The Utica Jr. Comets are a Tier II junior

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

team playing in the

United States Premier Hockey League The United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) is an American ice hockey league. Founded in 2012, the USPHL has grown to over 60 organizations from across the United States/Canada fielding teams in the National Collegiate Development Conference ...

's (USPHL) National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC) division. The Jr. Comets play their home games at

Adirondack Bank Center The Adirondack Bank Center at the Utica Memorial Auditorium is a 3,860-seat multi-purpose arena in Utica, New York, with a capacity of 5,700 for concerts. Nicknamed the Aud, it is the home arena of the Utica Comets, the American Hockey League, A ...

Utica, New York Utica () is the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most populous city in New York, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 census. It is located on the Mohawk River in the Mohawk Valley at the foot of the Adiro ...

History

The franchise was originally formed in 1999 when the

Bay State Breakers The United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) is an American ice hockey league. Founded in 2012, the USPHL has grown to over 60 organizations from across the United States/Canada fielding teams in the National Collegiate Development Conference ...

organization joined the

Eastern Junior Hockey League The Eastern Junior Hockey League (EJHL) was a USA Hockey-sanctioned Tier III junior ice hockey league. Founded in 1993 by Dan Esdale, the EJHL had fourteen teams from across the Northeastern United States. The EJHL champion then competed for t ...

. After the Breakers had become members of the USPHL in 2013, the club decided to shift its focus back towards youth hockey and sold its Premier Division team in 2015. The franchise was renamed as the Syracuse Stars, taking the same name as an earlier junior club, and reached an affiliation agreement with the

Syracuse Crunch The Syracuse Crunch are a professional ice hockey team based in Syracuse, New York. They are the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the National Hockey League's Tampa Bay Lightning. They play in they home games at the Upstate Medical Univer ...

of the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league in North America that serves as the primary developmental league of the National Hockey League (NHL). The league comprises 32 teams, with 26 in the United States and 6 in Cana ...

. In 2017, the USPHL announced that they were founding a Tier II division and invited all of their member organizations to found clubs for the new level. The Stars were one of the founding members of the National Collegiate Development Conference. In 2019, the franchise announced that it was merging with the already extant Utica Jr. Comets youth organization. The club relocated to Utica and took on the name and colors of their namesake which were nearly identical to those of the

Utica Comets The Utica Comets are a professional ice hockey team based in Utica, New York. They are members of the North Division in the Eastern Conference of the American Hockey League (AHL) and affiliated with the National Hockey League's (NHL) New Jersey D ...

, another AHL franchise. The professional Comets relocated in the summer of 2021, however, at the same time the

New Jersey Devils The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The club w ...

moved their minor league affiliate to the region and they subsequently took up the mantle of the Comets. The result of this was that the Jr. Comets chanced their color scheme but the club was otherwise unaffected.

Season-by-season records

References

External links

Official Home Page

Elite Prospects
{{NCDC Amateur ice hockey teams in New York (state) United States Premier Hockey League teams 2019 establishments in New York (state) Ice hockey clubs established in 2019