Utica, NY – The Comets hosted the Crunch on Sunday and came away with a 5-1 win.
The Comets had the start they were looking for, going on the power play just 1:26 into the game when Crunch defenseman Tommy Miller was called for high-sticking. Despite not capitalizing, the Comets scored shortly after the power play expired when Ethan Edwards sent a seeing-eye shot from the left point through traffic which beat Crunch netminder Ryan Fanti at the 3:40 mark to give the Comets a 1-0 lead. It was Edwards’ fifth of the year with Jack Malone and Dylan Wendt picking up the helpers. Later in the period, Nathan Legare raced to a loose puck in the Syracuse zone and snapped a wrist shot low blocker past Fanti to make it 2-0 Utica at the 9:27 mark on his sixth of the year which came unassisted. It was a very chippy first period with two fights and several post-whistle scrums. Brian Halonen dropped the gloves with Crunch defenseman Wyatt Newpower, and later in the period, it was Dmitry Osipov squaring up with Tommy Miller. Miller was injured and helped off the ice after taking several heavy punches from Osipov. The Comets ended up on the power play late in the first and with just 3.5 seconds remaining, Ryan Schmelzer fed Kyle Criscuolo, who tipped one home for his sixth of the year to make it 3-0. Jack Malone picked up the secondary assist.
The Comets started the second period shorthanded, but they were unfazed and tallied their seventh shorthanded goal of the year when Angus Crookshank jumped on a loose puck after a Ryan Schmelzer dump in and squeaked a shot through Ryan Fanti to make it 4-0 at 1:59 of the second. It was Crookshank’s 10th of the year and ended the night for Ryan Fanti who was replaced in net by Brandon Halverson. The Crunch would get on the board at 7:07 of the second when Dylan Duke deflected a shot from Ethan Samson past Jakub Malek on his team-leading 20th goal of the year. Towards the end of the period, Jonathan Gruden took advantage when Syracuse defenseman Chris Harpur fell down right inside the Utica blue line, giving Gruden a clear lane into the offensive zone who fired a shot through the pads of Brandon Halverson to make it 5-1 at 16:40 on his fifth of the year.
The Comets killed off a lengthy 5-on-3 to end the second which carried over into the third and preserved their lead, cruising to a 5-1 victory for their third straight win at home against the Crunch. Jakub Malek made 26 saves in route to his sixth win of the year.
The teams finished the game with 27 shots each, while the Comets went 1-for-5 on the power play and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill. There were a combined 60 penalty minutes in the game.
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