Brad Moran scored twice and added an assist and Mark Hartigan chipped in with two points to lead the Crunch to a 4-1 win over the San Antonio Rampage Wednesday night in AHL action.
The Crunch jumped out early in this one courtesy of some undisciplined play from the Rampage. Back-to-back penalties accessed to San Antonio gave the Crunch a five-on-three advantage for just over a minute and Syracuse capitalized with a goal from Brad Moran.
Moran collected a Joe Motzko pass just inside the left wing face-off circle and flipped a backhander past Rampage netminder Travis Scott for his team leading 15th goal of the season and an early Crunch lead.
Less than four minutes later Syracuse made it 2-0 on a goal from center Jeff Panzer. The Grand Forks native followed up a Steven Goertzen wrap-around attempt and slipped a shot from the high slot thru the pads of Scott for his 7th of the year.
Early in the second the Crunch extended their lead on a nice play from Brad Moran and Mark Hartigan. Camped behind the net a la the Great One, Moran found Hartigan cutting down the slot and he easily deposited the feed behind Scott for his 14th of the season and a three goal Syracuse advantage.
Just over a minute into the third Syracuse made it 4-0 on the second goal of the night from Moran. Francois Beauchemin kept the play alive by gloving down a clearing attempt at the Crunch blueline. He then found Moran all alone with a gorgeous cross ice pass and the crafty center beat Scott high to the glove side for the score.
Brent Cullaton's first goal of the season at the 6:45 mark of the third put the Rampage on the board and nullified Syracuse netminder Karl Goehring's bid for his fourth shutout of the season. Goehring finished the evening with 23 saves to improve to 14-15-0 on the year. Travis Scott turned aside 32 shots in a losing effort for San Antonio.
Crunch Ice Pack:
Date:February 9, 2005
Where:War Memorial at Oncenter
Opponent:San Antonio Rampage
Attendance:4,103
Boxscore:
First Period-Scoring-1. Syracuse, Moran 15 (Motzko), 3:43, (pp). 2. Syracuse, Panzer 7 (Goertzen, Sannitz), 7:26. Penalties-Hyman, San (holding the stick), 2:23; Healey, San (high stick), 3:15; Weiss, San (slashing), 7:35; Motzko, Syr (holding the stick), 8:41; Hyman, San (interference), 11:59; Goertzen, Syr (unsportsmanlike), 11:59.
Second Period-Scoring-3. Syracuse, Hartigan 14 (Moran, Sloan), 4:16. Penalties-Kolnik, San (boarding), 11:37; Libby, Syr (tripping), 16:50; Nielsen, San (unsportsmanlike), 19:43.
Third Period-Scoring-4. Syracuse, Moran 16 (Beauchemin, Hartigan), 1:06, (pp). 5. San Antonio, Cullaton 1 (unassisted), 6:45. Penalties-McNeill, San (cross-check), 4:26; Bench Minor, San (too many men, served by Cullen), 11:47; Kolnik, San (high sticking), 14:16; McNeill, San (roughing, unsportsmanlike), 14:16; Tollefson, Syr (roughing), 14:16; Healey, San (inciting an opponent misconduct), 18:58.
Shots on Goal:San Antonio, 10-7-8--25; Syracuse, 11-10-15--36.
Power Play Opportunities:San Antonio, 0-2; Syracuse, 2-9.
Goalies-San Antonio, Scott (15-17-3), 36 shots-32 saves; Syracuse, Goehring (14-15-0), 25 shots-24 saves.
Referee-Gordie Dwyer (39); Linesman-John Murphy (71) Peter Feola (33).
Three Stars:
1. Brad Moran: Tallies twice on the power play and adds an assist for a three point night.
2. Karl Goehring: Strong all night long, but especially early to help Crunch get off to a fast start.
3. Mark Hartigan: Had himself a two point night, even if assist on Moran's second goal was iffy.
I Hear Voices:
"He just found my stick. He found an opening and created the play by getting the defenseman to watch the puck and found me open back door." --Mark Hartigan on Brad Moran's play in the second period resulting in a Hartigan goal.
"It is pretty easy." --Hartigan jokingly answering a question about how easy Moran made the pass look on his second period tally.
"We got a couple of quick ones right off the bat and it is always tough to come back from that, especially on the road." --Hartigan on the Crunch's quick start.
"No, not really. It is a little tough seeing down when the puck is at my feet, but other than that, no problems." --Joe Motzko on if wearing the extra face guard to protect his injured mouth gave him any problems.
"We got a lucky bounce (on the first goal) off the referee and I just found it and why not throw it on the net and I was fortunate it chipped up over his shoulder. The second one was a great pass by Frankie. I just had to get it on net." --Brad Moran on his two goals.
"For a second I did. I wasn't sure because I didn't hear it. I will check it on the replay I guess." --Moran on what he thought was his third goal of the night late in the third period.
"It means I have been here a while." --Moran on what it means to be moving up in a number of categories all-time for the Crunch.
Lineups:
San Antonio:Goal:Phil Osaer, Travis Scott. Defense:Lukas Krajicek, T.J. Reynolds, Jay Bouwmeester, Filip Novak, Joel Kwiatkowski, Dion Hyman, Victor Uchevatov, Grant McNeill. Forwards: Serge Payer, Stephen Weiss, Chris Neilsen, Gregory Campbell, Joe Cullen, Scott Kelman, Ryan Jardine, Paul Healey, Nathan Horton, Juraj Kolnik, Josh Olsen, Brent Cullaton, Luke Curtain, Petr Taticek, Greg Jacina.
Syracuse:Goal:Karl Goehring, Pascal Leclaire, Andrew Penner.Defense: Zenith Komarniski, Andre Lakos, Jamie Pushor, Aaron Johnson, Prestin Ryan, Francois Beauchemin, Ole-Kristian Tollefson, Tyler Sloan, Matt Libby. 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, Steve Goertzen.
Pre-game Skate:
Scratched for the Crunch were goaltender Pascal Leclaire (groin), defensemen Jamie Pushor (sick), Andre Lakos (back) and Zenith Komarniski (back), right wings Brandon Sugden (thumb) and Matthias Trattnig (Austrian National Team) along with left wing Mike Pandolfo. The Rampage sat defenseman T.J. Reynolds, left wing Gregory Campbell along with centers Serge Payer and Nathan Horton.
Short Shifts:
Peter Ferraro returned to the Crunch lineup on Wednesday after missing the last three contests battling a stomach flu. Defenseman Prestin Ryan also made his way back into the Syracuse lineup Wednesday evening after sitting out the previous 7 games with an injured shoulder. Ryan was paired for most of the evening with the newest member of the Crunch, Matt Libby………..Left wing Mike Pandolfo was a healthy scratch Wednesday for only the second time this season after going pointless in his last nine games……….With the win Karl Goehring moves into a tie for most wins in Crunch history with Mike Fountain at 54………..With two power play goals on Wednesday Brad Moran is now tied with Lonny Bohonos for second all-time with 35. He now trails Reggie Savage by one goal for first all-time…………The Crunch's top line of Brad Moran, Mark Hartigan and Joe Motzko combined for 6 points on Wednesday.
On Deck:
The Crunch continue this current home stand on Friday when they play host to the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks. In back to back games last weekend in Cincinnati the Crunch earned one of a possible four points against the Ducks after losing 3-2 on Friday and then falling 2-1 in O.T. on Saturday night. Game time Friday evening is set for 7:30 P.M.