Game Notes: 2/29/08 v. Toronto Marlies
Crunch Topple Toronto in Overtime
Syracuse, NY (February 29, 2008) – In the same manner in which they defeated the Rochester Americans back on February 16, the Syracuse Crunch disposed of the Toronto Marlies in overtime tonight, 2-1 at the War Memorial at Oncenter in front of 5,009 fans.
It had been two months and 10 days since these two teams last faced each other, but they certainly did not wait too long to get reacquainted. A pre-game scuffle set the tone for a high-energy, fast-paced first period of play.
Toronto controlled much of the action early on, but could not convert on two power plays inside of the first six and a half minutes. The Crunch fed off of the effort of their penalty killers and broke the scoreless tie just over halfway through the stanza.
Trevor Frischmon’s outstretched stick chipped a pass up the right wing for Derek Dorsett. With a lane to skate through, Dorsett glided in and fired a shot that beat Toronto starter Justin Pogge high to the stick side for the 1-0 Crunch advantage.
Syracuse came close to making it a two-goal lead when Duvie Westcott skated by a defender and created a mini 2-on-1 situation with Joakim Lindstrom. Westcott slid a pass over to Lindstrom who uncorked a hard wrister that clanged off the far post.
Crunch starter Karl Goehring was solid, turning aside all 10 shots he faced in the first.
The Second period produced no goals, but the action went back and forth. The Crunch went on the power play when Colin Murphy was called for hooking just 36 seconds in, but could not capitalize.
Pogge and Dorsett exchanged pleasantries when Dorsett was hauled off for goaltender interference and Pogge for roughing at the 6:53 mark. Pogge’s minor was served by Tyler Doig.
Each goalie produced a scoreless second stanza for their respective team as Pogge stopped 11 second-period shots and Goehring had 9 saves in the frame to keep the score 1-0 in favor of Syracuse after two.
From the opening face-off in the third period, it was all Marlies. Eventually, the pressure they were putting on the Crunch paid off eight minutes into the frame. On a scramble in front of the net, Peter Tsimikalis stuffed home a rebound of a Tyler Doig shot after it hit off the face mask of Goehring and found his waiting stick after it bounced around in the crease. That goal tied the game 1-1.
The game remained tied for the rest of regulation and went to overtime, with Syracuse fending off the Toronto attack. Goehring made some key saves down the stretch and ended up turning aside 32 of 33 shots for the game.
With 1:02 remaining in the overtime period, Westcott came in down the right side and let go a cannon that beat Pogge and gave the Crunch the 2-1 victory.
CRUNCHABLES: Right wing Nate DiCasmirro made his Syracuse Crunch debut tonight after being reassigned from the Phoenix Coyotes yesterday…Crunch defenseman Duvie Westcott wore the ‘A’ as an alternate captain tonight…Goehring started his third straight game in goal for the Crunch tonight…Coming into tonight, Westcott had not recorded a minus (-) rating in 10 straight games…Marc Methot recorded his first assist in 37 games on Dorsett’s first period tally…Westcott’s overtime winner was his first goal of the season…It was the second time the Crunch have had a defenseman score the overtime winner…The Crunch have had six of their last 11 games go into at least overtime.