[GDT] Flames vs Comets - Friday Dec 26 @ 5:00pm

[Drury18]

Adirondack Flames (18-11-1-1) vs Utica Comets (Vancouver Canucks) (19-5-5-0)

The Adirondack Flames need to find a way to beat the Utica Comets

Game Notes:

• This is the 5th of 12 meetings between the teams and the 2nd half of a holiday delayed home and home series. Utica leads the season series 4-0 outscoring the Flames 14-6
• The Flames have won 5 of their last 7 games; Utica have won 5 of their last 7 games
• Flames players looking to snap scoreless streaks: Gillies (10 games), Tousignant (8 games) , Agostino (7 games) and Reinhart (5 games)

Roster Notes:

• Markus Granlund (F) is up with the Calgary Flames .
• Corey Potter (D) has been assigned back to Adirondack
• The Flames now have 16 forwards, 9 defencemen and 2 goalies on the roster

Standings:

• Adirondack sits in 7th (out of 30 teams) with 38 points in the AHL and 2nd in the North Division 5 points behind Utica.
• Overall PP is 5th in the AHL at 19.6% (27/138). Home PP is 5th at 22.5%; Road PP is 19th at 16.4%
• Overall PK is 9th in the AHL at 85.2% (121/130). Home PK is 14th at 83.1%; Road PK is 8th at 87.3%
• Ortio (G) is 2nd in the AHL in wins (14), 5th in the AHL for minutes played 1271:46) and 3rd for saves (595)
• Poirier (F) is 14th amongst all rookies in points with 8G, 8A and 16 PTS.
• Culkin (D) is tied for 3rd amongst all rookies for PP Assists (4)
• Flames goalies have allowed the most penalty shot goals in the league. 3 goals on 4 attempts.
  

Point Streaks and Notables:

• Acolaste - 2A in 4GP
• Arnold - 1G, 2A in 4GP
• Baertschi - 1G, 6A in 9GP
• Culkin - 4A in 6GP
• Cundari - 2G, 9A in 15GP
• Hathaway - 2G in 3GP
• Ferland - 4G, 7A in 14GP
• Poirier - 3G, 1A in 4GP
• Potter - 3A in 5GP
• Vause - 2G, 1A in 5GP
• Wolf - 2G in 2GP
• Granlund - 3G in 4GP - Recalled by Flames
• Knight - 2G in 5GP - Injure

Injuries:

• Devin Setoguchi (Upper Body Injury) - Unknown
• Corban Knight (Broken Thumb) - Day to Day

Preview from the Adirondack Flames : http://www.adirondackflames.com/news/?article_id=150

Preview from the Utica Comets : http://www.uticacomets.com/gameday-c...mes-18-11-1-1/

Listen Live : http://radio.securenetsystems.net/v5/WCQL

Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AHLFlames

[Drury18]

Scratch Potter. He's been recalled to the Calgary Flames again.

[Street Pharmacist]

Wonder what the purpose of sending him down for Christmas was

[Drury18]

Not really sure. Perhaps they thought someone (Smid) would be ready post holiday break and they weren't.

I doubt they sent him down so he'd make AHL money over the holiday break and then call him back up afterwards to make NHL money. That would be pretty cold.

[Drury18]

It looks like Ortio vs Markstrom tonight

Sold out crowd for Utica tonight. Even more reason to beat them tonight.

[Drury18]

Flames have not practiced in 5 days, the morning skate was optional. Will be interesting to see how this one goes.

Sounds like Utica had the same schedule.

[Drury18]

Healthy Scratches: Sieloff, Stevenson, Gillies, Elson
Injured: Setoguchi, Knight

Starters:

Ortio
Acolaste-Cundari
Hanowski-Vause-Wolf

[Drury18]

Puck dropped and there's a fight.

Acolaste and Pedan

Acolaste gets the helmet knocked off and jersey over his head fairly quickly. Kept swinging away though.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Wonder what the purpose of sending him down for Christmas was

Most likely to reduce his number of days on the roster. He can be in the NHL for a cumulative 30 days or 10 games played before he needs to clear waivers again.

A player is considered to be on an NHL roster for a day if he is on the roster at 5:00pm ET on that day. He was sent down on the morning of the 23rd and recalled at 5:01pm ET on the 26th. He wouldn't have counted on the NHL roster for the 23rd, 24th, 25th, or 26th, so they essentially got an extra 4 days of waiver-free status for him.

[Drury18]

The Flames don't look tired or slow at all. They are all over the ice so far.

[Drury18]

Flames going to the PP!

Looks like Utica got a faceoff violation.

Actually they call it a hook. I didn't see a hook.

[Drury18]

Flames unable to set up anything on the PP so far.

[Drury18]

10 minutes into the game and the shot clock is showing the Flames without a SOG. Utica is showing 5.

[Drury18]

Flames going back to the PP as Utica takes a too many men penalty.

[GoJetsGo]

Why is Sieloff a healthy scratch just out of curiosity?

[Drury18]

We have 8 defencemen currently on the team. They rotate them for playing time.

[Drury18]

Wolf with a huge shot on goal for the first of the game but a big rebound and no one there.

[Drury18]

Utica comes out of the box with a 3 on 1. Yonkman drops to block the shot and break it up. Nice play.

[GoJetsGo]

Big save Ortio

[Caged Great]

It's been a really slow game thus far. Too much turkey for everyone involved.