Karl Goehring registered 30 saves and Syracuse received goals from three different players to down the Binghamton Senators 3-2 in American Hockey League action Saturday night.
Joe Motzko put the Crunch on the board in this one, lighting the lamp at the 13:28 mark of period one. The rookie broke in on a two on one with Jeremy Reich, foregoing the pass to fire a shot five-hole on Senator Billy Thompson for his first of the season and a 1-0 Syracuse lead.
Less than three minutes later the Syracuse special teams would get into the act, notching their ninth power play goal in just six games on the year. This time it would be Don MacLean, tallying his first of the season thanks to a gorgeous cross-ice pass from the white-hot Brad Moran. The jack of all trades Moran found MacLean all alone right on the doorstep and fired a pass thru a maze of sticks, setting up MacLean's easy tally.
The Senators cut the Crunch in half at the 7:46 mark of period number two. Daniel Corso won a draw in the Crunch zone right back to Josh Langfeld, who took two strides before firing a quick wrister top shelf that beat Goehring to the stick side.
It remained a one-goal game until the 6:05 mark of the third. That is when Jeremy Reich, off a nice feed from Mark Hartigan, broke in alone on Thompson and with some nice second effort found the back of the net for the eventual game-winner.
Brooks Laich's goal in a six on four situation late in the game made it interesting, but the Crunch would hold on in this one. With the win Syracuse sits atop the North Division with 11 points and a 5-0-1 record.
Crunch Ice Pack:
Date: October 25, 2003
Where:Onondaga County War Memorial at Oncenter
Opponent:Binghamton Senators
Attendance:4,551
Boxscore:
First Period:-Scoring-1. Syracuse Motzko 1 (unassisted), 13:28. 2. Syracuse MacLean (Moran, Traynor), 15:22, (pp). Penalties-Sugden, Syr (roughing), 2:37; Bonvie, Bin (fighting), 14:42; Sugden, Syr (fighting), 14:42; Hamel, Bin (kneeing), 15:14.
Second Period:-Scoring-3. Binghamton Langfeld 5 (Corso), 7:46. Penalties-Schubert, Bin (slashing), 13:51; Bonvie, Bin (major, charging), 18:14.
Third Period:-Scoring-4. Syracuse Reich 1 (Hartigan, Rohloff), 6:05. 5. Binghamton Laich 3 (unassisted), 18:43, (pp). Penalties-Motzko, Syr (illegal stick), 8:08; Scoville, Syr (interference), 17:19.
Shots on Goal-Binghamton, 10-8-14--32; Syracuse, 12-13-7--32 .
Power Play Opps-Binghamton, 1 of 3; Syracuse, 1 of 3.
Goalies-Binghamton, Thompson (1-0-0), 32 shots-29 saves; Syracuse, Goehring (1-0-1), 32 shots-30 saves.
Referee-Harry Dumas (44); Linesmen-Brian Lemon (25), Jeff Walker (17).
Three Stars:
1. Karl Goehring: The former Fighting Sioux netminder seemed to be fighting the puck a little all night but still managed to make the saves when they counted. He finished the evening with 30 saves giving the Crunch another solid outing from their goaltending tandem.
2. Jeremy Reich: JR scored what turned out to be the game-winner early in the third and finished the evening with four shots and was a +2.
3. Paul Traynor: Traynor also put four shots on the Senator net and he assisted on MacLean's tally in the first.
Quotes:
"It is the stick I have been using all training camp because my sticks haven't come in yet and I didn't think it was illegal, but apparently it was." -Joe Motzko on being penalized for an illegal stick in the third period.
"I was just praying that it was legal, but we got lucky and it didn't cost us the game. I won't be using that stick anymore." -Motzko on what he was thinking when the officials were checking his stick.
"I will just probably be fined from the boys." -Motzko on the ramifications of having an illegal stick.
"I kind of knew we were going to go. He was honest about it and I respect him for that. He didn't try to jump me or anything." -Brandon Sugden on his fight with Dennis Bonvie in the first period.
"It is something that I work on. This is my last shot and no team just wants a crazy person. I know that I have to become a better hockey player to move up to the NHL which is what I want to do." -Sugden on the fact that despite his reputation heading into the season, he has been rather controlled with the Crunch so far and has also shown some overall game.
Lineups:
Senators: Goal: Ray Emery, Billy Thompson. Defense:Julien Vauclair, Steve Bancroft, Andy Hedlund, Jan Platil, Christoph Schubert, Chris Leinweber, Peter Smrek. Forwards: Serge Payer, Daniel Corso, Alexandre Giroux, Chris Kelly, Jody Hull, Denis Hamel, David Hymovitz, Brian McGrattan, Josh Langfeld, Dennis Bonvie, Greg Watson, Arpad Mihaly, Brooks Laich, Tony Tuzzolino.
Crunch: Goal:Pascal Leclaire, Karl Goehring. Defense: Darrel Scoville, Todd Rohloff, Paul Traynor, Pauli Levokari, Aaron Johnson, Trent Cull. Forwards:Mark Hartigan, Ben Knopp, Joe Motzko, Donald MacLean, Jeremy Reich, Tim Jackman, Sean Pronger, Brad Moran, Tyler Sloan, Brandon Sugden, Mike Pandolfo.
Pre-game Skate:
The Senators scratched Julien Vauclair (recall to Ottawa), Alexandre Giroux (concussion), Arpad Mihaly (healthy) and Tony Tuzzolino (finger). Syracuse did not have any scratches.
One Lump or Two?
Brandon "Sugar" Sugden, Syracuse's newest heavyweight, made his War Memorial debut last night when he tangled with the AHL's all-time leader in penalty minutes, Dennis Bonvie. The actual fight, which happened at the 14:42 mark in period number one, was the final act in a drawn out play that began way back in warm-ups.
Bonvie, who is always quick with the verbal barrages, exchanged pleasantries with Sugden in the pre-game. "He said something like how did you get out of prison", claimed Sudgen. "I just replied it was going to be hard for him to yap when he is spitting up teeth."
Sugden also received the opportunity to watch Bonvie in action during the pre-game, a time where the cagey veteran likes to push the envelope by stretching while facing his opponent and casually skating over center red, among other things.
"He crossed the center line in front of me and I did it right back," said Sugden. "Then he passed me a puck and I passed it back to him. He was just trying to get under my skin."
After warm-ups the actual bout seemed to be a foregone conclusion. The two combatants postured for a good 35 seconds before finally engaging. Each player landed their share of punches in between plenty of clutching and grabbing. Right before the linesmen broke up the bout, Sugden landed a nice left hook, which may have prompted the elder statesmen Bonvie to reconsider ending this dance.
"He gave the hands up to me looking right in my eye and I said alright if you don't want to go anymore that's fine," stated Sugden. "Then he said he was saying no to the refs."
On the way to the box, with the fans saluting their newest hero, Sugden un-holstered his now infamous imaginary guns, showing all in attendance why he is also known as "six-shooter".
"I broke out the six-shooters, yes," said Sugden. "I felt good about that left hook at the end and the fans were loving it."
Strategic Stick-Check:
Late in the third, with Syracuse nursing a two-goal lead, the Senators called for a stick check on Syracuse rookie Joe Motzko. The officials took the stick to the penalty box and after measuring it determined that it was indeed illegal. Motzko was given two-minutes for an illegal stick, but was let off the hook when Binghamton failed to score on the ensuing power play.
Crunch One-Timers:
Early Saturday morning the Crunch announced that the Columbus Blue Jackets have recalled defenseman Anders Eriksson. The veteran Eriksson has appeared in five games with the Crunch this season, recording one goal, two assists and six penalty minutes. He will be replacing Rusty Klesla in the Jacket lineup. Klesla suffered a hip pointer Thursday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning…..Crunch center Don MacLean played in his 300th AHL game on Saturday……After leading 2-0 after one period on Saturday, Syracuse has now outscored their opponent 9-3 in the opening period this season….After Saturday the Crunch are one of only three teams yet to lose this season. The other two are Hartford and the Chicago Wolves….Crunch defenseman Pauli Levokari left the ice at the 11:55 mark of the second after taking a questionable hit from Dennis Bonvie along the end boards. Levokari did not return and was taken to the hospital with a possible concussion.
Parent Pulse:
The Jackets run of misfortune continued on Saturday when they were beaten by the Dallas Stars 3-2. Columbus led twice in this game before allowing two third period goals to the Stars.
In that contest Andrej Nedorost notched his second goal of the season and a couple of former Crunch antagonists displayed their wares in back-to-back fashion. Both Jody Shelley and David Ling would drop the gloves and they did it just two seconds apart in period number one.
After more than their share of injuries, some of the Blue Jackets are on the mend. According to the Columbus Dispatch, Tyler Wright's sprained right elbow is improving so much that he hopes to make the trip with the team to Vancouver on Monday. The Dispatch also stated that Duvie Westcott is another player hoping to be on that flight. His bruised foot will be looked at by the Columbus medical staff this weekend in hopes of playing on the Jacket road trip.
On Deck:
The Crunch hit the thruway tomorrow afternoon to pay a visit to Blue Cross Arena for a tussle with the Rochester Americans. This will be the second meeting of the season between these bitter rivals. The Crunch downed the Amerks 2-0 back on October 18th behind 39 saves from Pascal Leclaire. Game time is set for 6:00 PM. This game kicks off a stretch of five straight on the road for the Crunch.