Pascal Leclaire turned aside all 28 shots he faced and the Crunch used goals from three different players to down the St. John's Maple Leafs 3-0 in the season opener for both clubs Friday night.
The Leafs seemed to carry the play in the first period and they almost broke the seal on this one just seconds into Friday's contest. Left alone in the slot, last year's rookie sensation Kyle Wellwood's offering was turned aside by Pascal Leclaire for his first save of the evening.
Leclaire would come up big numerous times in the opening frame. Later in the period he denied Matt Stajan after he and former Wilkes-Barre agitator Jason MacDonald teamed up for a nice give and go and he also batted away a Clarke Wilm attempt from point blank range to preserve the scoreless tie seconds later.
St. John's opened the second period holding a four on three man advantage, but it was the Crunch who received the best scoring opportunity courtesy of a Francois Beachemin breakaway. Beachemin's shot rang off the cross-bar, but it was a sign of things to come for Syracuse in the period.
The Crunch kept knocking on the door in the second and their perseverance finally paid off late in the period. Alexander Svitov got the ball rolling with a gorgeous goal at the 16:29 mark of the period. The talented center corralled a loose puck in the slot, wheeled around to the outside and flipped a quick wrister over the shoulder of Maple Leaf netminder Mikael Tellqvist for his first of the year and a 1-0 Syracuse lead.
Just over a minute later the Crunch added to that lead on a goal from Mark Hartigan. In a delayed penalty situation, the veteran Hartigan hopped on a loose puck in the corner and just turned and threw the puck on net from a bad angle. The shot caromed off a surprised Tellqvist before finding the back of the net to make it 2-0 Crunch heading into period number three.
Back-to-back Maple Leaf power plays gave St. John's some early momentum in the third, but Pascal Leclaire and company held their ground until Brad Moran provided a little insurance minutes later. Left all alone to the left of Tellqvist, Moran one-timed an Aaron Johnson feed into the open side for his second point of the game and a three goal Crunch lead.
Crunch Ice Pack:
Date:October 15, 2005
Where:War Memorial at Oncenter
Opponent:St. John's Maple Leafs
Attendance:5,987
Boxscore:
First Period-Scoring-No Scoring. Penalties-Marsh, SJM (double minor, misconduct) (instigating, fighting, inciting an opponent), 2:15; Goertzen, Syr (double minor)(roughing, fighting), 2:15; Hartigan, Syr (hooking), 3:50; Stajan, SJM (hooking), 9:33; Tollefson, Syr (interference), 12:13; Svitov, Syr (slashing), 14:58; Perrott, SJM (roughing), 15:32; Wilm, SJM (roughing), 19:13; Sugden, Syr (roughing), 19:13; Komarniski, Syr (roughing), 19:41.
Second Period-Scoring-1. Syracuse, Svitov 1 (Pandolfo), 16:29. 2. Syracuse, Hartigan 1 (Moran, Motzko), 17:37. Penalties-Harrison, SJM (unsportsmanlike), 7:35; Reich, Syr (unsportsmanlike), 7:35; Perrott, SJM (tripping), 9:51; Tollefson, Syr (holding), 12:21; White, SJM (hooking), 12:41; Motzko, Syr (holding), 18:02.
Third Period-Scoring-3. Syracuse, Moran 1 (Johnson), 6:45. Penalties-Beauchemin, Syr (hooking), :29; Trattnig, Syr (holding), 2:59; MacDonald, SJM (unsportsmanlike), 5:06; Lakos, Syr (unsportsmanlike), 5:06; Barrett, SJM (obs. hooking), 7:47; Druken, SJM (holding the stick), 15:45; Lakos, Syr (holding), 15:45; Ling, SJM (double minor)(hooking, unsportsmanlike) 17:19; Wilm, SJM (slashing), 19:13; May, SJM (roughing), 19:46; Hartigan, Syr (roughing), 19:46.
Shots on Goal:St. John's, 9-12-7--28; Syracuse, 6-9-9--24.
Power Play Opportunities:St. John's, 0-8; Syracuse, 0-8.
Goalies-St. John's, Tellqvist (0-1-0), 24 shots-21 saves; Syracuse, Leclaire (1-0-0), 28 shots- 28 saves.
Referee-Gordon Dwyer (39); Linesman- Jim Harper (59), B.J. Ringrose (10)
Three Stars:
1. Pascal Leclaire: Showed no ill effects from preseason knee injury. Seemed to be in good position all night long. Couldn't have asked for better start.
2. Alexander Svitov: Did exactly what Crunch will need him to do on a regular basis. Team was looking for someone to step up and he did. Awesome wrist shot easily beat Tellqvist.
3. Brad Moran: Same old, same old for Moran. Solid on both ends of the ice and finishes the night with two points.
I Hear Voices:
"Pascal played unbelievable and I think the big thing is our big players played big. Our top guys like Harty and Mo played great games, but I don't want to take anything away from any of the other players because I think 20 guys played really well tonight." -Aaron Johnson on Friday's 3-0 win.
"As a defenseman you always try and play the body and get yourself into the game and fortunately I had his number tonight." -Johnson on the two times he leveled talented Leaf forward Matt Stajan.
"I was just kind of waiting, hoping the goalie would come out on me and luckily he did and Brad had a great shot and finished it off." -Johnson on his assist to Brad Moran in the third.
"When it was 0-0 I tried to go with Perrott and for what ever reason he didn't want to go. Then after it was 2-0 I would have loved to have gone in front of the fans, but I have to think team first in that situation." -Brandon Sugden on failing to find any partners Friday night.
"The most important thing was the win. When you play your first game at home, the rink is packed and you want to give the fans a good show." -Pascal Leclaire on his 3-0 shutout.
"It has been fine for over ten days now. I felt really good out there." -Leclaire on his knee injury.
"I was seeing the puck well and the guys did a good job of clearing in front of the net so there wasn't many screened shots." -Leclaire on some keys to Friday's win.
"No extra pressure. I am going to get ready the same way that I did today and we have a good team so I am confident tomorrow night will be fun." -Leclaire on trying to follow up Friday's win with another solid outing.
"We missed a couple of open nets and hit a couple posts and crossbars and to win games you have to bury them. I have to give Leclaire a lot of credit though, he played well. -Former Crunch captain David Ling on Friday's loss.
"It was fun coming back here. I had three good years here. The fans are great, the people are great. I would have liked to put a goal in, but it was fun." -Ling on returning to Syracuse to face the Crunch.
Lineups:
St. John's:Goal:Jean-Francois Racine, Mikael Tellqvist. Defense: Ian White, Dominic D'amour, Carlo Colaiacovo, Brendan Bell, Marc Moro, Jay Harrison, Tyson Marsh, Andy Wozniewski.Forwards: Scott May, Matt Hubbauer, Matt Stajan, Rob Palahnuk, David Ling, Nathan Barrett, Jeremy Williams, Harold Druken, Clarke Wilm, Jason MacDonald, Ben Ondrus, Nathan Perrott, Brad Leeb, Kyle Wellwood.
Syracuse:Goal:Karl Goehring, Pascal Leclaire.Defense: Zenith Komarniski, Andre Lakos, Jamie Pushor, Aaron Johnson, Prestin Ryan, Ole-Kristian Tollefson, Francois Beauchemin. Forwards: Joe Motzko, Jeremy Reich, Tim Jackman, Mark Hartigan, Matthias Trattnig, Raffaele Sannitz, Alexander Svitov, Brandon Sugden, Greg Mauldin, Mike Pandolfo, Jeff Panzer, Steve Goertzen, Brad Moran.
Pre-game Skate:
Scratched for the Crunch were defenseman Prestin Ryan, center Raffaele Sannitz and right wing Greg Mauldin. Sannitz was slowed early in the preseason with a shoulder injury, but has been practicing the last week. The Leafs sat defensemen Dominic D'amour and Marc Moro, left wings Matt Hubbauer and Robb Palahnuk, along with right wing Ben Ondrus.
Short Shifts:
The defensive pairing for Friday's opener were Tollefson and Beauchemin, with Pushor and Johnson, along with Lakos and Komarniski. The forward lines were Hartigan, Moran and Motzko along with Jackman, Svitov and Reich. Goertzen, Panzer and Trattnig were also a trio with Pandolfo and Sugden as the extras………Friday's 3-0 win was Pascal Leclaire's third professional shutout of his career……Both Matthias Trattnig and Ole-Kristian Tollefson made the AHL regular season debuts Friday night……On hand to celebrate Friday's home opener were Doug MacLean, George McPhee (Capitals VP and GM), Reggie Savage and NHL'er's Adrian Aucoin, Tyson Nash and Jody Shelley. Each has ties to the Crunch family and they all participated in a special pregame ceremony…… Former Crunch favorite David Ling wore the "C" tonight for St. John's.
On Deck:
Syracuse heads down I-81 for a meeting with the Binghamton Senators on Saturday evening. It will be the Sens home opener after falling to Albany 6-2 on Friday night. Game time is set for 7:00 P.M.