2/15/03 FIGHT NIGHT IN SYRACUSE NETS CRUNCH ANOTHER LOSS by Don  The 1st period saw 2 fights in the first twelve seconds. The biggest goon in the AHL Eric LaPlante tried to get Trevor Ettinger to fight off the face-off but was met by Kent McDonell instead. Both players were met with 5 minutes for fighting and 2 minutes for Unsportsmanlike Conduct. Just five seconds later Ettinger dropped the gloves with Yuri Moscevsky and promptly beat him to a pulp. All this only :12 seconds in! At the 1:31 mark Cleveland beat LeClaire to make it 1-0. Picking up the goal was #21 Chad Wiseman and the assist went to #39 Nathan Lutz. At 6:31 the 3rd and final fight broke out between Radim Bicanek and Keith McCambridge with Pandolfo getting mauled. 48 penalty minutes were accumulated in the 1st period. Through the game in total the Crunch went 1-11 on the PP. At 14:33 the Crunch netted a Power Play goal by Brad Moran on a neat little play by Matt Davidson assisted by Walser.  The second period saw Syracuse go 0-6 on the PP including 2 botched 5 on 3 chances. Cleveland picked up a Power Play goal when Kevin Mitchell put it 5-hole on LeClaire. Assists to Ryan Kraft and Patrick Rissmiller. Penalty Minutes accumulated were 24. Including 3 at the 20:00 mark.  The scoreboard lit up in the 3rd period seeing 5 goals scored between the two teams. Cleveland got the scoring started when Jeff Nelson blew it by LeClaire with assists by Travis Hanson and Chad Wiseman at 2:12. A little over a minute later Paul Traynor answered with an unassisted goal at 3:34. It wasn’t to stay that way though as the Barons again laid waste to LeClaire when Hansen netted the 4th Barons goal at 11:10. Pauli Levokari finally decided to make himself useful at 15:17 netting his 3rd goal of the year with the assists going to Moran and Davidson. The 5th and final Barons goal came on an empty netter at 19:56.  Only 8 penalty minutes picked up in the 3rd.  Well a good game offensively by Syracuse tonight as they score 3 goals and pick up 40 shots. This was a game that was physical and played well by the Crunch but the goaltending let them down again. Or the goaltender let them down again, as Goehring has kept the Crunch in a lot of games this year. 18 shots allowed and scoring 3 goals should more than be enough for a win. Three stars of t he evening go to #3: Vesa Toskala the Barons goalie making 37 saves. #2 goes to Paul Traynor. Congrats man, you got yourself a nice goal. and #1 Star goes to Matt Davidson who played a tremendous game tonight. The moron of the game award goes to the Barons Eric LaPlante. This guy is a goon personified. He is a horrible hockey player who I’m not even sure why the Sharks would want on their payroll. I’ll be back Wednesday night on what should be an interesting evening for sure against Hershey. The Bears are always a fun team to watch play as there are usually some spirited matchups with the Crunch players. (Remember 2000 and the line-brawl?) I just hope the game isn’t overshadowed by another in the endless stream of promotion nights as again I think this will be an excellent match up. Until then LET’S GO CRUNCH!!