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WKTV Archive<\/p>\n
UTICA, N.Y. — The Clinton Comets, a legendary hockey team from the Mohawk Valley, have been inducted into the New York State Hockey Hall of Fame\u2019s Class of 2026.<\/p>\n
The induction ceremony took place in Troy, honoring the team\u2019s long run from 1927-1973 before it became the Mohawk Valley Comets.<\/p>\n
The Comets played in three different leagues but made their mark in the Eastern Hockey League, capturing five championships and posting a standout 57-5-10 record in the 1967-68 season under Head Coach Pat Kelly.<\/p>\n
Several former players attended the event, with Dave Armstrong saying, \u201cIt was quite an evening, and the speeches were great. Rob [Esche] kind of surprised us when he showed up and spoke. It was great to see him there, and he\u2019s always been there for us,\u201d said Armstrong.<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cI just wish there were more of us there to accept the award. You don\u2019t often come across teams like the one we had. It was one big, happy family. I don\u2019t think you have a lot of that in today\u2019s hockey world, and being inducted was a moment I\u2019ll cherish for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bordie Smith, who played alongside Jack Kane and Bill Bannerman, said, \u201cTo be associated with those guys is an honor for me. We had some epic battles back in the day, and to win three championships in a row was incredible. This induction brings back memories of those days and reminds me of my teammates who were like brothers. I remain close to those that are still with us, and to share that experience with them at the induction was something special,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n
Comet Pierre Prevost shared, \u201cIt was an era of tough, hardcore hockey. We had just 13 forwards, four defensemen and one goalie. To have a season with only five losses was incredible. We\u2019ve been waiting a while for this, and it\u2019s a great honor to be inducted into the 2026 Class,\u201d said Prevost.<\/p>\n
The Clinton Comets\u2019 achievements paved the way for the Utica Comets and continue to inspire hockey fans across the Mohawk Valley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WKTV Archive UTICA, N.Y. — The Clinton Comets, a legendary hockey team from the Mohawk Valley, have been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[113537,6782,9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-298449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-clinton-comets","tag-comets","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}