The Utica Comets (AHL) captured three of a possible four points this past week. Despite doing so, they still remain five points back of the Rochester Americans for the final playoff spot in the North Division. Utica only has six games remaining in the regular season.
Notably, in Utica’s massive 4-0 victory over Belleville on Saturday, goaltender Nico Daws set another franchise record, becoming the goalie with the most shutouts in Utica history. It was his sixth career shutout for Utica. Daws is the franchise leader in games played, wins, and now shutouts.
For last week’s recap click here.
Weekly Results
Providence 3, Utica 2 (SO); Apr. 1
In the Comets’ first game of the week they took on the AHL’s top team in the Providence Bruins. Utica got the game to overtime, but ultimately fell in a shootout.
Teams traded goals in the second period. Josh Filmon got his fourth of the season, unassisted, then Providence answered back just three minutes later. In the third, the teams swapped, as the Bruins grabbed a 2-1 lead before the Comets quickly tied things back up just a minute later. Mike Hardman scored his ninth, assisted by Ethan Edwards (13) and Calen Addison (21).
From there, each team was scoreless the rest of regulation and overtime. The shootout went six rounds as Providence captured the extra point. Angus Crookshank scored in the first round, but the Comets came up empty in each round after that.
Providence outshot Utica 33-25. Jakub Málek was very strong, stopping 31-of-33. The Comets went 0-for-5 on the power play, an unfortunate them for them lately.
Utica 4, Belleville 0; Apri. 4
In what was by far their biggest game of the season, Utica pounced all over Belleville and shut them out. The victory cleared Utica of Belleville in the standings while still having a game in hand.
The first period was scoreless, then the Comets struck for two in the second. Nathan Légaré (11) and Matyas Melovsky (7) scored just a couple minutes apart to give Utica the 2-0 lead. The Comets then added two empty-net goals at the end of the game. Ryan Schmelzer (4) and Mike Hardman (10) were beneficiaries of those.
Utica outshot Belleville 25-21 in the game. Nico Daws was fantastic, posting his record-breaking sixth career shutout for the Comets.
Statistics Update
Over the last two games, the Comets’ power play is 0-for-9. They are scoreless on their last 21 power plays. They have not scored a power-play goal since March 20 against Providence. On the season, the Comets’ power play ranks 22nd at 17.3%.
Forward Mike Hardman had a nice week, scoring his ninth and 10th goals of the season. Hardman is now riding a three-game point streak and has six points in his last nine games. Prior to that, Hardman had only two points across his previous 19 games. Unfortunately, 27-year-old is on pace to post his second-worst AHL season as far as point-producing goes.
Standings Update
The three-point output this past week puts the Comets at 26-30-5-5 on the season. Their 62 points trails the Rochester Americans by five for the fifth and final playoff spot in the North Division. Utica has six games to play while Rochester has seven. Belleville, who the Comets beat on Saturday, trails Utica by one point in the standings but only has five games remaining.
Utica’s 62 points has them up to 25th in the league, the highest they have been in quite some time.
Upcoming Schedule
Utica is set for a massive three-game slate which will determine their season this upcoming week. They have a rare 10:45 am ET start time in Toronto against the Marlies on Wednesday. Following that, the Marlies travel to Utica for a Friday game. Utica then finishes the week up with a road game against the Syracuse Crunch on Saturday.
Toronto occupies fourth in the North Division and are on the verge of locking themselves into the Calder Cup playoffs. Meanwhile, Syracuse have already clinched and their 39-21-3-4 record has them second in the North and eighth in the AHL overall.
The Comets will surely be scoreboard watching. The team they are chasing, Rochester, has four games this upcoming week, including Monday night against the Cleveland Monsters. They then play Syracuse on Wednesday followed by the Springfield Thunderbirds and Providence Bruins on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Three of the four teams they play (Cleveland, Syracuse, Providence) have clinched playoff berths. Meanwhile, Cleveland is in the thick of the Atlantic Division playoff race.
After Monday, Utica and Rochester will have the same amount of games remaining.
ECHL Update
The Adirondack Thunder (ECHL) were chugging right along until hitting a lull in recent weeks. After a massive 10-game win streak the Thunder have lost 13 of their last 16 games. This includes being a loser of six in a row.
Despite this, they are still likely headed to the playoffs. The Thunder sit at 34-22-8-1 on the season, and their 77 points are six more than the team chasing them for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference’s North Division. The team in fourth place, the Trois-Rivières Lions, have two more games played than Adirondack. However, they do play the Thunder four more times this season.
The Thunder are still being led by breakout star forwrard Brannon McManus. McManus is up to 28 goals, 35 assists, and 63 points, which places him sixth in the ECHL scoring race. His previous professional career-high in points was 47 for the Greenville Swamp Rabbits in 2023-24. McManus, 26, played at the college level for the University of Minnesota and the University of Nebraska-Omaha before a cup of coffee in the AHL (seven games) back in 2021-22. Since then, he has played exclusively in the ECHL. He has 180 points across 256 career ECHL games.
The team’s second leading scorer is defenseman Jeremy Hanzel. Hanzel was acquired from Nashville in the Erik Haula deal this past offseason. He has 41 points (36 assists) across 65 games this season. Hanzel was a sixth-round pick by Colorado in 2023. The 23-year-old was involved in the Yakov Trenin trade in 2024 then was sent in New Jersey before this season.
Forwards Alexander Campbell (27 points in 39 games), Tag Bertuzzi (26 points in 35 games), and Dylan Wendt (18 points in 27 games) all have decent offensive outputs across a smaller sample.
Adirondack’s strength has been in net all season long. Jeremy Brodeur, 29, has a 0.912 save percentage and a 21-11-5 record across 38 appearances. Meanwhile, Tyler Brennan, 22, has a 0.902 save percentage across 25 games. Brennan was a fourth-round pick in 2022.