SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse's two-goal third-period lead disintegrated Friday at the War Memorial and the Flames came back to defeat the Crunch, 5-4, in overtime. The Flames' David Wolf and Tanner Elson each tallied late-game goals, and Ken Agostino notched the game-winning goal in overtime. The defeat leaves the Crunch in fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings, but second behind Hartford in the Northeast Division with one regular season game remaining.
"I thought we lacked the discipline to play a tighter game late in the third period," head coach
Rob Zettler said following the loss. "Instead of clamping down and making smart plays through the neutral zone, we made a few mistakes in the D-zone and it ends up in the back of the net."
For the fifth consecutive game, Syracuse was first on the scoreboard. After gaining the Adirondack zone, Matthew Peca slipped a pass between the circles to
Joel Vermin who beat Flames netminder Joni Ortio on a breakaway wrist shot. The tally, which came at the 4:39 mark, was Vermin's 12th of the season and first since Apr 3. While Peca garnered his second assist of the season,
Slater Koekkoek picked up his 20th helper to lead all Crunch defensemen. The Syracuse lead held until the final minute of the first period when Emile Poirier tied the game with his 18th goal of the season. With 43 seconds to play in the opening frame, Adirondack won a faceoff in the Syracuse zone. After stopping Porier's intial shot,
Kristers Gudlevskis' couldn't keep Poirier's second attempt out. The Flames first goal of the night was assisted by Max Reinhart, his 22nd of the 2014-15 season.
In the middle stanza Syracuse outshot Adirondack 19 to 7 and outscored the Flames 2-1. Syracuse wasted no time in the period scoring just 47 seconds into the frame. Brayden Point gave the lead back to the Crunch following crisp passing from
Jonathan Marchessault and
Cody Kunyk. After the beautiful puck play, Point received the puck by the net mouth and shot it past Ortio to give Syracuse a 2-1 advantage. Marchessault notched his team-leading 65th point on Point's second professional goal, while Kunyk picked up his 16th helper.
Yanni Gourde's team-leading 29th goal earned Syracuse a 3-1 lead just five minutes into the second period. After a chaotic scrum in front of the Flames net, Gourde wacked the puck past the goal line to give the Crunch a two-goal lead. The assists went to Point and Ikonen, giving Point his first multi-point game of his professional career. Adirondack had another late-period answer, though, scoring with less than five minutes remaining in the second. After a face-off win in the Syracuse zone, Adirondack worked the puck to the right point where Nolan Yonkman's rising slap shot beat Gudlevskis, slicing the Crunch lead to 3-2.
Early in the third period, Syracuse took its second two-goal lead of the game.
Jonathan Marchessault's goal at the 3:29 mark gave the Crunch a 4-2 cushion and earned two more Crunch members a multi-point night. While Marchessault's 24th goal of the season gave him two points on the night (1g, 1a), Matthew Peca's third assist of the season was his second of the game. It's his first multi-point game of his career in his seventh professional game.
Ten minutes after the Marchessault goal, Wolf received a pass from Brett Kulak and quickly deposited it into the back of the net, making it a 4-3 game. Wolf's team-leading 20th goal was Kulak's seventh assist. Adirondack used the momentum from the Wolf goal to tie the game just two and-a-half minutes later. Turner Elson potted his 17th goal of the season unassisted. The late-game tally forced the extra frame.
Gudlevskis stopped 29 of the Flames' 34 shots in the loss, while Joni Ortio allowed four goals on 39 Crunch shots. The Crunch penalty kill stopped both Flames man-up chances, as the Flames were 5-for-5 on the kill.
The Crunch close the regular season Saturday against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. A Syracuse win and Hartford regulation losses Saturday and Snday would give the Crunch the Northeast Division title.
