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Crunch Fall to Norfolk
Syracuse, NY, (Saturday, November 7, 2009)
Syracuse, NY (November 7, 2009) – Paul Szczechura scored just 58 seconds into the opening period and the Crunch could never catch up to Norfolk, as they lost for the first time in regulation on home ice this season, 6-1, in front of 4,986 fans at the War Memorial at Oncenter.
Szczechra’s goal came when he found the puck in the left circle and threw the disk on net. Dan LaCosta couldn’t find it and it somehow found the back of the net to make it 1-0 Norfolk.
Mike Lundin tallied his first goal of the season on the power play about nine minutes later when his seemingly harmless point shot found its way through a screened LaCosta to put Norfolk up 2-0.
The Admirals were dominant in the second stanza, as the Crunch gave up a season-high four goals in the period and were outshot by a 16-6 count.
Juraj Simek’s goal at the 2:18 mark of the period made it 3-0 Norfolk and Brandon Bochenski’s eighth goal of the season just under three and a half minutes later put the Admirals up 4-0 and chased LaCosta in favor of Kevin Lalande.
Norfolk’s Blair Jones and Adam Hall would both notch their second goals of the year at the 9:58 and 16:49 marks respectively to extend the Admirals lead to 6-0.
The Crunch finally broke through and gave the home crowd something to cheer about with just over two minutes left in the frame.
Alexandre Picard made a one-touch pass to Maksim Mayorov, who used his speed to gain the offensive zone and back in the Norfolk defense.
Gaining a partial 2-on-1 break, Mayorov zipped a pass over to Dan Fritsche streaking down the right wing. Fritsche rifled a wrister under the crossbar to cut the Syracuse deficit to 6-1.
After a second period that saw five combined goals, neither team could muster a score in the game’s final 20 minutes.
Riku Helenius stopped 20 of 21 shots for Norfolk, picking up the win.
CRUNCHABLES: The Crunch were outshot for the 11th time in 13 games this year…Dan Fritsche’s goal was his first since October 10 vs. Adirondack…The Crunch power play was 0-for-4 tonight, extending its skid to 0-for-30…The Crunch penalty kill was 7-for-8 tonight.