12/18/02 THESE DUCKS QUACK BACK  J-F Labbe returned to his old stomping grounds for the first of his 3 game conditioning stint, but fell short of a win by a score of 3-1. Syracuse fell to an early 1-0 deficit as the Ducks Harlan Pratt nailed one in on Labbe at 8:00 of the first. Assisting on the goal were Mark Popovic and Nick Smith. Jeremy Reich answered about 6 minutes later with Syracuse’ lone goal of the evening picking up the assists were Matt Davidson (welcome back) and Trent Cull. The first period saw Syracuse go 0-3 on the Power Play.  The second period saw no scoring from Syracuse, but did see a goal from the Ducks Cory Pecker. Assisting on the goal were Jonathan Hedstrom and Tony Martensson. Keep an eye on this Martensson kid; he is going to be something special in the NHL soon. The 2nd period saw the Crunch go 0-1 on the power play and David Ling picked up his second penalty of the game.  In third period action the Crunch had several opportunities slip through their fingers as they squandered 4 Power Play chances and an overall 0-8 on the Power Play. That number needs to be improved, as 0-8 on the Power Play is absolutely unacceptable. The Ducks Captain Rob Valicevic tossed in an empty netter with an assist from Mark Popovic to ice this one at the final score of 3-1.  Overall a flat game from Syracuse on the Power Play and a pretty flat game overall from Gary Agnew’s squad. J-F Labbe was his usual self after shaking off a little rust early on. It was super to see him back in a Crunch jersey again. My 3 stars of the game #3 go to my buddy Mike Commodore. His play has really picked up as of late and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in Anaheim soon, he is a good guy and he deserves it. A spectacular performance from J-F Labbe earns him my second star of the evening, as the score could have been much worse if not for Labbe. The #1 star goes to Duck net minder J-F Damphousse. A wonderful performance for the ex Albany River Rat, turning away 28 shots.  In closing I put this in my last column on my old employers site and I wanted it to actually be seen so I am posting it to you the fans of this team to read, as I say farewell to Chris Neilson after his trade to Atlanta.  “In closing the Jackets made a trade this week with the Atlanta Thrashers that dealt Chris Neilson to the Thrashers. It’s always hard when you lose a player off of your team to call ups and injury but it hurts a little extra when they leave your team for good to go to another team. I wish Chris the best of luck in his future endeavors with Atlanta. Hopefully he’ll make the big club. They could definitely use the talent down south!” Again from my 12/4 column. I hope you enjoyed the first installment of “Crunch Time” Feel free to email me at bufsabrefan39@aol.com as I look forward to reading your comments. Also, I will begin a new feature Saturday night called “Alumni of the Week” where I dig up a former Crunch player’s current team and stats. Until then LET’S GO CRUNCH!!