Syracuse’s top line of Peter Sarno, Mark Hartigan and Joe Motzko combined for nine points as the Crunch overcame a three-goal deficit and came from behind to down the Toronto Marlies 4-3 in the American Hockey League on Saturday night.
Toronto opened the scoring in this one, converting two five-on-three power play opportunities in a span of 37 seconds to take control early. Center John Pohl put the Marlies on the board when he deflected a Brendan Bell drive past Crunch netminder Martin Prusek for a 1-0 lead.
Moments later former Crunch winger Brad Leeb notched his third goal of the season, giving Toronto a two-goal advantage. Prusek was able to stop the Marlies first offering, but couldn’t control the rebound and Leeb swept the loose rubber behind Prusek for the score.
Early in the second the Marlies made it 3-0 on a goal from forward Ben Ondrus. Again Prusek made the initial save, but Ondrus was right there to slip the rebound by Prusek for a commanding Toronto lead.
Just over two minutes later the Crunch began to mount their comeback by notching their first power play goal of the season. Joe Motzko batted home a cross crease feed from Peter Sarno for his first of the season and a 3-1 game.
Later in the second the Crunch cut Toronto’s lead to one on a clutch goal from rookie sensation Geoff Platt. Andy Delmore ignited the play by carrying the puck deep in the Toronto zone and unleashing a shot on the Toronto cage. That shot never made it to the net, but Platt was there to put home the loose puck for his team leading third goal of the season.
Down a goal with twenty minutes to play, the Crunch’s top trio took over from there. Peter Sarno tied it up at the 7:08 mark of the period when he slipped a backhand five-hole on Toronto goaltender J.F. Racine. With Sarno camped behind the Marlie net, Joe Motzko wrapped a pass around the boards, springing him for the score.
Later in the third that line teamed up yet again to score what would turn out to be the game-winning goal. Mark Hartigan got things rolling by knocking down a Toronto clearing attempt in the high slot. Harty gained control of the puck and slipped a nifty pass to Sarno all alone to the right of Racine. From there Sarno did the rest, easily depositing the puck into the open side for a 4-3 Syracuse lead.
Martin Prusek went the distance for the Crunch, recording 29 saves in picking up his second win of the season. J.F. Racine turned aside 35 shots in a losing effort for the Marlies.
Crunch Ice Pack :
Date:Saturday, October 15, 2005
Where:War Memorial at Oncenter
Opponent:Toronto Marlies
Attendance:5,051
Boxscore:
First Period-Scoring-1. Toronto, Pohl 3 (Bell, Kronwell), 8:54, (pp). 2. Toronto, Leeb 3 (Pohl, Battaglia), 9:31, (pp). Penalties-Harrison, Tor (roughing), :23; Brown, Tor (minor, major)(tripping, fighting), 7:43; Sugden, Syr (minor,major, misconduct) (instigating, fighting), 7:43; Tollefsen, Syr (interference, roughing), 8:21; Simon, Syr (cross-check), 9:39; Hartigan, Syr (slashing), 14:29; Ondrus, Tor (boarding), 15:37; Murphy, Tor (fighting), 18:29; Goertzen, Syr (fighting), 18:29.
Second Period-Scoring-3. Toronto, Ondrus 1 (D’Amour, Newbury), 6:50. 4. Syracuse, Motzko 1 (Sarno, Hartigan), 8:59, (pp). 5. Syracuse, Platt 3 (Lindstrom, Delmore), 18:39. Penalties-D’Amour, Tor (roughing), 1:41; Mitchell, Tor (tripping), 7:00; Murphy, Tor (hooking), 10:37; Bell, Tor (holding), 14:09; Newbury, Tor (holding), 16:30; St. Jacques, Tor (roughing), 20:00; Kronwell, Tor (roughing), 20:00; Tollefsen, Syr (roughing), 20:00; Hartigan, Syr (roughing), 20:00.
Third Period-Scoring-6. Syracuse, Sarno 1 (Motzko, Hartigan), 7:08. 7. Syracuse, Sarno 2 (Hartigan, Motzko), 15:14. Penalties-Johnson, Syr (roughing), :35; Delmore, Syr (slashing), 2:35; Engelhardt, Tor (tripping), 11:43.
Shots on Goal-Toronto, 10-10-12---32; Syracuse, 11-18-10---39.
Power Play Opportunities-Toronto, 2-6; Syracuse, 1-8.
Goalies-Toronto, Racine (0-2-0), 39 shots-35 saves; Syracuse, Prusek (2-1-0), 32 shots-29 saves.
Referee-David Banfield (85); Linesmen-Jim Harper (59), Mike Emanatian (69).
Three Stars:
1. Peter Sarno: As line mate Mark Hartigan exited the Crunch dressing room he shouted “your welcome” to Sarno. Sneaky feeling Sarno will return the favor numerous times this season.
2. Joe Motzko: Put the Crunch on the board in the second, finished the night with 1 goal and 2 assists.
3. Mark Hartigan: Another highlight reel play by Harty in the slot. The former St. Cloud Husky is primed to just blow-up this season.
I Hear Voices:
“Tonight it was our lines time to shine. When we got the opportunity to play five on five hockey were we fortunate enough to get some goals and help out the team.” ---Peter Sarno on his lines big night.
“I think that is our line gelling. I think maybe in the first two games Motzko would not have known that I was behind the net there. He threw it around and I was actually looking to pass and I saw that they gave me the lane and I just took what they gave me.” ---Sarno on his first goal of the third period.
“That was a no-brainer. That was all him. Usually I am the giving end of those plays, but hey for once I was in the right spot at the right time and he made a hell of a pass.” ---Sarno on his game-winner.
“It is a big character builder for this team, especially with us having a week off here. If we would have lost back-to-back against a team in our division it would have been a tough week.” ---Sarno on the importance of Saturday’s win.
“I felt like I was fresh at the beginning, but I think the time off got to me a little bit towards the end of the game. I was starting to get a little tired, but we were lucky enough to get those goals and it kind of gave us some energy.” ---New Crunch blueliner Andy Delmore on his first game with the Crunch.
“The familiarity will grow. A little more practice, a couple more games, but I thought we moved it around pretty good.” ---Delmore on the play of the power play unit.
“This is more than I ever expected. To be putting this many pucks in the net already is I think, a good achievement on my part and hopefully I can continue to keep this ball rolling.” ---Rookie Geoff Platt on his super start to the season.
Lineups:
Marlies: Goal:Jean-Sebastien Aubin, Jean-Francois Racine. Defense:Brad Brown, Dominic D’Amour, Ian White, Carlo Colaiacovo, Brendan Bell, Marc Moro, Jay Harrison, Tyson Marsh, Staffan Kronwell. Forwards: Bates Battaglia, Tyler Beechey, Roman Kukumberg, Kris Newbury, Brett Engelhardt, Jeremy Williams, John Pohl, Ian MacNeil, Ben Ondrus, Mike Hoffman, Brad Leeb, Colin Murphy, Martin Sagat, Jan Steber, John Mitchell, Chris St, Jacques.
Crunch: Goal:Martin Prusek, Andrew PennerDefense: Marc Methot, Mark Flood, Jeff MacMillan, Jamie Pushor, Andy Canzanello, Ole-Kristian Tollefsen, Aaron Johnson, Andy Delmore. Forwards:Mark Hartigan, Ben Simon, Geoff Platt, Bill Lindsay, Andrew Murray, Steven Goertzen, Peter Sarno, Joe Motzko, Alexandre Picard, Brandon Sugden, Joakim Lindstrom, Greg Mauldin.
Pre-Game Skate:
Scratched for the Crunch were center Andrew Murray and defensemen Andy Canzanello and Jeff MacMillan. The Marlies didn’t dress defensemen Ian White, Carlo Colaiacovo and Tyson Marsh, left wings Martin Sagat and Tyler Beechey along with centers Jan Steber, Jeremy Williams and Roman Kukumberg.
Crunch One-Timers:
Andy Delmore made his Crunch debut on Saturday. Wearing number 55, he was paired with Ole-Kristian Tollefsen for most of the evening and played the point of the Crunch’s top power play unit..………Defenseman Mark Flood also made his regular season debut on Saturday after being a healthy scratch in Syracuse’s first three contests…………….The Crunch finally scored on the power play on Saturday and they almost didn’t even get that one. Joe Motzko’s goal in the second period came with 1 second remaining on John Mitchell’s tripping call………….Look for some movement in the Crunch’s goaltending situation to come sometime this week as Martin Prusek’s conditioning stint is scheduled to run out on Wednesday……………Saturday’s game was delayed briefly early in the first period when some lights above the ice went out. They were quickly restored and play resumed………….The Crunch announced on Thursday that their February 15th game against the Binghamton Senators will be played at the Utica Memorial Auditorium in Utica. The game, which is a Binghamton home game, marks the first American Hockey League regular season game to be played in Utica since 1996.
On Deck:
The Crunch is off until next weekend when they will play host to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Friday and the Rochester Americans on Saturday. Both nights start time is slated for 7:30 P.M.