Hofer's first pro win helps Comets to rally past Crunch

Comets goalie Joel Hofer registered his first professional win in his third pro start to help the team to a 5-1 win over the Crunch at the Aud.

Meeting of the year.

Crunch took a 5-1 decision in syracuse over the weekend - comets looking for their first victory out of the month- long pause.

400 fans in the seats - even some crunch fans made it into the building.

--- highly-touted blues prospect joel hofer made his comets debut over the weekend - starting again tonight.

--- you can see why he's being talked about.

First period - crunch shorthanded - but boris katchook in on a break..fer - not fazed - kicks the leg out and makes a spectaculartoe o keep it scoreless.

--- comets outshot 14-9 in the first and trail 1-0 off a shorty.

In the second - crunch again with a shorthanded chance.

Back door pass - and hofer stonewalls henry bowlby to keep utica within one.

--- so the goalie playing his part - offense needs to get going and they do.

Utica on a power play and just as it ends - curtis mckenzie with the quick hands - puts in a wrap-around.

His second of the year and the comets pull even.

--- with two and a half minutes to play - similar situation.

Comets power play ending - but sam anas - the assist machine - finds jonah gadjovich in the slot for the tip in.

That's gadj's 10th of the year.

He'd get another in the third... ((score)) ...utica would tack on two more after that and go on to win this one 5-1 for a bit of payback.

Trent cull: i think we took five penalties in the first.

So we were killing a bulk of the first and we had a couple of power plays mixed in as well so it was a very much a specialty teams..

Just going off those minutes alone that's 14 minutes there.

But i thought after that we got into a little bit more five on five in the second.

And then also you guys on our power-play got some success but also some specific individuals started to come alive and that carried on into the third.

Joel hofer: it was good, the whole team played great.

After the long layoff we had and the last game was a tough one for us but i thought we bounced back great and especially the penalty kill early there, we got into some penalty trouble and i think we got through it and the game was good.

Curtis mckenzie: i think the biggest difference today is probably just getting our legs back with the long break we had.

We had pretty good jump our first night and then i think we were just trying to find playing shape last game against syracuse so a couple of days off for practice definitely helps.

Hofer was incredible for us through the first to give us a chance to stay within that game.

Utica outshot syracuse 38-11 in the final two periods - 47-25 in the game.

These two teams right back at it at the aud tomorrow night at seven.

Other local sports action tonight - girls swimming - holland patent topped adirondack