Utica did its part winning it\u2019s final three games, but Rochester earned the loser point in their final game of the season to retake the final playoff position.<\/p>\n
The \u201cAlmost\u201d Comeback<\/p>\n
Utica did all it could, going 7-1-1-1 in its final 10 games, good enough for a tie of the best record in the entire AHL during that stretch and winning it\u2019s last three to pull ahead of the Rochester Americans by virtue of the tiebreaker Saturday night, but Rochester had one game left, earning a loser point in OT on Sunday, and retaking the final playoff spot in the North Division. Ultimately, the early hole Utica dug for itself earlier in the season was just too big.<\/p>\n
Utica\u2019s final run started Wednesday night with a 3-0 shutout by Jacob Malek, who stopped all 25 shots. Angus Crookshank scored twice, including the game winner, and Matyas Melovsky potted his ninth goal of the season.<\/p>\n
The Comets would follow up their win with another on Friday night, this time a 4-1 defeat of the AHL\u2019s best team, the Providence Bruins. This time, center Matyas Melovsky would score the game winner, his tenth, and pick up an assist. Brian Halonen also scored his 20th goal of the season, and Lenni Hameenaho picked up two assists in his return. Goaltender Nico Daws faced little work, stopping 13 of 14 shots.<\/p>\n
All this time while the Comets kept winning, Rochester kept losing. What started as Utica needing three wins and for Rochester to lose it\u2019s final three games in regulation became Utica needing only one more win and Rochester losing it\u2019s final two without a point. Rochester cooperated on Saturday with an embarrassing 8-0 loss to the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins.<\/p>\n
Then it was the Comets turn, again facing off against the Providence Bruins, the top team in the AHL with 110 points on the season. This time, Utica would win 4-2. Lenni Hameenaho led off the scoring for his 10th goal of the season, but it was center Kyle Criscuolo who would pot the game winner. Nico Daws faced much more rubber in this contest, stopping 29 of 31.<\/p>\n
When it came to crunch time, the Comets did everything they could to sneak in, but they would need a little help from Hershey, who would face off against the Rochester Americans in their final game of the season on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Utica\u2019s X feed was all Hershey Bears vibes on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the Hershey Bears would not win in regulation, and Rochester would earn the loser point and the final playoff spot thanks to a third period power play. In the end, Utica came close, not bad for a team that was once amongst the worst in the league and 20 points out, but not quite enough.<\/p>\n
Lastly, I want to dedicate this article to my beloved labradane, Hanna, who broke our hearts and crossed the rainbow bridge at the age of 12 earlier this month. Words cannot describe how hard it has been losing her. Rest in peace, baby girl. We will always love you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Utica did its part winning it\u2019s final three games, but Rochester earned the loser point in their final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5109],"tags":[201,5,576,151,5185,5184,4,4778,13358],"class_list":{"0":"post-557434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-jersey-devils","8":"tag-devils","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-new-jersey","11":"tag-new-jersey-devils","12":"tag-newjersey","13":"tag-newjerseydevils","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-prospects-devils-otherwise","16":"tag-utica-comets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116444265414685950","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}