Monsters slide past Crunch 5-4 in overtime

5-4 OT Loss

Syracuse, NY – The Syracuse Crunch fell to the Lake Erie Monsters 5-4 in overtime tonight at the Quicken Loans Arena.

The loss drops the Crunch's overall record to 40-21-5-5 and road record to 24-10-2-2. The Crunch earn a point in the loss and continue to sit at first in the East Division and third in the Eastern Conference with 90 points. The Crunch have five regular season games remaining, all at the War Memorial.

Monsters center Andrew Agozzino scored the game winner 2:49 into overtime when the puck trickled under the pad of Crunch netminder Cedrick Desjardins. Desjardins allowed five goals on 25 shots and his Monsters counterpart Kent Patterson stopped 25 of 29 shots.

Syracuse scored twice on the power play, breaking an eight-game, 0 for 33, drought; the Crunch penalty kill unit went five for six on the night.

Lake Erie and Syracuse exchanged goals during the first period, with the Monsters striking first 4:13 into the opening frame. Bill Thomas beat Desjardins on a shot assisted by Joey Hishon and Markus Lauridsen.
Dan Sexton evened the score with 1:32 to play in the first period. Sexton pushed the puck past Patterson after a scramble in front of the net for his eighth goal of the season.

Vladislav Namestnikov scored his sixth of the season at the 10:50 mark of the second period. Defenseman Andrej Sustr passed the puck from the blue line to the slot where Namestnikov paused before shooting and beating Patterson for the 2-1 lead. The assist was rookie Sustr's first professional point.

Lake Erie took a 3-2 lead into the second intermission by scoring two goals in the second half of the middle stanza. Thomas threw the puck on net and it was knocked in by Mike Connolly at the 14:14 mark to even the score and Tomas Vincour redirected a point shot from Thomas Pock for a five-on-three power-play goal.

Syracuse took a 4-3 lead early in the final frame thanks to goals from Sustr and Philip-Michael Devos.
Sustr scored his first pro goal on the power play with a shot from the bottom left wing circle 2:03 into the period. Devos gave the Crunch a 4-3 lead 1:23 later when he scored off the rebound of a JT Brown shot.

Vincour scored his second goal of the game to even the score and force overtime 9:42 into the final frame. Vincour beat Desjardins on a shot from the bottom right wing circle, assisted by Hishon and Paul Carey.

Crunchables: Crunch defenseman Mark Barberio made his NHL debut tonight after being recalled on April 8…Barberio is the seventh Crunch player to make his NHL debut for Tampa this season…Tonight's contest is the first game Barberio has missed this season…JT Wyman is now the only Crunch player have played in all 71 games this season…Rookie defenseman Andrej Sustr registered his first professional multi-point game tonight with a goal and an assist.

Print Friendly Version