Syracuse, on the strength of three third period goals, came from behind to down the Binghamton Senators 4-2 Thursday evening at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.
The Senators opened the scoring late in the first with some nice tic-tac toe passing from a couple of former Crunch players. Chris Leinweber got things started when he found Garrett Prosofsky streaking into the Syracuse zone. Prosofsky then quickly hit Scooter Smith who easily buried the puck into the open side past Crunch netminder Karl Goehring for a 1-0 Senator lead.
Marty Johnston put the Crunch on the board less than five minutes into period number two. The free-agent forward, who spent time last season with Lowell, picked up a loose puck in the Senator zone and fired a slapper over the shoulder of Billy Thompson to even the score at 1-1.
Binghamton answered Johnston's tally with a power play goal just 59 seconds later to regain their one-goal cushion. With Pauli Levokari in the box for high-sticking, Christoph Schubert re-directed a Reagen Rome slap shot by Goehring to make it a 2-1 game.
From there it was all Crunch. Mike Pandolfo got things rolling with a short-handed tally at the 5:31 mark of period number three to even the score at two.
That set the stage for newcomer J.F. Boutin. With less than five minutes to play in regulation, Boutin beat Senator netminder Billy Thompson with a nifty move to give the Crunch the lead for the first time in the game. It turned out to be the second game-winning goal this preseason for the long time minor leaguer who is making a strong bid to break camp with the Crunch.
Mark Hartigan sealed the deal with an empty net tally with just 6 seconds remaining for a final of 4-2. Karl Goehring went the distance for Syracuse, recording 21 saves for the win.
Crunch Ice Pack:
Date: October 2, 2003
Where: Broome County
Opponent: Binghamton Senators
Attendance: 1,563
Boxscore:
First Period--Scoring-1. Binghamton, Smith (Prosofsky, Leinweber), 18:50. Penalties-Concannon, Bin (holding the stick), :57; Motzko, Syr (delay of game), 1:34; Johnstone, Syr (roughing), 3:29; McGrattan, Bin (roughing), 3:29; Concannon, Bin (holding), 6:37; Motzko, Syr (slashing), 13:07; Clayton, Bin (roughing), 13:07.
Second Period--Scoring-2. Syracuse Johnston (Joklila, Hartigan), 4:26. 3. Binghamton, Schubert (Rome, Sutter), 5:25, (pp). Penalties-Clayton, Bin (hooking), :43; Sutter, Bin (slashing), :38; Levokari, Syr (high-stick), 4:52; Traynor, Syr (tripping), 7:32; Both, Syr (fighting), 9:48; McGrattan, Bin (fighting), 9:48; Cull, Syr (roughing), 10:36; Sutter, Bin (slashing), 10:36; McKay, Syr (charging), 16:14.
Third Period-Scoring-4. Syracuse, Pandolfo (Moran, Kiser), 5:31, (sh). 5. Syracuse Boutin (Traynor, Hartigan), 15:42, (pp). 6. Syracuse Hartigan (Traynor), 19:54, (en). Penalties-Sloan, Syr (fighting, game misconduct), 2:20; McKay, Syr (elbowing), 2:20; Kiser, Syr (roughing), 2:20; Sutter, Bin (fighting, game misconduct), 2:20; Platil, Bin (roughing), 2:20; Johnston, Syr (hooking), 4:27; McGrattan, Bin (slashing), 7:06; Watson, Bin (charging), 14:31.
Shots on Goal: Crunch 5-7-11-23 Senators 8-7-8--23 Power Plays: Crunch 1-6, Senators 1-6. Goalies: Crunch-Goehring 23 shots- 21 saves; Senators-Thompson 23 shots-19 saves Referee-Brian Pochmara, Linesmen-Tim Kotyra, John Everett
Three Stars: 1. J. F. Boutin: Tallied game-winner on a power play goal late in third period. 2. Mike Pandolfo: His third period short-handed goal got things rolling for the Crunch 3. Scooter Smith: Last season's late addition in Syracuse put the Sens on the board with his first period goal.
Lineups:
Senators:Goal:Billy Thompson, Andrew Allen Defense:Greg Zanon, Greg Watson, Andy Hedlund, Chris Leinweber, Reagen Rome, Christoph Schubert, Jan Platil, Peter Smrek, Kevin Bolibruck Forwards: Thomas Clayton, Garrett Prosofsky, Brian McGrattan, Shaun Sutter, Arpad Mihaly, Bryson Busniuk, David Hymovitz, Brooks Laich, Mark Concannon, Trevor Segstro, Scooter Smith
Crunch:Goal:Andrew Penner, Karl Goehring, Pascal Leclaire Defense:Sean Connolly, Alex Johnstone, Darrel Scoville, Todd Rohloff, Paul Traynor, Aaron Johnson, Trent Cull, Nate Kiser, Pauli Levokari. Forwards:Jeremy Reich, Joe Motzko, Mike Pandolfo, Doug Christiansen, Tyler Sloan, Brad Moran, Janne Jokila, Brandon Sugden, Brad Both, Konrad McKay, Marty Johnston, Ben Knopp, J.F. Boutin, Don McLean, Mark Hartigan.
Pre-Game Skate:
Scratched for the Crunch were Jeremy Reich, Darrel Scoville, Todd Rohloff, Brandon Sugden, Aaron Johnson, and Don McLean. Binghamton scratched Adam Munro, Andy Hedlund and Peter Smrek.
The Fight Card:
Alex Johnstone and Brian McGrattan kicked things off just 3:29 into the first period. It wasn't much of a bout; referee actually gave both players roughing penalties. Next on McGrattan's dance card was Brad Both. Definitely Both's best bout of the preseason, landed some blows, but decision probably goes to McGrattan.
Big scrum in the third period kicked off a couple bouts. First it was Tyler Sloan going with Shaun Sutter. Again nothing to write home about, but at least Sloan held his own. Rookie Nate Kiser also got into a little something with Jan Platil during the scrum with no gloves being dropped.
Crunch One-Timers:
With Jeremy Reich scratched from the evening's festivities, Brad Moran, Trent Cull, and Paul Traynor all wore "A's" for the game….With an assist on Thursday rookie Janne Jokila has recorded a point in all three preseason contests. He is one of only three Crunch players, along with J.F. Boutin and Brad Moran, to accomplish that feat….The Crunch scratched two of their top blueliners for the game in Todd Rohloff and Darrel Scoville along with rookie Aaron Johnson.
Around the League:
With the NHL's Waiver Draft being held this Friday, a few team's have available for the taking some players of Crunch past. One you might expect, one-time parent club, the Vancouver Canucks, who have five ex-Crunch players available in Pat Kavanagh, Zenith Komarniski, Chris Nielsen, Jaroslav Obsut and Ryan Ready.
The other, the Toronto Maple Leafs, may come as a surprise. They have four former Crunch players on their unprotected list in Lonny Bohonos, Harold Druken, Josh Holden and Brad Leeb.
According to an article this past week in Rochester's Democrat and Chronicle Saturday night in Rochester the Amerks will be testing a new product from the Ottawa based company Litenets Inc.. What they have done is come up with a goal that has 1,300 tiny lights installed in the goal posts and when the goal judge turns on the red light it triggers a switch to also turn on the lights in the posts. Sure to be a favorite of goalies everywhere.
On Deck:
Saturday night Binghamton pays a visit to the War Memorial for the last preseason game of the year for the Crunch. Face-off is set for 7:30 PM.