The Utica Comets, the New Jersey Devils’ AHL affiliate, came up just short. Utica was eliminated on the last day of the AHL regular season as Rochester clinched the final playoff spot in the North Division via a shootout loss. The Comets, who had the tiebreaker over Rochester based on regulation wins, missed the playoffs by a single point.
This is an extraordinary feat in its own right as Utica lost their first seven games of the regular season and found themselves 18 points back of the North Division playoff race at one point.
Entering the final week, they needed to win each of their three remaining games, including two against the top team in the AHL (Providence), and see Rochester lose all three of their remaining games in regulation. Utica won all three of their games but Rochester was able to muster up a regulation loss in the finale.
To put it further into context, since February 14 Rochester went 7-15-4 while Utica went 17-8-3. However, they came up just one point short.
Team Statistics
Utica finished the season at 30-31-6-5, good for 71 points. The 71 points tied them for 24th in the league as a whole.
Offensively, it was a slog for the Comets for most of the season. Utica finished 27th in the league in goal scoring and owned the 22nd-ranked power play. Their shooting percentage was also a lackluster 9.9% which ranked 26th.
Defensively, Utica allowed the 12th-fewest goal and ranked 10th in terms of penalty kill success rate. The Comets tied for first in shorthanded goals with 13.
Despite missing the playoffs, Utica finished 12th in shot differential. They only allowed 26.38 shots against per game which ranked seventh. The issue was more in net where the Comets’ goalies combined for a 0.887 save percentage wicked ranked 26th.
Skater Statistics
Utica’s leading scorer this season only had 39 points (Xavier Parent). Parent also finished second in goals to Angus Crookshank (24) with 20. Brian Halonen was the third Comet with a 20-goal season. His came in only 51 games as Crookshank played 60 for Utica and Parent 63.
A pair of defensemen led the Comets in assists. Calen Addison led defensemen overall with 31 points and 25 assists. Topias Vilén’s 27 points (23 assists) was second among defensemen in both assists and points. Ethan Edwards led defensemen in goals with 10 in 69 games. He had 23 points overall.
As far as points per game goes, Lenni Hämeenaho led the squad at a 0.70 rate. This is extremely impressive given Hämeenaho was held scoreless through his first nine games. He ended the season with 26 points (10 goals, 16 assists) across 28 games. Specifically, after being re-assigned from New Jersey, he ended the season with four points over the last three games. He had 22 points over his last 20 games. Brian Halonen trailed Hämeenaho at a 0.67 point-per-game rate. He had 34 points (20 goals) across 51 games. Lastly, Seamus Casey, who was limited to 29 games due to injury, had 19 points (18 assists) across those contests. He posted the best point-per-game rate among Utica defensemen.
Kyle Criscuolo, who was named team MVP, had 35 points in 62 games. He was signed late and did not play his first game until October 31. Others who joined Criscuolo over the 10-goal mark on the season was Nathan Légaré (13), Jonathan Gruden (12), Matyas Melovsky (10), Shane Lachance (10), Edwards (10), and Mike Hardman (10).
Melovksy and Lachance were a pair of rookies who scored at similar rates but one seemed to be headed in a better direction than the other. Lachance had 25 points in 62 games while Melovksy had 26 points in 55 games. Melovsky, specifically, had a big ending to the season as he seven points over his last seven games. He had 13 points over his last 16 games. Coming off a sensational QMJHL season in 2024-25 (83 points in 57 games), the former sixth-round pick signed a two-year entry-level contract with the organization midseason.
There is not much as far as analytical data goes in the AHL, but the AHL Tracker offers a Game Score per game metric. Here are how Comets skaters ranked:
- Brian Halonen, F (0.69)
- Lenni Hämeenaho, F (0.64)
- Angus Crookshank, F (0.61)
- Xavier Parent, F (0.57)
- Kyle Criscuolo, F (0.51)
- Seamus Casey, D (0.51)
- Marc McLaughlin, F (0.49)
- Matyas Melovsky, F (0.42)
- Calen Addison, D (0.38)
- Mike Hardman, F & Shane Lachance, F (0.37)
Goalie Statistics
As for the goaltending duo, Utica largely relied on Nico Daws and Jakub Málek. Daws played in 44 games while Málek got 31. Málek posted the slightly better numbers with a 0.895 save percentage and three shutouts. Nico Daws had a 0.892 save percentage with two shutouts.
Málek had a very interesting season. He performed so poorly to begin his professional career he was sent down and spent some time in the ECHL. Over his first five AHL games, prior to his ECHL assignment, he posted a 0.861 save percentage. However, over his last 26 games, after being called back up, he posted a 0.902 save percentage to end the season. It was a very encouraging ending for the young Czechia forward who was terrific in the Liiga.
As for Daws, he posted the second-worst single season save percentage of his career. However, the 25-year-old did end the season strong, posting a 0.923 save percentage over his last nine games.
Final Thoughts
For the second season in the row an extremely slow start plagued the Comets ultimately leading to their demise. This is now the third season in a row the Comets haven’t made the playoffs. Hopefully, a slow start can be avoided next season and Utica will be able to return to the postseason for the first time since 2022-23.
For the second year in a row, we recapped every week of Comet action in our “Utica Weekly” series. For all coverage of both New Jersey Devils affiliates, both the Comets and Adirondack (ECHL), make sure to follow along with our pages.