UTICA, N.Y. – The Comets returned home after a three-game road trip and claimed their first point in seven tries in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Toronto Marlies at the Utica Memorial Auditorium on Wednesday night. Despite outshooting the Marlies 37-22, the Comets suffered their seventh consecutive loss.
Jon Landry (1-0-1) and Darren Archibald (1-0-1) provided the goals for the Comets while Richard Bachman was in net with a successful 25 saves. Hunter Shinkaruk (0-2-2) tied Jordan Subban for the team lead in assists with a two assist night. The special teams played well, as the power play unit scored and the penalty-killing unit enjoyed a perfect 5-for-5 night.
The Comets surrendered the first goal of the game for fourth straight game when the Marlies struck 9:54 in the first period. Nikita Soshnikov scored his 12th goal of the season when he ripped a breakaway slap shot past Bachman.
It looked like the Comets would head to the locker room down by 1 but with just 17 seconds left in the period the power play came to the rescue. Friesen was able to connect with Shinkaruk, who made the pass to Jon Landry at the top of the slot. Landry wound up and fired a slap shot that snuck through traffic and evaded the glove of Bibeau for his third goal.
The next goal of the night came when penalties were called on both teams that led to 4-on-4 hockey for 24 seconds. Ryan Rupert jammed a loose pack into the net at the 9:14 mark of the second period for the 2-1 lead.
With seven minutes left in the third period of the game, the Comets were able to tie the game once again. As Darren Archibald fell to the ice he was able to successfully whack a Hunter Shinkaruk rebound past Bibeau’s foot.
A high-energy, fast-paced overtime proved to be fruitless as neither team could score on a plethora of chances.
After Soshnikov scored in the first round of the shootout, neither goaltender would allow another goal to give the Marlies the 3-2 shootout decision.
With the shootout loss, the Comets record falls to 16-15-3-3.
The Comets head to Syracuse for a 7pm Galaxy Cup showdown on Friday before returning home to host the Albany Devils on Saturday at 7pm at The AUD.
