Utica, NY – The Utica Comets suffered a 4-3 overtime loss to the St. John’s IceCaps on Wednesday night at the Utica Memorial Auditorium.
Curtis Valk got the Comets on the board just three minutes into the game on a two-on-one rush. The forward buried a pass from Alexandre Grenier for his tenth of the season. The IceCaps struck back a minute later as Bobby Farnham found himself open for his fourth goal of the season. Daniel Audette and Tom Parisi assisted on the goal. The Comets regained the lead two minutes later on the power play. Jordan Subban fired a wrister from the point that beat Charlie Lindgren for his eighth goal of the year. Valk was credited for with the assist as the Comets took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.
Tom Parisi’s first career goal tied the game with five minutes remaining in the middle frame on a shot from the point. Audette and Nikita Scherbak assisted on the goal. Pascal Pelletier gave the Comets the lead again just one minute later, burying a loose puck for his third goal of the season. Jake Virtanen and Cody Kunyk picked up the assists. The IceCaps struck back with 2:22 left in the second period as Mark MacMillan notched his first goal of the year. The forward beat Thatcher Demko on the back door with a pass from David Broll as the two teams remained tied at three through 40 minutes. Farnham added the secondary assist.
The Comets were award a five-on-three power play in the final minutes of the game but could not convert. The night finished with the Comets scoring once on eight power plays. Regulation was not enough to find a winner between the North Division rivals and the two teams headed to overtime. Just over halfway through the overtime period, Audette buried a tic-tac-toe passing play from Scherbak and Jacob de la Rose to give the IceCaps a 4-3 victory. The goal was scored on the man advantage for the IceCaps only goal in four power plays.
Demko finished with 24 saves on the night as his record falls to 7-7-3 on the year. Lindgren stopped 30 shots to improve his record to 12-7-1.
Utica continues their five-game home stand on Friday against St. John’s. The teams meet again at The AUD with a faceoff at 7 p.m. The game can be heard on KROCK 94.9 and viewed on AHL Live.
