Erik Christensen's goal with 1:07 remaining in regulation propelled the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to a 5-4 win over the Syracuse Crunch in an up and down affair at the War Memorial Friday night.
Scoring early has become a welcome habit for the Crunch and they continued that trend Friday night. Off a scrum in the Penguin slot Tim Jackman pounced on a loose puck and flipped a shot over the shoulder of a prone Marc-Andre Fleury for his fifth of the season and early Syracuse advantage.
Later in the period the Penguins evened things up with a goal from Ramzi Abid. The one-time Phoenix Coyote was in the right place at the right time and he one-timed a quick wrist shot past Crunch netminder Karl Goehring for his tenth of the year and a 1-1 game.
The two teams opened the second period by exchanging five-on-three power play goals. Ross Lupaschuk gave the Pens a brief lead when his shot from the point beat Goehring stick side and the Crunch answered with Brad Moran's backdoor tally less than five minutes later to tie things at two.
Syracuse regained the lead just 25 seconds later with its second power play goal of the evening. Thanks to a Tim Jackman screen, Penguin netminder Marc-Andre Fleury never saw Zenith Komarniski's drive from the point and the shot eluded Fleury for the score.
Later in the period, with Jackman in the box serving five minutes for a major high sticking call, Wilkes-Barre evened things at three with yet another power play goal. This time it was Tomas Surovy who banged home a shot from just to the right of the Crunch cage for the tally.
In the third the two teams exchanged goals one last time. Drew Fata's first of the year made it 4-3 Wilkes-Barre before Joe Motzko tied things at four with his seventh of the season at the 13:20 mark.
Just when it appeared this one was headed toward overtime a costly give away in the Crunch zone sent Penguin center Erik Christensen breaking in alone on the Crunch net. Christensen buried the shot top shelf to give the Pens a lead they would not surrender.
Marc-Andre Fleury recorded 40 saves for the Penguins, improving his season mark to 11-4-2-1. Karl Goehring registered 24 saves in a losing effort for the Crunch.
Crunch Ice Pack:
Date:December 17, 2004
Where:War Memorial at Oncenter
Opponent:Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
Attendance:4,083
Boxscore:
First Period-Scoring-1. Syracuse, Jackman 5 (Mauldin, Svitov), 4:47. 2. Wilkes-Barre, Abid 10 (Endicott, Armstrong), 15:58. Penalties-Sgroi, WBS (fighting), 2:25; Sugden, Syr (fighting), 2:25; Lupaschuk, WBS (delay of game), 12:53; Ryan, Syr (interference), 19:19; Lakos, Syr (holding), 19:56.
Second Period-Scoring-3. Wilkes-Barre, Lupaschuk 5 (Beech, Whitney), :57, (pp). 4. Syracuse, Moran 7 (Motzko, Hartigan), 5:25, (pp). 5. Syracuse, Komarniski 2 (Svitov, Mauldin), 5:50, (pp). 6. Wilkes-Barre, Surovy 8 (Beech, Ouellet), 9:13, (pp). Penalties-Koci, WBS (interference), 3:50; Lupaschuk, WBS (slashing), 4:22; Jackman, Syr (major-high-stick), 9:25; Robinson, WBS (tripping), 16:39; Scuderi, WBS (roughing), 18:19; Svitov, Syr (roughing), 19:29.
Third Period-Scoring-7. Wilkes-Barre, Fata 1 (Beech), 7:40. 8. Syracuse, Motzko 7 (Hartigan, Lakos), 13:20, (pp). 9. Wilkes-Barre, Christensen 4 (unassisted), 18:53. Penalties-Armstrong, WBS (high-stick), 9:03; Beech, WBS (elbowing), 12:58.
Shots on Goal:Wilkes-Barre, 4-12-13--29; Syracuse, 14-15-15--44.
Power Play Opportunities:Milwaukee, 2-4; Syracuse, 3-7.
Goalies-Wilkes-Barre, Fleury (11-4-2-1), 44 shots- 40 saves; Syracuse, Goehring (5-7-0-0), 29 shots-24 saves.
Referee-Jeff Smith (49); Linesman- Derek Sylvester (76), Jeff Walker (17).
Three Stars:
1. Kris Beech: Beech centers one of the most dangerous lines in the AHL. Follows up back-to-back four point games with a three assist night on Friday.
2. Alexander Svitov: Finished the night with two assists for the Crunch.
3. Erik Christensen: Notched the game-winner on a giveaway in Crunch zone late in third period. Ironically it was the best gift he could receive on the night of his 21st birthday.
Lineups:
Wilkes-Barre:Goal:Marc-Andre Fleury, Andy Chiodo Defense: Rob Scuderi, David Koci, Chris Kelleher, Darcy Robinson, Ryan Whitney, Ross Lupaschuk, Drew Fata, Alain Nasreddine. Forwards: Michel Ouellet, Colby Armstrong, Kris Beech, Ben Eaves, Shane Endicott, Erik Christensen, Guillaume Lefebvre, Ramzi Abid, Mike Sgroi, Maxime Talbot, Matt Murley, Tomas Surovy, Matt Hussey.
Syracuse:Goal:Karl Goehring, Pascal Leclaire, Andrew Penner.Defense: Zenith Komarniski, Andre Lakos, Jamie Pushor, Aaron Johnson, Prestin Ryan, 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, Brad Moran, Chris Ferraro, Peter Ferraro.
Pre-game Skate:
Scratched for the Crunch were defenseman Jamie Pushor (sick), left wing Matthias Trattnig, goaltender Pascal Leclaire (groin) and center Raffaele Sannitz. Wilkes-Barre sat defensemen Chris Kelleher and Alain Nasreddine and center Maxime Talbot.
Sgroi Latest in Long Line:
All of the Mike Sgroi hype heading into Friday's game proved to be just that, hype. In what promised to be an entertaining bout between Sgroi and the Crunch's resident tough guy Brandon Sugden turned into just another notch in Sugden's belt.
Sugden and Sgroi danced the first time they lined up against each other early in the opening period. Not many punches were thrown, but Sugden did land a hard right, followed by two or three punches that sent Sgroi to the ice after losing his balance.
Sgroi immediately jumped to his feet, which led one to believe that a rematch may be in order, but Sgroi's extremely limited ice time squashed that idea. He only took what appeared to be one shift the entire rest of the contest.
Short Shifts:
Both Peter and Chris Ferraro made their Crunch debuts on Friday. They started the contest skating on a line with Mike Pandolfo, but were given more ice time with different combinations as the game wore on. Crunch Head Coach Gary Agnew limited their ice time somewhat as they work their way back into playing shape in the face of a three games in three nights stretch……… Evgueni Nourislamov also made his 2004 regular season debut against the Pens. He was teamed most of the evening with the veteran Francois Beauchemin…….Karl Goehring stoned Matt Murley on a penalty shot attempt early in the third period. Murley was hauled down on the play after walking around newcomer Nourislamov at the Crunch blue line………..Goehring has now dropped three straight decisions for the Crunch on the heels of a five game winning streak…….By going 3-7 on the power play Friday night the Crunch are now 9-22 their last four games.
On Deck:
Rochester hits town on Saturday to rekindle their long standing rivalry with the Crunch. On Friday the Amerks downed St. John's 3-2 at Blue Cross Arena with three goals from some unlikely candidates. Geoff Peters, Michael Ryan and Chris Thorburn each tallied and Ryan Miller registered 38 saves for the win.