^ Posted by Patrick Williams
Shoot the goblin!
Visit almost any building at a hockey game, and odds are good that home fans will loudly send that message out when they see fit.
Especially in Utica, where the Comets play in one of the tallest buildings in the AHL. Especially in the dying seconds of the Calder Cup Playoff as the home team works hard to send the game into overtime. No one wants to see a series fizzle out and be forced to play a deciding game.
Sometimes these warnings may work.
Comets Defender Riley Walsh I saw – and heard – exactly last Friday night. And for the first time, the puck somehow found the back of the net and forced overtime, as Utica took over the game and sent themselves to the Northern Section Semifinals, a series that begins tonight in Toronto.
It was a difficult night for the offenders and goalkeeper Laval Roquette Cayden PrimoHis fine play certainly didn’t help the mood inside the Adirondack Bank Center. With the Rockets facing elimination in the first round of the best-of-three teams, Frederick AllardThe second half tally gave them a 1-0 lead and the visitors continued to hold on deep into the third period.
Nico Doss Headed to the Utica bench, she was pulled to a sixth tackle with 1:40 to go in the third period. Utica had just eliminated Laval Power, and that extra skater shifted the momentum back to the Comets after the Rocket took six unanswered shots.
Walsh said of the penalty kick, as a result of A.J Tess Thompson The minor tied with 4:2 to play. “If they scored to go up two goals, it would have been difficult to come back from it. When we got that kill, we felt like we got the momentum back again.”
Alexander Holtz He directed a left side shot toward Primeau with 1:13 to play that led to a scramble in front of the net. Comet Captain Ryan Schmelzer Then he almost fumbled the rebound only for Primo to snag another chance.
“[Laval] He did a really good job of getting into lanes and blocking shots, so we were basically trying to pass anything down just to try and edge the net,” Walsh continued.
But the comets stuck to it. Under intense pressure, Laval iced the disc 17.5 seconds early.
Coach Kevin Dineen He spread his supreme weapons. The leading scorer Graeme ClarkAnd Nolan Stevens And Brian Pinhoe I climbed in front. Holtz runs half of the boards. Walsh and the bullish rookie German Simon Take points. Pinho then won the equalizer in the right circle to Walsh, who polled his options before sending the puck to Holtz. Holtz’s attempted shooting caught Captain Laval Gabriel BurkeHe skated left, but Holtz recovered the loose puck.
Walsh then slid to left point, eventually caught a pass from Holtz, then crossed the puck to Nemec. At this point, the missile had receded a bit.
“Honestly, I kind of forgot there wasn’t a lot of time,” Walsh explained. So I passed her, and I remember the crowd yelling, ‘Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot! “
“It reminded me that there wasn’t much time left at all.”
After serving 19, Nemec handed the puck back to Walsh, who promptly fired a long shot that evaded Primeau’s right-hand blocker with exactly two seconds left. The 27th Utica shot of the night had finally befallen Primo.
Walsh recounted, “I kind of shot it toward the grate as hard as I could, and it had two eyes, and I went through it.”
The goal sent Comets fans into disarray as Walsh celebrated in center ice before being attacked by Nemec and his teammates. Once overtime arrived, Utica quickly jumped on the rocket and ended the series with a Samuel LabergeTarget time 2:45.
NHL general managers aim for these kinds of high-pressure Calder Cup game moments for young prospects like Walsh, and sometimes they get them. Walsh, a 24-year-old Harvard pro, went to the parent New Jersey Devils in the third round of the 2017 NHL Draft. He finished second to Clark in team scoring with 41 points (nine goals, 32 assists) in 71 games over regular season, but just scored the biggest goal of his professional career.
It was a big moment for the organization, too, after Utica failed to win a playoff spot after winning the North Division in 2021-22. This year the club needed until the final weekend of the regular season to finally secure a play-off berth. On top of that, they went 6-7-0-2 in the final month plus the regular season, securing an always-best-of-three first-round date against Laval. Utica has lost five of their six meetings with the Rockets in the regular season.
But the Comets quickly pulled themselves together, allowing just one goal in two games – including a 4-0 Game 1 win at Place Bell. Laval used one of the fastest attacks in the AHL, but Utica managed to disrupt the attacking pace.
“We focused on whether we were playing disciplined and sticking to our structure… not giving them chances in a hurry, running the puck into the no-man’s-land was a big deal for us,” Walsh said. “From there, it just kind of works on them low. They play man-to-man, so we knew our strikers could play a game heavy down there, hopping between them, and making them tire.
“From there, it limits their energy to get back into the lunge.”
So now it’s time for Marlies. The semi-finals in the division are best-of-five, allowing for more time to enjoy the series – but only a little bit. While the Marlies haven’t played since April 16, the Comets have at least some hockey behind them now. They achieved a victory in the Calder Cup Series, the second win for a New Jersey affiliate in the last 25 years.
“It’s great for us to get a taste of the playoffs, to play as well as we did,” Walsh said. “I think the end of the season has had its ups and downs, and we’re kind of getting close to making the playoffs. It wasn’t up to our standards, but when it came down to it, we got a taste of some playoff-like hockey down the stretch before the playoffs started.
We take [played one series] It will be an advantage and something we can use as momentum in the first game against Toronto. It starts where they are, so we’ll have to do some damage down the road, which is something we’ve been used to all season.”
Patrick Williams has been in the American Hockey League for nearly two decades for outlets including NHL.com, Sportsnet, TSN, The Hockey News, SiriusXM NHL Network Radio, and SLAM! Sports, and she is currently the co-host of Hockey news on the “A” podcast. He was awarded the James H. Ellery Memorial Award from the AHL for his excellent coverage of the league in 2016.