Comets Shoot Down the Stars in Overtime
December 19, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Utica Comets News Release
After trailing the Texas Stars 2-0, the Utica Comets scored three unanswered goals to win 3-2 in overtime on Friday night at The Utica Memorial Auditorium.
Bobby Sanguinetti (1-0-1), Brendan Gaunce (1-0-1), and Dustin Jeffrey (1-0-1) were the goal-scorers for the Comets in front of the sold-out Utica Memorial Auditorium. Along with being credited with the first star of the game, Sanguinetti now has eight goals on the season and leads the rest of the defensemen on the team in goals, assists and points. Joacim Eriksson received the third star of the game after stopping 23 of the 25 shots on net he faces from the Stars.
It didn't take long into the opening period for the Stars to start mounting their attack in the Comets home building. At 3:55, Greg Rallo forced ahead to the front of the Comets net with what looked like intent to shoot. However, after deciding to take an alternate route and carry the puck to the side of the net, he successfully pulled Eriksson out of the crease. Once the Comets netminder was clearly out of position, Rallo popped the puck through the defenders and onto Radek Faksa's stick who then plucked the rubber in the wide open net for the 1-0 lead.
The Stars struck again at 16:07 for the two-goal lead just after Cal O'Reilly mishandled the puck behind the Comets net. Jesse Root met O'Reilly at the boards and knocked the puck from his possession. Once the puck was free, it popped out to the front of the net only to find Brendan Ranford's tape. With a tap across the crease, and the guidance of Scott Glennie, the puck slid into the net for Glennie's third of the season to make it 2-0. Root was credited with the secondary assist.
The Comets started biting back roughly three minutes into the second period after a couple of passes exchanged between Frank Corrado and Brandon DeFazio above the right dot. After some great puck handling to confuse a Texas defender, DeFazio saw Jeffrey waiting to the left of Jussi Rynnas' blocker side. With a quick cross-ice pass, Jeffrey received and delivered for his seventh goal of the season, which brought the Comets within one.
After entering the third period, the Comets continued to search for the equalizer and that's exactly what they got at 6:39. Andrey Pedan followed through with the give-and-go play and entered the attacking zone with Wacey Hamilton and Gaunce. With little hesitation, back-to-back passes dropped the puck into Gaunce's possession and with a flick of the stick, the rookie netted his second of the year to tie the game and dismantle the Stars lead.
Just over one minute into the overtime period, the Comets put an end to the night after a quick rush down the right side by two defensemen. Kane Lafranchise popped up on the scorer's sheet one again after promptly popping the puck up to Sanguinetti on the right wing. What looked like a harmless wrist shot from Sanguinetti, was exactly the opposite for Rynnas who was unable to stop the shot which went clear over his shoulder for the game-winner and overtime goal.
With tonight's overtime win, the Comets have once again secured another two points to keep their point total (41) the highest in the entire American Hockey League. This was the seventh game in a row the Comets have secured at least a point in.
Tomorrow the Comets will play one last game in Glens Falls before they get back to wrapping last minute gifts. The Adirondack Flames will be the host this time around for the fourth meeting between the two teams this season. So far the Comets have not dropped a single game this season to the Calgary Flames affiliate.
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