Jensen, Friesen Spark Comets Past the Bulldogs
November 19, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Utica Comets News Release
The Utica Comets extended their lead on the Western Conference's North Division to seven points on Wednesday night in a 3-2 victory over the Hamilton Bulldogs at The Utica Memorial Auditorium. The Comets have now won six of their last seven contests.
It was a busy night for Nicklas Jensen; the first star of the game scored two of the Comets three goals which total's to six on the season. Alex Friesen also had quite the return tallying two assists after suffering from a shoulder injury since the first game of the season. Joacim Eriksson recorded his fifth win on the season and stopped 19 of 21 shots taken by the Bulldogs which kept the Comets in first place with 26 points out of a possible 30.
Exactly half way through the opening period, Alexandre Grenier displayed some dirty dekes just before he scored his fifth goal of the year and the first of the game. After receiving a pass from Cal O'Reilly, Grenier carried the puck into the offensive zone for a 2-on-1 opportunity. A toe drag and a move to the backhand allowed Grenier to sneak the rubber underneath Mike Condon's pads to make it 1-0.
The Bulldogs found the equalizer just two minutes and 31 seconds later after a feed from Eric Tangradi led to a gigantic blue-line slapshot from Magnus Nygren. A deflection off of a player in front tipped it past Eriksson and evened the score to 1-1.
It took a little patience, but the Comets finally put themselves back on top at 13:57 into the middle stanza after a swing and a rip from Bobby Sanguinetti at the point. Following the shot on net, Friesen tried to jam it in but Jensen recovered the loose puck to the left of Condon and slipped it past the post for his first of the night to make it a 2-1 game.
Utica jumped up to a two-goal lead early in the third at 4:51 following a couple of tic-tac-toe passes between Alex Friesen and Ronalds Kenins that caught the Bulldog's defense out of position. Condon found himself on the wrong side of the net when Jensen potted his second goal of the night to push the score to 3-1.
Hamilton ended up scoring the final goal of the night on a 5-on-3 power-play opportunity at 8:47 but it wasn't enough to top league leading Comets who are now 12-0-0-0 when leading after two periods of play. Veteran Rene Bourque ripped off a shot point blank past Eriksson after receiving a pass from T.J. Hensick to make it a 3-2 decision. Sven Andrighetto received credit for the secondary assist.
The Comets will have one day of rest before they head into a potentially record breaking weekend. This Friday, they will head to Rochester for their second meeting of the season with the Americans at 7 p.m.
Tickets are available for the Comets game on Wednesday November 26 vs the Syracuse Crunch at The AUD. Visit www.uticacomets.com to purchase tickets or call the Comets office at 315-790-9070 for more information.
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