Comets Game Day: Utica vs Charlotte

UTICA COMETS (5-4-1) vs. CHARLOTTE CHECKERS (8-3-0)

Adirondack Bank Center, Utica, NY 7 p.m EST

Watch Live: AHL Live | Listen Live: 94.9 K-ROCK, Desktop or Mobile

Richard Bachman came through big in the shootout after the Comets blew a 2 goal lead Saturday night, to win 3-2 over the Rochester Americans. Bachman will get the start again tonight, as Thatcher Demko is still on the road with the Vancouver Canucks. They’re also without Reid Boucher, who will be with the parent club until Markus Granlund is ready to return to the lineup, which should happen at some point during this California road swing.

The Checkers are off to a pretty impressive 8-3-0 start, and split their last two meetings with Utica. The 2nd game saw 80 minutes in penalties and 4 scraps, so it won’t be a shock if there’s some feistiness to this game.

The good thing so far this season is that even with Nikolay Goldobin, and Boucher off to very productive starts, the Comets are getting scoring from a number of sources. 15 Comets have lit the lamp in the first 10 games of the season, and they’re getting production from the back end, most notably Philip Holm, who has a goal and 7 assists so far.

One cool note, the NHL Network announced it will be airing 10 AHL games this season, including the April 5th game in Toronto against the Marlies. That game goes at 8 am Pacific time, btw. Hockey for breakfast, anyone?