Happy Friday, everybody! This is a scouting report that I have been looking forward to doing for awhile now. The Utica Comets have been one of the best teams in the AHL this entire season. They enter having won seven of their last ten games including the last two contests by a combined 8-3. The Comets offer a complete game and it has worked like magic for them since the start of the season.

~The Who~

The Comets have a record of 24-8-5-0 (53 points) this season which has leading the North Division. The closest team to the Comets in their division are the Adirondack Flames who trail by 5 points despite having played in three more games.

Utica are currently second overall in the Western Conference thanks in small part to the massive surge taking place for the Oklahoma City Barons – who have gone 9-1-0-0 in their last ten games to claim the West’s top seed by 3 points.

~The What~

What has been so effective for the Comets this season has been their defense and goaltending. They’ve only allowed 83 goals all season. The only two teams to have allowed the same or less than the Comets are the Hershey Bears (81 goals allowed) and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (83 goals allowed).

The man most responsible for this great goaltending situation in Utica hasn’t seen a whiff of the AHL since the 2005-06 season. That’s right. I’m talking about Ryan Miller. When he signed a three-year deal with the Vancouver Canucks in July it meant a log jam in net was going to happen with either Eddie Läck or Jacob Markström getting it on the chin.

As would be the case, Markström has spent his entire 2014-15 season to date in the AHL with the Comets. His response to the situation is just about exactly what you would want. He has been brilliant when called upon: 12-2-1-0 record, 1.85 goals against average, 0.936 save percentage, and 4 shutouts.

Markström is by no means alone in his efforts this season either. Hailing from exactly the same hometown of Sweden as his Comets battery-mate, Gävle, Joacim Eriksson has more-or-less been the anchor for the Comets in net this season. He has played in more games this season in net and has a record of 12-5-4-0, a 2.38 goals against average, and a 0.914 save percentage.

Eriksson was in net for both head-to-head games against the Admirals and won each contest. In the first meeting between the Ads and Comets last season he had a 21-save shutout in a 3-0 Comets win. He followed that up by stopping 20/23 in Utica and 3/5 in the shootout to end last year’s statline against the Ads with a 1.44 goals against average and 0.932 save percentage.

~The When~

Tonight at 6:00 pm CST…

~The Where~

Fun Fact. The Utica Comets play in the Utica Memorial Auditorium. That happens to be the same barn as seen in the classic film “Slap Shot” where the amazing anthem scene takes place.

~The Why~

Why not stop and think back for a moment about all the good times you’ve had watching Cal O’Reilly play for the Milwaukee Admirals before tonight’s game? It will be only the second time in his career that he faces the Admirals when the Comets captain takes to the ice. His first game was the match-up in Utica last season.

O’Reilly’s track record for the Milwaukee Admirals just about speaks for itself. He is second all-time in the AHL history of the club with 253 points (56 goals, 197 assists). The assists total for him his the most in the AHL history of the team. While his 262 appearances has him eighth all-time in the AHL history of the Admirals.

This season O’Reilly leads the Comets in scoring with 30 points (4 goals, 26 assists). He has a plus/minus rating of -2 and only 6 penalty minutes on the season. His AHL career totals are now at 339 points (68 goals, 271 assists) in 376 games – a 0.90 points per game total.

Expectations for tonight’s game? Can the Admirals winning ways continue over the likes of the hefty Utica Comets? If Kevin Fiala debuts tonight what would that mean for the Admirals forward lineup and which center should he play with?

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It wasn’t that long ago since we faced the Hamilton Bulldogs. Upon entering that game the Milwaukee Admirals were on a four game losing streak. They claimed a 4-1 win and would proceed to go on a four game winning streak that storms into Hamilton’s barn tonight.

~Last Time~

Rather than simply re-hash another scout on the Bulldogs lets actually take a gander at just what happened in the game that kick started the Admirals win streak. What was it that the Bulldogs didn’t do? What was that the Admirals did do?

The first thing to note is the simple approach to the game: Defend. Limit high quality scoring chances. Maintain puck control. Be smart when on the puck. Put pucks to the net. Crash the net for rebounds or to establish screens in front of the goaltender. This is all part of “playing the right way” that we’re starting to become accustomed to.

So, what was the result of that approach? The Admirals outshot the Bulldogs in each and every period in the game: 8-5, 10-6, 13-5. Simply put, the Admirals exhausted the Bulldogs in the way the maintained and defended pucks in that game.

The first goal of that game came from a power-play. In some ways, this was a shoulder dropping moment for the team and for fans alike. It was the first power-play goal scored in thirty-two previous chances on home ice. The way it worked? Two forwards, Austin Watson and Joe Pendenza, crashed the net and were looking for a loose puck if Joey MacDonald spilled a rebound out in front of them. Viktor Arvidsson‘s shot hit a post and spilled kindly for Pendenza. Right place. Right time. And he reacts to the rebound faster than defenseman Joe Finley was able to. Goal. Bonus points for knocking the Gatorade off the top of the cage.

Now come a pair of daggers. The Admirals scored twice in the span of 2:04 of ice time to start the second period off.

The first chance was a quickfire two-on-one after Brendan Leipsic stole a puck off of Davis Drewiske and then alluded his diving poke check that sent him off to the races with Arvidsson to his opposite with Greg Pateryn between them. The saucer pass by Leipsic may have been late getting over to Arvidsson but that’s part of why MacDonald was overly committed to Leipsic to his glove-side. The pass popped over Pateryn’s stick and Arvidsson stayed square enough to the feed to push the puck into an open net with MacDonald unable to go post-to-post with his pads fast enough.

Leipsic’s work along the wall helped set up a Taylor Aronson wrister moments later for the second goal in two minutes and the game’s second goal scored by crashing the net. Aronson pulled his best T.J. Brennan impression by skating up off the blue line and into the left wing faceoff circle to wire a shot on goal. The shot got to its intended target. The fact that Aronson shot so quickly, with traffic buzzing around the net, caused MacDonald to fumble a puck in and out of his catching glove and right to the net front pressence of Frédérick Gaudreau. Simple play. Effective play.

The Admirals final goal scored in the contest boils down to two things. One: Mark Van Guilder establishing a perfect screen in front of MacDonald in net. Two: Zach Budish putting in an even more perfect shot to the near post top shelf.

Funnily enough, if you look at the replay, even if the shot gets spilled out to the front of the net the Admirals are still organized for a goal. Rich Clune was unmarked on a drive down the center of the ice. The closest Bulldogs defensemen, Pateryn, never saw him as he skated in from neutral ice as his attention was firmly focus on the puck. The Bulldogs committed three red shirts to Budish on the right wing. The Admirals had their numbers right where that puck was either going or kicking out to.

Hamilton did managed to get a goal of their own from that game. They had a power-play midway through the third period and caught the Admirals penalty kill frozen at their own blue line. The speedy Drayson Bowman was able to get a huge step on Clune as he entered off the left wing. Ian White was no match for the pace. Despite even being the nearest d-man on that wing Anthony Bitetto did a better job getting tight to the shooting angle against Bowman. It didn’t detour what he wanted to do, though. Marek Mazanec was perfectly squared to him but Bowman beat him low and wide blocker side on a wrist shot.

~Tonight~

The Bulldogs enter this game with a record of 16-16-6-0 (38 points) which has them fourth in the North Division. They have the same points total as the Toronto Marlies but their Ontario counter-parts have a game in hand at the moment.

In their last ten games the Bulldogs are a woeful 3-6-1-0 (7 points). They are entering this game having lost their last two games – both of which were on home ice. They fell 2-1 against the Lake Erie Monsters in backbreaking fashion before getting shutout 3-0 by the Oklahoma City Barons and CCM/AHL Player of the Week Richard Bachman.

The Bulldogs haven’t scored a goal in 72:06 of ice time. The Admirals are entering this game with a shutout streak of 129:59 of ice time and counting.

If you were thinking about any one match-up to look out for from last game that would spill into this game it would be that of Triston Grant versus the man he blew kisses to, Finley. Grant appeared to get under Finley’s skin from the opening puck drop all the way to the end of the game. It wouldn’t shock me if these two find each other on the ice yet again tonight.

Another interesting thing to watch out for tonight would be whether or not we see the return of Leipsic to the Admirals lineup. He was a healthy scratch the last two games and was done so in a manner quite similar to that of Pontus Åberg not too long ago. He needed to learn how to, you guessed it, play the right way. Well, the last time Leipsic played against these Bulldogs he scored three assists. It could be the right time to reintroduce the Winnipeg native back into the Admirals lineup.

Expectations? Will the Admirals be able to maintain the success they found last weekend into this three-game road trip? Who would you like to see start in net tonight? Can the Admirals achieve three-straight shutouts?

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