The Utica Comets and Binghamton Senators went head to head in a wild game in which the concept of defence apparently didn’t exist. The final score on Friday night was 7-5 for the away team, the Comets.
Comets’ rookie Jordan Subban would break the 0-0 tie at the 11:55 mark of the game. The defenseman fired a quick wrister on net, and after it had navigated its way through a maze of bodies in front of goalie Matt O’Connor, Subban had his first-ever professional goal. Interestingly, the Vancouver Canucks were one of the teams in serious contention for the services of O’Connor this past off-season. Had he chosen to sign with the Canucks, he may very well have played in this game for the Comets, who are the Canucks’ minor league affiliate.
The lead did not last long. The Senators scored two quick goals, by Tobias Lindberg and Ryan Dzingel, to give them a 2-1 lead late in the first period. Blair Jones, however, knotted the game at two with 15 seconds left in the period.
Taylor Fedun restored the one-goal lead for the Comets with a blast from the point on a 5-on-3 powerplay at the 11:23 mark of the second period. Hunter Shinkaruk provided the Comets with the first two-goal lead of the game soon afterward, a little over a minute later David Dziurzynski lowered the Comets’ lead to only a one-goal deficit.
The third period started off with a bang for the Comets as a little over 40 seconds in Shinkaruk, again, gave the Comets the worst lead in hockey — two goals. Six minutes later, Dzingel gave the Senators their fourth goal of the game on the powerplay and just two minutes after that Lindberg tied the game at five. That would be the second goal of the game for each of those scorers.
Not wanting to be left out, Jones joined the two-goal club alongside Shinkaruk, Dzingel and Lindberg, with a shot from the boards on the powerplay. Ashton Sautner and Cole Cassels both secured their first-ever professional league points with assists on this goal. Yet another comeback would not be in the cards for Binghamton, as Andrey Pedan iced the cake with an empty net goal with 20 seconds to play in the game.
