The comet hopes that the forgettable beginning is fully behind it | TheAHL.com

Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer

Fortunes can change quickly in the AHL. Good and bad.

Just ask the Utica Comets.

After missing the Calder Cup Playoffs last season, the Comets enter 2024-25 looking for — and needing — a bounce-back effort.

They get nothing in the first six weeks of the season.

They shut out the rival Syracuse Crunch, 5-0, on opening night. That was followed by a 4-1 loss to Rochester the next night.

An 8-1 loss on home ice to the Amerks on Nov. 1 dropped the Comets to 0-8-0-0. Their opponents were outscoring Utica, 37-14.

The skid prompted a coaching change, as the parent of the New Jersey Devils took over Kevin Dineen on November 6 and named an assistant coach Ryan Parent Comets interim coach for the rest of the season. But the struggles continued. Utica forced overtime in three straight games, but couldn't get in the win column. They were shut out of consecutive home games as the losing streak reached 13 on November 16.

But a good week of exercise can be the cure. By design, the AHL schedule prioritizes practice time, and Utica took full advantage of the reset opportunity. When they returned for a road date with Syracuse on Nov. 22, the Comets looked like a different team. Captain Ryan Schmelzer scored his first goal of the season, too Mike Hardman scored twice in the final 9:54 of the third period to give the Comets a 4-3 win, their first win of the season.

The next night in Rochester, Hardman and Schmelzer scored another goal, Brian Halonen scored two more goals, too Nico Dawes turned in a 35-save performance in a 5-1 victory. And on November 27, the Comets treated their home fans to their first win at the Adirondack Bank Center this season, a 6-3 decision over Providence.

Follow that up with road wins at Springfield and Providence over the weekend, including a 33-game shutout of the Daws on Saturday, and a team that had started 0-10-1-2 quickly rode a five-game winning streak.

Personal moments of euphoria also began to arrive. Nathan Legarewho scored the game-winning goal against Providence on Saturday night, got a recall and made his NHL debut on Monday after nearly 200 AHL games with the Pittsburgh, Montreal and New Jersey organizations. Hardman, who signed with the Devils over the summer, was also on the roster that night, his first NHL game in nearly two years.

Rookie defender Seamus Casey has been excellent since being assigned to the Comets after starting the season with New Jersey. Out of the University of Michigan, Casey earned first-team honors as a sophomore last season when he had 45 points (seven goals, 38 assists) in 39 games. The Devils consider Casey an important part of their future after taking him as a second round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, and he won a gold medal with Team USA at the IIHF World Junior Championship in 2024.

The Comets also added an experienced linebacker to their roster last week when they acquired Dmitry Osipov from Hershey. Osipov brings a 6-foot-4, 229-pound presence to Utica's blue line and locker room character. Along with being a member of last year's Calder Cup championship team with the Bears, the eighth-year player has received a lot of credit for helping develop young prospects. Ivan Miroshnichenko again Bogdan Trineev as they used to go to North America.

The Comets are starting to dig themselves out of a hole created by a 13-game winless streak, but there is a lot of work to be done, of course. Friday's meeting with the Bruins – a team they beat twice in the last 10 days – is Utica's last home game until after Christmas, and the team remains nine points behind the North Division playoff line.

But there is hope back in Utica.

In the American Hockey League for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams and currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL's James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the league's top scorer in 2016.