The beginning of each month has brought good fortune for the Comets so far this season and January was no different. Despite dropping their first game of the new calendar year, a 5-4 overtime loss in Laval, the Comets responded by winning their next three games and securing points in four straight games to start 2026.
The Comets entered a raucous environment north of the border in Laval, Quebec for a pair of games on January 2 and 3 to kick off the new year. The weekend was highlighted by the return of Comets’ forward Brian Halonen who had missed the previous nine games with an injury. The Minnesota native tallied twice in Friday’s game and had a fight and an assist in Saturday’s tilt in what was a 4-3 win for Utica.
Another pivotal player in Saturday’s game was Comets’ rookie defenseman Ethan Edwards. The Comets yielded a goal to the Rocket early in the third period to trail 3-2, but then about halfway through the final frame, Edwards scored not once but twice within a 56- second span to tie the game and give the Comets a 4-3 lead which would end up being the final score. Jakub Malek was also terrific in net, making 20 saves in route to his third win of the season.
The Comets returned home for a mid-week matchup on January 7 against the Springfield Thunderbirds, a team that had won seven of 10 games heading into the contest. Utica dropped the previous two meetings in the season series against Springfield, but this game fared differently. The Comets scored just 48 seconds into the game thanks to rookie forward Lenni Hameenaho’s team-leading eighth goal of the season and did not look back, finding the twine five times in the game to match a season high in what ended up as a 5-1 victory. They also held the Thunderbirds to just 14 shots on goal in the entire contest which marked a season best for Utica. The game featured two goals from Lenni Hameenaho as well as the first career AHL goal for defenseman Jackson van de Leest who had recently been called up from the Comets’ ECHL affiliate, the Adirondack Thunder.
Two nights later, the Comets hosted their second-ever “Sock Toss” as they welcomed the Syracuse Crunch to town. In last year’s “Sock Toss”, the Comets defeated the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins 5-3, a game which saw 2,442 pairs of socks donated to local charities. In this year’s matchup, the teams were scoreless after 20 minutes, but Utica didn’t waste any time in the second period, scoring just 35 seconds in when Xavier Parent deflected a shot from Topias Vilen past Syracuse netminder Ryan Fanti. The socks came raining onto the ice and after all was said and done, the ice crew collected a total of 5,242 pairs of socks, more than doubling last year’s total, which were donated to local organizations like the Rescue Mission, Backyard Hope, and Hope House to name a few. The event had a terrific impact on the community, and the Comets topped it off with a 3-0 shutout win, the first of Jakub Malek’s pro career.
The Comets have managed to pick up points despite the absence of key players like Mike Hardman, Matyas Melovsky, Jack Malone, Austin Strand, and Dmitry Osipov, all of whom have been sidelined due to injury.
The upcoming schedule features some key matchups against division rivals which will have big implications in the standings. In the month of January, the Comets will face Syracuse a total of four times. They will also see Rochester twice and will face the Belleville Senators for a game at the home of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators, Canadian Tire Centre. The final game of the month will see the Atlantic Division’s Hershey Bears make their lone trip to Utica this season which will also feature the drawing of the Save of the Day Foundation’s 50/50 raffle.
Some of the upcoming promotional games to mark on your calendar include Kid’s Takeover on Sunday, January 25 at 3 p.m. and Star Wars Night on Saturday, February 7th at 6 p.m. For tickets, fans can visit uticacomets.com/tickets or call 315-970-9070.
