Gudlevskis shuts out Sound Tigers in Crunch debut

5-0 Win

Syracuse, NY – Kristers Gudlevskis made 22 saves in his AHL debut to shut out the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 5-0 tonight at the War Memorial Arena.

The Crunch penalty kill unit had a perfect outing, killing seven Sound Tigers power plays to help the Crunch advance to 4-2-1-0 on the season. Syracuse was one for five on the man-advantage.

After a scoreless first, the Crunch exploded for a five goals in the second period.

Dana Tyrell pushed a pass to J.P. Cote who skated in from the blue line to beat Sound Tigers goaltender Anders Nilsson with a shot from the left circle 49 seconds into the second. Vlad Namestnikov doubled the Crunch's lead with a shot from his knees 2:31 into the frame.

The Crunch extended their lead to 3-0 with a power-play goal by Matt Taormina when he one-timed a J.T. Brown feed at the 15:17 mark. Evan Rankin made it 4-0 just 1:32 later when he beat Nilsson glove-side after a breakout pass from Luke Witkowski.

Cedric Paquette scored a shorthanded goal with just four seconds remaining in the middle stanza. Paquette kept the puck on a two-on-one chance with Mike Angelidis and beat Nilsson with a high shot for his third goal of the season.

Nilsson allowed five goals on 30 shots before Kenny Reiter replaced Nilsson at the start of the third period. Reiter stopped all nine shots he faced in relief.

The Crunch travel to Albany on Wednesday to take on the Devils.

Crunchables: Vlad Namestnikov is now on a six-game point streak. He has four goals and four assists in that span…Luke Witkowski's assist on Evan Rankin's goal was Witkowski's first pro point…Matt Taormina is now on a six-game point streak (2g, 7a) after recording a goal tonight. That ties the longest point-streak of his career. The last time Taormina had points in six consecutive games was in the 2009-10 season with the Lowell Devils.

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