Pascal Leclaire recorded 36 saves and the Crunch received goals from Mark Flood and Jaroslav Balastik to down the Rochester Americans 2-0 in American Hockey League action Saturday night.
After a scoreless first period the Crunch jumpstarted their offense in a hurry in the middle twenty with two goals in a span 22 seconds. Rookie defenseman Mark Flood, fresh off a two-goal game last night for the Dayton Bombers in Reading, got things rolling at the 3:21 mark of the period. His innocent looking wrist shot from the point found its way thru traffic and behind Rochester goaltender Michael Leighton for his first American League goal.
Moments later Jaroslav Balastik’s third goal of the season made it 2-0 Crunch. Balastik, off a nice play from Mike Rupp, broke in the Rochester zone and fired a shot that found its way between the arm and body of Leighton for the score.
The Crunch retained their two-goal cushion heading into the final twenty minutes and played a solid third period to preserve the victory. Syracuse did exactly what you want to do when protecting a lead late. They kept things simple and outside of a few untimely penalties late, played almost flawlessly in the period.
The Crunch finishes their three games in three nights stretch earning four of a possible six points. Quite an accomplishment considering the number of new faces Syracuse was forced to play with.
Crunch Ice Pack :
Date: Saturday, November 19, 2005
Where: War Memorial at Oncenter
Opponent: Rochester Americans
Attendance:
6,259
Boxscore:
First Period-Scoring-No Scoring. Penalties-Janik, Roc (interference), :40; Verot, Syr (unsportsmanlike), :40; MacMillan, Syr (high-stick), 2:35; Lindstrom, Syr (holding), 5:12; Verot, Syr (slashing), 8:04; Thorburn, Roc (hooking), 15:02; Rupp, Syr (roughing), 18:05; Ryan, Roc (holding), 19:40.
Second Period-Scoring-1. Syracuse, Flood 1 (Johnson, Rupp), 3:59. 2. Syracuse, Balastik 3 (Rupp), 4:21. Penalties-Mancari, Roc (fighting), 1:21; Nowak, Syr (fighting), 1:21; Thorburn, Roc (tripping), 4:55; Swanson, Roc (roughing), 10:46; Kolarik, Syr (roughing), 10:46; Motzko, Syr (hooking), 12:28; Kolarik, Syr (holding), 19:45.
Third Period-Scoring-No Scoring. Penalties-Swanson, Roc (holding the stick), 8:24; Nowak, Syr (tripping), 12:01; Kolarik, Syr (hooking), 16:25.
Shots on Goal-Rochester, 9-14-13---36; Syracuse, 6-17-4---27.
Power Play Opportunities-Rochester, 0-8; Syracuse, 0-4.
Goalies-Rochester, Leighton (5-5-0), 27 shots-25 saves; Syracuse, Leclaire (2-3-0), 36 shots-36 saves.
Referee-Bob Langdon (37); Linesmen-Jim Harper (59), Brian Lemon (25).
Three Stars:
1. Pascal Leclaire: What a welcome sign for the Crunch. Pascal Leclaire healthy and meeting expectations with some fine play.
2. Mike Rupp: Rupp picked up two points on the night giving him three points in three games with the Crunch. What an addition he will be if he hangs around for a while.
3. Ole-Kristian Tollefsen: What a force Tollefsen has become and how about that hip check on Michael Ryan. Tollefsen just may be the best hitter in the American League.
I Hear Voices:
“There are a lot of guys called up from Dayton right now and those guys are coming up and giving us great energy. This is their chance for them to come up and try to prove themselves and make it hard for the coaches to send them back down.” ---Defenseman Jeff MacMillan on the Crunch winning with plenty of fresh faces.
“I don’t belong down there, but if I get the chance I just have to be smart on how I treat it when I am down there.” ----MacMillan on his numerous forays into the Rochester zone.
“The coach has just put a challenge out to us as far as battling and trying to shut down the other teams top lines and just outworking and out competing teams and that is what we have been doing lately.” ---MacMillan on taking four of six points this weekend.
“They have a lot of skilled guys, a lot of guys who can shot the puck. They always have a good aggressive team and they played well, but we played well too.” ---Pascal Leclaire on his shutout on Saturday.
“Since the second game in Grand Rapids, when I came in when Andrew got hurt, I have felt a lot better. It was tough coming back, my timing was way off, but I think I am good now.” ---Leclaire on his play since returning from to the Syracuse lineup.
“I got a ‘d’ to ‘d’ pass from Johnson and just tried to put it in net, not really shooting to score, just kind of looking for a rebound, and Rupp made a good screen in front and it was fortunate to go in.” ---Mark Flood on his goal in the second period.
“I feel that down in Dayton I have been playing quite a bit and feeling good with the puck and I got a couple good shots off last night. Tonight was probably more of a lucky one.” ---Flood on scoring three goals in two different leagues on back-to-back nights.
Lineups:
Amerks: Goal:Jean-Marc Pelletier, Michael Leighton. Defense: Jeff Jillson, Doug Janik, Nathan Paetsch, Sylvain Dufresne,
Martin Lojek, Brandon Smith, Dan Focht, Jeremy Swanson, David Cullen. Forwards:
Drew Larman, Stefan Meyer, Jason Pominville, Chris
Thorburn, Michael Ryan, Rob Globke, Matt Hendricks, Daniel Paille, Sean
McMorrow, Jiri Novotny, Mark Mancari, Kamil Kreps, Clarke MacArthur.
Crunch: Goal: Mike Ayers, Pascal Leclaire. Defense: Marc
Methot, Jeff MacMillan, Jamie Pushor, Andy Canzanello, Ole-Kristian
Tollefsen, Aaron Johnson, Andy Delmore, Mark Flood. Forwards: Michael
Rupp, Tyler Kolarik, Darcy Verot, Geoff Platt, Andrew Murray, Peter Sarno,
Joe Motzko, Brandon Sugden, Joakim Lindstrom, Greg Mauldin, Jaroslav
Balastik, Brett Nowak, Brian Gornick.
Pre-Game Skate:
Scratched for the Crunch were defensemen Marc Methot (hand) and Andy Delmore (back), center Peter Sarno (wrist) along with right wing Brandon Sugden (concussion). The Amerks didn’t dress defensemen Sylvain Dufresne, Martin Lojek and Brandon Smith, left wing Dan Paille and right wing Sean McMorrow.
Crunch One-Timers:
Prior to the game the Crunch announced that they have recalled defenseman Mark Flood from Dayton of the ECHL. Flood has appeared in nine games with the Bombers, recording three goals, three assists and six penalty minutes…….Right wing Joe Motzko returned to the Crunch lineup on Saturday after missing the last four games with pneumonia…….With a goal on Saturday Jaroslav Balastik now has points in three of his last four games………By going 0-4 on the power play Saturday night the Crunch snapped a streak of four straight games with at least one goal with the man advantage………Former Crunch fan favorite Duvie Westcott recorded his first NHL goal in Columbus’ 6-3 loss to Dallas on Friday.
From the Hangar :
On Friday the Bombers lost to the Reading Royals 6-3. Current Crunch defenseman Mark Flood recorded two goals and Andrew Penner recorded 34 saves in a losing effort for Dayton. Former Syracuse forward Mike Pandolfo potted one goal and added an assist for Reading.
Saturday evening the Bombers rebounded with a 4-3 win at home over Stockton. Tim Konsorada scored once and added a pair of assists while Jeff Szwez notched the game-winner for Dayton. Andrew Penner recorded 35 saves to pick up his first ECHL win this season.
On Deck:
The Crunch is off until Thursday when they head to Binghamton for a Thanksgiving Day tilt. Game time is set for 6:05 P.M. and it can be heard locally on 620 WHEN and nationwide via the internet at www.syracusecrunch.com. It also can be streamed live on the internet courtesy of the B2 Network.