Laval, QUE. – The Utica Comets defeated the Laval Rocket by a score of 5-1 Wednesday night at Place Bell.
Chris Terry scored first to give Laval a 1-0 lead at the 7:12 mark of the first period, blasting a one-timer by Thatcher Demko. Nikita Scherbak and Adam Cracknell registered the assists. Marco Roy responded 1:18 later by tipping a shot from Guillaume Brisebois past Rocket goaltender Michael McNiven. Vincent Arseneau also picked up an assist. Philip Holm scored the eventual game winning goal with a power play strike 1:13 later. Reid Boucher and Cole Cassels tallied the assists. Adam Comrie extended the lead to 3-1 with a power play goal just 10 seconds into the man advantage. Patrick Wiercioch and Dylan Blujus collected the assists.
Andrew Cherniwchan continued the onslaught with a goal two and a half minutes into the second period. Jalen Chatfield had the lone assist. Cassels buried a power play goal to make it 5-1 to put the game out of reach with 3:31 to go in the third. Wiercioch and Comrie collected the assists.
Demko made 36 saves, including 28 in the final two periods, to improve his record to 13-6-5. McNiven stopped 25 shots. His record falls to 5-6-1. The Comets power play went 3-4, while the penalty kill did not allow a goal in five attempts.
The Comets return to action Friday night as they faceoff with the Syracuse Crunch in game five of the Galaxy Cup series. Puck drops at 7 p.m. at the Adirondack Bank Center. Fans are encouraged to utilize the ticket exchange website, StubHub!. The game can be heard on 94.9 KROCK and viewed on AHL Live.
