Geoff Platt recorded two goals and an assist and Mike Ayers turned aside 31 Albany shots to lead the Syracuse Crunch to a 5-1 win over the Chicago Wolves in American Hockey League action Friday night.
The Crunch opened the scoring in this one just over four minutes in on a shorthanded marker from Mark Hartigan. Geoff Platt sent Hartigan breaking in alone on the Wolves net with a nice feed and Hartigan did the rest, beating Chicago netminder Michael Garnett high blocker side for the score.
The Crunch extended their lead later in the first on a goal from Andrew Murray. The rookie forward did an excellent job of shielding Wolves defender Mark Popovic from the puck with his body and flipped a backhand off the shoulder of Garnett for his fourth of the season and a 2-0 Syracuse lead.
In the second the Crunch were able to increase their lead on a goal from standout rookie Geoff Platt. With the Crunch holding a two man advantage, fellow first-year forward Alexander Picard, hit Platt with a nifty cross crease pass and Platt one-timed the feed past Garnett for his team leading 12th goal of the season.
Platt struck on the power play again in the third, this time off a pretty pass from forward Joakim Lindstrom. Platt controlled the pass and beat Garnett high short side to give the Crunch a four-goal cushion.
Braydon Coburn’s goal at the 7:28 mark of the third, off a deflection, spoiled Ayers’ shutout bid before Ben Simon closed things out with an empty net tally late for the 5-1 final. The win snaps the Crunch’s five-game losing streak.
Crunch Ice Pack
Date:Friday, November 11, 2005
Where:War Memorial at Oncenter
Opponent:Chicago Wolves
Attendance:5, 479
Boxscore:
First Period-Scoring-1. Syracuse, Hartigan 4 (Platt), 4:30, (sh). 2. Syracuse, Murray 4 (Pushor), 12:03. Penalties-Methot, Syr (boarding), 1:10; Murray, Syr (tripping), 3:22; Morrison, Chi (hooking), 5:39; Stewart, Chi (diving), 9:27; Barney, Chi (boarding), 19:23.
Second Period-Scoring-3. Syracuse, Platt 11 (Picard, Hartigan), 12:50, (pp). Penalties-Maloney, Chi (hooking), 5:03; Tamer, Chi (hooking), 6:26; Popovic, Chi (interference), 11:07; Kloucek, Chi (hooking), 11:16; Tollefsen, Syr (roughing), 13:47; Abid, Chi (hooking), 14:41; Stewart, Chi (boarding), 17:05; Wedderburn, Chi (hooking), 18:42.
Third Period-Scoring-4. Syracuse, Platt 12 (Lindstrom, Johnson), 4:03, (pp). 5. Chicago, Coburn 2 (Ross, Stewart), 7:28. 6. Syracuse, Simon 3 (Johnson), 18:16, (en/sh). Penalties-Kloucek, Chi (roughing), 2:06; Coburn, Syr (tripping), 3:32; Canzanello, Syr (tripping), 4:50; Nowak, Syr (holding), 7:51; Kolarik, Syr (interference), 14:02; Murray, Syr (tripping), 14:42; Pushor, Syr (interference), 16:55; Maloney, Chi (boarding), 18:16.
Shots on Goal-Chicago, 7-9-16---32; Syracuse, 9-12-9---30 .
Power Play Opportunities-Chicago, 0-8; Syracuse, 2-13.
Goalies-Chicago, Garnett (0-1-2), 29 shots-25 saves; Syracuse, Ayers (2-1-0), 32 shots-31 saves.
Referee-Scott Hoberg (46); Linesmen-Fraser McIntyre (62), Tim Kotyra (53).
Three Stars:
1. Geoff Platt: The rookie just continues to produce. Finishes the night with a goal and two assists.
2. Mike Ayers: Ayers has been solid so far in relief of Leclaire and Penner and Friday night was another prime example of that.
3. Mark Hartigan: Harty adds a goal and an assist for a two-point night.
I Hear Voices:
“It was one of those shots that had eyes of its own. It was a very tight space to go into and luckily enough it hit the back of the net.” ---Geoff Platt on his second goal Friday night.
“We worked so hard this past week addressing all the things that we needed to work on and it seemed like we did a lot of those things well tonight.” ---Platt on the week heading into Friday’s game.
“For him to come in and put on the kind of performance and essentially stand on his head for a couple of great saves that turned the hockey game around. That you won’t see on the score sheet, but we will take notice big time as a team.” ---Platt on the play of goaltender Mike Ayers.
“You have to be good to be lucky and lucky to be good.” ---Platt on how on numerous occasions Ayers was all over the crease making improbable saves.
“I got a bit of a turnover and I was just taking it to the net. I wasn’t really picking a corner, I was trying to fend off one of their defensemen and just kind of threw it on net.” ---Andrew Murray on his goal in the first period.
“It is a good opportunity for me. Obviously they have two great goalies here, but it is a good opportunity for me to kind of showcase a little bit and play my game.” ---Mike Ayers on his opportunity with Crunch.
“I have never been the must fundamentally sound goalie in terms of movement and I am not the biggest guy in the world so I just try to do everything I can to keep the puck out of the net.” ---Ayers on some of his acrobatic saves throughout Friday’s game.
Lineups:
Wolves:Goal:Michael Garnett, Tuomas Tarkki. Defense: Chris Tamer, Tomas Kloucek, Brian Sipotz, Mark Popovic, Jimmy Sharrow, Tim Wedderburn, Nick Naumenko, Braydon Coburn, Travis Roche. Forwards: Karl Stewart, Pat Dwyer, Kip Miller, Ramzi Abid, Justin Morrison, Francis Lessard, Brian Maloney, Kevin Doell, Adam Smyth, Colin Stuart, Derek MacKenzie, Stephen Baby, Jared Ross, Scott Barney.
Crunch:Goal:Mike Ayers, Patrick DesRochers, Pascal Leclaire, Andrew Penner Defense: Marc Methot, Jeff MacMillan, Jamie Pushor, Andy Canzanello, Ole-Kristian Tollefsen, Aaron Johnson, Andy Delmore. Forwards: Mark Hartigan, Tyler Kolarik, Ben Simon, Geoff Platt, Andrew Murray, Peter Sarno, Joe Motzko, Alexandre Picard, Brandon Sugden, Joakim Lindstrom, Greg Mauldin, Jaroslav Balastik, Brett Nowak.
Pre-Game Skate:
Scratched for the Crunch were goaltenders Pascal Leclaire (hip) and Andrew Penner (knee), center Peter Sarno (wrist), right wing Joe Motzko (flu) and defenseman Andy Delmore (back). The Wolves sat right wings Pat Dwyer and Stephen Baby, center Derek MacKenzie and defenseman Travis Roche.
Crunch One-Timers:
On Friday the Crunch announced that they have signed goaltender Patrick DesRochers to a P.T.O. DesRochers, a veteran of 245 AHL games, appeared in 34 games last season with San Antonio of the AHL, going 8-19-1 with a 3.19 goals against average………...The Crunch scored four times via their special teams on Friday, two on the power play and two shorthanded………Greg Mauldin made an highlight reel play in the third period Friday night using his blazing speed to split two Chicago defenders, but couldn’t finish on the play. Despite that fact it was still fun to watch……….Any doubt how Head Coach Gary Agnew felt about the Crunch’s start this season should be erased by his actions this week. Agnew turned up the intensity a notch all week in practice and then he was easily the most vocal he has been in some time behind the Crunch bench Friday night. On numerous occasions in the game Agnew’s voice could be heard quite clearly all the way up in the press box high above the War Memorial ice………….The Lemoyne Hockey team will be playing at the War Memorial prior to the Crunch’s game this coming Saturday versus the Rochester Americans. The Dolphins will take on Daemen College at 3:00 P.M. and tickets are available at the box office and also thru any Lemoyne player.
From the Hangar :
The Bombers lost 7-4 on Friday to the Reading Royals. Brian Gornick extended his season-opening point streak to eight games with his 6th goal of the year and rookie defenseman Mark Flood recorded his first professional goal in the Dayton defeat. Newly acquired netminder Chad Collins took the loss for the Bombers, who were out shot 42-25 in the contest. With the loss Dayton falls to 3-5 on the season.
On Deck:
The Crunch hit the road on Saturday for the first of three straight away from home. Their first foe is the Albany River Rats. Saturday will mark the second meeting between the two clubs with the Crunch taking game one 5-3 back on the October 8th. On Friday Albany lost 6-4 to the Hershey Bears with Tuomas Pihlman recording a hat trick for the River Rats. Game time Saturday evening is set for 7:00 P.M. The game 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.