by Jay Flemma, Special to Facewash Magazine
UTICA, NY – It was full-throated. It was sustained. It was almost defiant, (especially when aimed at Syracuse). And it had to be downright surreal being on the other team and skating in the middle of it.
“U! TI! CA!” “U! TI! CA!” “U! TI! CA!”
It’s bad enough when you’re losing in the enemy rink, but as a visiting player having that reverberate in your ears has to really hack you off.
“U! TI! CA!” “U! TI! CA!” “U! TI! CA!”
It’s getting louder now, because it’s later in the game, inching close to the finish. There’s maybe 54 seconds left and the Comets are clinging to a one goal lead.
It’s a lead they just got, of course, because as Comet Tales columnist Don Laible says worriedly, “They never make it easy.” Maybe this time a bouncing puck dumped in on a line changed turned into a darting jack-rabbit and bounded past the goalie by accident, or maybe a deflection dinged on off a post from a shot from the point, or maybe Cal O’Reilly found a streaking Hunter Shinkaruk who fed Brandon DeFazio for a pretty deke: it doesn’t matter. Another enemy comeback fell short – Chicago, Syracuse, San Antonio, lather, rinse, repeat.
And the chant rings out again, more joyously this time.
“U! TI! CA!” “U! TI! CA!” “U! TI! CA!”
Then the foghorn thunders one last time, the clock shows 0:0, and Tom Coyne booms out the three stars in stentorian tones.
Frequently, all three are Comets.
Usually the goalie is the first star.
It’s just another typical night at the Utica Aud – another night of kids dancing joyously in the aisles, smiling families mugging with Audie, (the cleverest mascot in the AHL), another night of creative fandom like Green Men and Space Alien Chicks and Chickenmen septuagenarians, and another plucky, gutsy, fiery win for the Comets. It may never be easy, as Laible so aptly notes, but they have learned to win. They have learned to close out games. Sure, they haven’t perfected that killer instinct by blowing out opponents when they have them down: that’s the one thing we haven’t seen from this Comets team. But with their discipline, drive, and groupthink mentality, can it be for away?
“They overcome adversity,” noted fan Bruce Moulton. “They’ve lost late leads a couple times at the Aud this season, and still won. Once they sent a message to Chicago, and the last time they got revenge on the Crunch.”
They did avenge the Frozen Dome loss with a scrappy 5-4 win on Wednesday night. More importantly, they stopped a two game losing skid and maintained a three point lead, (at that time), over the surging Adirondack Flames, winners of nine straight as they came into the Aud.
But the Uticans started Friday night right where they left off on Wednesday. The Crunch skated off dejected – bloodied and bowed – with “U! TI! CA!” rocking and rollicking off of the rafters, while the Flames skated right into it Friday evening like nobody had even moved from their places.
There were more than a few lusty boos too…
And what happens?? Three minutes in – HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!!!!!!!! – Cal O’Reilly buries a pass from Dustin Jeffrey and the place blasts off into orbit.
“U! TI! CA!” “U! TI! CA!” “U! TI! CA!”
“Gren [Alexander Grenier] made a great pass to Jeffer, and I was wide open, and I just threw it in,” O’Reilly recalled of only his second goal of the season. He’s actually the set up man – leading the entire AHL with 16 assists.
The Flames drew even late in the first on a goal by Emile Poirier, (pronounced pour-YEAH…it kinda sounds like a French nail varnish…), but after that it was the Jokey show as Comets goalie Joacim Eriksson stopped a total of 26 shots and Utica won 2-1 on a Wacey Hamilton tally late on the second.
“These two games were as close to must wins for the Comets as early season games can be. They stayed in the driver’s seat in their division as they head out for a four-game road trip, three in the southwest,” observed Moulton.
Moulton is right. The Flames were surging and the Rockford Ice Hogs had passed the Comets atop the overall Western Confence standings. It was gut check time…but this time Utica didn’t blink.
“It was exactly what we needed,” said Comets fan Mike Mosny, whose niece Erin sang the best National Anthem heard at the Aud this season. These were huge wins.”
Bigger than he implies, because these were the kind of games past area teams would lose. But again the Comets responded to adversity with a clutch win, a win in a situation where they used to fold like gunmetal grey card game chairs.
It feels different in Utica now. They don’t hope to win, they hope to dominate…and they’re loving it.
“U! TI! CA!” “U! TI! CA!” “U! TI! CA!”
It’s almost anthemic now, the final seconds ticking down, and the whole stadium shouting as one, a gestalt creature now, a hydra, where if you were to cut off one head, three more would sprout, taking up right where the last one left off.
“U! TI! CA!” “U! TI! CA!” “U! TI! CA!”
To a Syracuse player, it almost kinda sounds like, “IN ! YOUR! FACE!” “IN! YOUR! FACE!”
“I hate this stadium,” said one enemy player a few games ago whose number we didn’t catch. “They never stop letting you hear them. But that’s a great team out there, so you can see why they like them.”
[Photo by Lindsay A. Mogle, and courtesy of Utica Comets.]
