Utica, NY – The Comets hosted the Thunderbirds on Saturday and fell by a score of 3-2.
The Comets had a dominant performance in the first period right from the opening faceoff. They had several shifts with extended zone time and forced Springfield to ice the puck multiple times within the first 10 minutes. The Comets were assessed a tripping penalty at the 15:43 mark. On the ensuing kill, they had a great chance to take the lead when Nathan Legare broke in on a 2-on-1 but was denied by Springfield netminder Georgi Romanov. The Thunderbirds’ best chance of the period came on that power play off the stick of Alek Kaskimaki in the middle of the slot, but Nico Daws was equal to the task. Georgi Romanov was very busy in the first period, stopping all 15 shots he faced.
It was more of the same from the Comets in the second period as they continued to generate quality scoring chances. They were finally rewarded when Dylan Wendt made a great pass to Jonathan Gruden down the slot who snapped one past Romanov blocker side to give the Comets the 1-0 lead at the 6:14 mark for his third of the year. The Thunderbirds started to find more of a rhythm as the period went on and were able to tie the game when Dylan Peterson made a nice pass to Chris Wagner who snuck one through the pads of Nico Daws at the 12:39 mark for his team-leading sixth goal of the year.
It was the Thunderbirds who came out the stronger team to start the third period and Nikita Susuyev corralled a loose puck behind the net and beat Daws on a wraparound to give the Thunderbirds a 2-1 lead just 1:48 into the final stanza. The Comets answered a few minutes later when Matyas Melovsky slid a pass across to Lenni Hameenaho who fired a one-timer past Romanov for his sixth of the year to tie the game at two at the 4:09 mark. Shane Lachance picked up the secondary assist. The Thunderbirds went back to work in the offensive zone later in the frame, and it was Marc-Andre Gaudet whose shot from the point knuckled past Daws to give Springfield a 3-2 lead on Gaudet’s first of the year at 8:47. The Comets pushed back and had the Thunderbirds scrambling in their own zone when Nico Daws was pulled for the extra attacker late in the game, but Springfield held on for a 3-2 win.
The Comets outshot the Thunderbirds 34-21, while going 0-for-1 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.