Game Notes: 3/01/08 v. Rochester Americans
Crunch Eliminate Amerks
Syracuse, NY (March 1, 2008) – The Syracuse Crunch defeated the Rochester Americans tonight, 3-1 at the War Memorial at Oncenter in front of a capacity crowd of 6,256 fans.
Even though it was the eighth meeting of the season between these two teams and the last meeting was no more than two weeks ago, the Crunch and Amerks seemed to be feeling each other out in a slow, methodical first period.
In a period not very typical of a Syracuse-Rochester match-up, only one penalty was called in the first period. Joakim Lindstrom got the gate for boarding at the 14:37 mark, but the Amerks could not convert on the power play opportunity.
The highlight of the first came with about one minute left when newly converted Rochester left wing Marc-Andre Gragnani was sprung in on a breakaway, but was stuffed by the pad of Crunch starter Karl Goehring.
The pace in the second stanza picked up considerably and the Crunch were able to jump out to a 2-0 lead on two quick strikes six and a half minutes in.
Clay Wilson gave the Crunch a 1-0 lead when he took a feed from Adam Pineault, did a spin-o-rama move and fired a wrister from the bottom of the left circle past the low stick side of Rochester starter Adam Dennis.
Just 29 seconds later, Syracuse jumped up 2-0. Zenon Konopka skated in down the right side and fed a backhand to a streaking Joakim Lindstrom who was able to shovel the puck past Dennis for the tally.
Just over five minutes later, Rochester would get one back. Gragnani, who was camped out behind the Crunch goal line, fed an oncoming Martin Lojek who sniped a shot over the shoulder of Goehring to make it 2-1.
The Crunch regained their two-goal advantage just under three minutes into the third frame. With Brett Motherwell in the box for interference, Adam Pineault led a shorthanded rush up the ice and put a shot on goal. He followed up, was able to find his own rebound and stuff it through Dennis for the 3-1 Crunch lead.
That is all the scoring the Crunch would need as they hung on for their second win in as many nights and moved to three games above the .500 mark for the first time all season.
CRUNCHABLES: Clay Wilson scored his first goal in nine games with his first period marker…Nate DiCasmirro tallied his first point as a member of the Crunch with an assist on Adam Pineault’s third period goal…Pineault now has 6 short-handed goals on the year, which puts him in sole possession of first place on the Crunch all-time single season list…Syracuse has 18 short-handed goals to lead the AHL in that category…The Crunch are one goal away from tying the team record for shorties in a season…The Crunch have a five-game point streak and have gotten at least a point in 10 of their last 11 games…Since February 1, Syracuse is 7-2-0-4…Karl Goehring has now started four games in a row and stopped 114 of 117 shots, good for a .974 save percentage…Goehring is 3-0-0-1 in those four starts…Crunch defenseman Duvie Westcott has an even or better +/- rating in 12 straight games…He is a +7 over that span.