against Lehigh Valley. Utica then plays three games in three days Friday through Sunday which begins with a home-and-home against Belleville. The weekend is capped off with a 3:00 pm ET start time in Utica against the Crunch on Sunday.

The Phantoms sit at fifth in the Atlantic Division and the Crunch are second in the North Division. Belleville, who the Comets just swept last week, are only five points up on Utica for the sixth spot in the North Division. The Senators do have four less games played than the Comets.

ECHL Update

The Devils’ ECHL affiliate, the Adirondack Thunder, was the hottest team in the ECHL entering the weekend. The Thunder were riding a 10-game winning streak before losing all three games this past weekend. Despite that, the Thunder are still 31-15-5-1 on the season and fifth in the Eastern Conference.

Forward Brannon McManus is still leading the way and is now a point-per-game player with 52 in 52 games. His 52 points ranks fourth in the whole ECHL. McManus, 26, is only listed at 5-foot-11 and prior to this season had a career-high of 47 points back in 2023-24 (71 games). He is an undrafted free agent out of the University of Nebraska – Omaha. He has only played in seven career AHL games.

Tag Bertuzzi, who was in the Devils’ developmental camp prior to the season, is second on the team in point-per-game rate. He has 26 points (14 goals) in only 30 games. He has skated in 11 games with Utica at the AHL level this year as well. The 25-year-old is a veteran of 162 ECHL games and 27 AHL games in his career.

On the back end, defenseman Jeremy Hanzel is having a terrific offensive season. The 23-year-old is second on the team in points with 31 points in 52 games. Hanzel, a 2023 sixth-round pick, was acquired by the Devils in the Erik Haula trade.

Lastly, and the main reason why the team has been so strong this year, Adirondack has had terrific performances from their goaltending duo all season long. Below is how that duo has done thus far this season:

• Jeremy Brodeur: 0.920 save percentage, 19-7-3-1 record
• Tyler Brennan: 0.908 save percentage

Brennan, 22, was a fourth-round pick by the Devils in 2022.