Jason Jaffray scored twice and Josh Prudden notched the game-winning goal late in the third period to lead the Cleveland Barons to a 6-4 win over the Syracuse Crunch in a key North Division battle Friday night.
The Barons opened the scoring in this one early in the first period. Nick Bootland redirected a Josh Prudden pass up over the shoulder of Crunch netminder Karl Goehring to give the Barons the early advantage.
The Crunch evened things up late in the first on a classic give and go play from Brad Moran and Aaron Johnson. The two worked that to perfection, resulting in Johnson's third goal of the year.
Back-to-back goals by the Barons to open the second period gave Cleveland the lead for the second time of the night. Marcel Goc tallied just 50 seconds into the period to make it 2-1 Barons and Jason Jaffray's first of the evening just over five minutes later made it a 3-1 game.
After Tim Jackman scored to bring the Crunch to within one Syracuse's newest line combination of Peter and Chris Ferraro along with Jeff Panzer, a.k.a the Kiddie Ride Line, started to heat up for the Crunch.
Chris Ferraro cleaned up the rebound of a Jeff Panzer offering to tie things at 3 and then just under three minutes later the entire Kiddie Ride Line teamed up to give the Crunch their first lead of the evening.
That lead, however, was extremely short-lived as just 14 seconds after Peter Ferraro's goal put the Crunch up one, Jason Jaffray notched his second of the night to make it a 4-4 game heading into period number three.
That score remained until late in the third when Josh Prudden capitalized on a Crunch miscue and scored what would turn out to be the game-winner when he beat Goehring five-hole for his 7th of the season.
Nolan Schaefer turned aside 31 Crunch shots to improve to 8-12-0 on the season. Karl Goehring recorded 23 saves in a losing effort for Syracuse.
Crunch Ice Pack:
Date:January 14, 2005
Where:War Memorial at Oncenter
Opponent:Cleveland Barons
Attendance:5,019
Boxscore:
First Period-Scoring-1. Cleveland, Bootland 4 (Prudden, Hoffman), 6:29. 2. Syracuse, Johnson 3 (Moran, Lakos), 16:25, (pp). Penalties-Komarniski, Syr (tripping), 2:45; Labenski, Cle (roughing), 10:51; Stevenson, Cle (roughing), 10:51; C. Ferraro, Syr (roughing), 10:51; P. Ferraro, Syr (roughing), 10:51; Labenski, Cle (tripping), 15:05; Stafford, Cle (tripping), 18:05.
Second Period-Scoring-3. Cleveland, Ehrhoff 8 (Stafford, Clowe), :50. 4. Cleveland, Jaffray 2 (unassisted), 5:58. 5. Syracuse, Jackman 7 (Mauldin), 7:31. 6. Syracuse, C. Ferraro 5 (Panzer, Johnson), 13:40, (pp). 7. Syracuse, P. Ferraro 2 (C. Ferraro, Panzer), 16:33. 8. Cleveland, Jaffray 3 (Conboy), 16:47. Penalties-Ehrhoff, Cle (holding), 8:01; Gorges, Cle (interference), 13:20; Bootland, Cle (roughing), 18:32; Ehrhoff, Cle (match, attempt to injure), 18:32; Hoffman, Cle (roughing), 18:32; P. Ferraro, Syr (double minor, roughing), 18:32; Pushor, Syr (roughing), 18:32.
Third Period-Scoring-9. Cleveland, Prudden 7 (unassisted), 15:20. 10. Cleveland, Goc (Clowe, Carkner), 19:51, (en). Penalties-Johnson, Syr (interference), 3:56; Rissmiller, Cle (fighting, misconduct), 7:59; Svitov, Syr (fighting, misconduct, double game misconduct), 7:59; Jaffray, Cle (unsportsmanlike), 8:13; Clowe, Cle (10 minute misconduct), 8:13; Komarniski, Syr (10 minute misconduct), 8:13; Hartigan, Syr (major- spearing, game misconduct), 8:13; Bench minor, Cle (too many men, served by Carkner), 10:32; C. Ferraro, Syr (roughing), 17:00; Carkner, Cle (roughing), 19:51; Goc, Cle (roughing), 19:51; Murray, Cle (roughing), 19:51; C. Ferraro, Syr (roughing), 19:51; Moran, Syr (roughing), 19:51.
Shots on Goal:Cleveland, 9-11-9---29; Syracuse, 14-13-8--35.
Power Play Opportunities:Cleveland, 0-3; Syracuse, 2-5.
Goalies-Cleveland, Schaeffer (8-12-0), 35 shots-31 saves; Syracuse, Goehring (9-12-0), 28 shots-23 saves.
Referee-Dan O'Rourke(42); Linesman-Jim Harper (59), Andy Petrus (26).
Three Stars: .
1. Jason Jaffray: Former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguin tallies two huge goals for the Barons.
2. Jeff Panzer: Finished the night with two assists; currently on a four game point streak.
3. Josh Prudden: Notched the game winner late in the third period.
Lineups:
Cleveland:Goal:Dimitri Patzold, Nolan Schaeffer. Defense: Matt Carkner, Jim Fahey, Garrett Stafford, Doug Murray, Josh Georges, Christian Ehrhoff, Greg Labenski, Tim Conboy. Forwards: Riley Armstrong, Craig Valette, Jason Jaffray, Shane Joseph, Josh Prudden, Nick Bootland, Patrick Rissmiller, Grant Stevenson, Tomas Plihal, Ryane Clowe, Aaron Gill, Scott Dobben, Mike Hoffman, Glenn Olsen, Marcel Goc.
Syracuse:Goal:Karl Goehring, Pascal Leclaire, Andrew Penner.Defense: Zenith Komarniski, Andre Lakos, Jamie Pushor, Aaron Johnson, Prestin Ryan, Francois Beauchemin, Ole-Kristian Tollefsen Forwards: Joe Motzko, Jeremy Reich, Tim Jackman, Mark Hartigan, Matthias Trattnig, Raffaele Sannitz, Alexander Svitov, Brandon Sugden, Greg Mauldin, Mike Pandolfo, Jeff Panzer, Brad Moran, Chris Ferraro, Peter Ferraro.
Pre-game Skate:
Scratched for the Crunch were goaltender Pascal Leclaire (groin), left wing Jeremy Reich (healthy, veteran rule), right wing Brandon Sugden (thumb) and center Raffaele Sannitz (shoulder). The Barons sat defenseman Jim Fahey, right wings Riley Armstrong and Shane Joseph along with left wings Scott Dobben and Glenn Olsen.
Short Shifts:
The Crunch received a bit of bad news prior to Friday's tilt. Brandon Sugden, originally thought to be out only 1-2 weeks with an injured thumb, will miss at least 8 weeks with that injury. Sugden hurt the thumb in Wednesday's game at Columbus in a first period fight with the Barons Mike Hoffman. He is expected to have surgery on the thumb in the coming days………..Aaron Johnson's goal in the first period was his first since the 11/28 game against the Philadelphia Phantoms, a span of 16 games………..The Crunch dressed seven defenseman on Friday and Ole-Kristian Tollefsen logged some minutes at forward for Head Coach Gary Agnew. That decision also left the Crunch extremely short-handed once Mark Hartigan and Alexander Svitov were ejected and it forced Syracuse to play with only 9 forwards the last 12 minutes of the third period………..It also appears the Crunch will be shorthanded on Saturday unless reinforcements arrive due to the probable suspension of Svitov for abusing an official following his third period scrap.
On Deck:
These same Cleveland Barons are on the slate for Saturday evening as the two teams complete a stretch of three games in four nights. The puck drops at 7:30 P.M. at the War Memorial.