St. John’s continues their six-game homestand this week as they welcome the farm team of the Vancouver Canucks: the Utica Comets.
The Comets come to Newfoundland sitting last in the North Division, with a 2-5-0-0 record. While the IceCaps enter Tuesday night’s game with a slightly better record of 3-4-1-0.
The IceCaps are coming off a loss to the Rochester Americans this past Sunday, and will be hoping to get back to the winning ways they enjoyed in the second week of the AHL season.
Players to Watch
Although the team has been playing poorly to start the season, Utica possesses some talented players on their roster. Look no further than the brother of former Habs defenceman P.K. Subban. Jordan, the youngest Subban brother and also a defenceman, has four goals and seven points through six games thus far.
Centre Michael Chaput has also had a hot start to the season, collecting nine points in seven games.
In goal, the Comets have rock solid veteran Richard Bachman, as well as Vancouver’s top prospect, Thatcher Demko. Demko, who is a first-year pro out of Boston College, is still looking for his first victory of the season.
For the IceCaps, Chris Terry leads the team with nine points through eight games. Charles Hudon and Sven Andrighetto have seven apiece.
Charlie Lindgren is expected to start Tuesday night’s contest for St. John’s. The rookie netminder is undefeated so far on the season (3-0-0-0), and has a save percentage of .946; currently the second-highest mark among rookie netminders.
Previous Meetings
This will be the first encounter of the season between the two teams. They did meet eight times last season, with St John’s taking the series with a 5-2-1-0 record, their last contest being a 7-1 game in the IceCaps’ favour.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 PM NDT (6:00 PM EDT) for both Tuesday and Wednesday at Mile One Centre.
