Colby Armstrong scored twice and Matt Hussey added a goal and two helpers to lead the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to a 4-1 win over the Syracuse Crunch in American Hockey League action Friday night.
Syracuse opened the scoring in this one on a goal from defenseman Aaron Johnson. His quick wrist shot from just inside the right wing face-off circle found its way thru traffic and beat Penguin netminder Marc-Andre Fleury for his first goal of the season and an early Crunch advantage.
Wilkes-Barre evened things up later in the period courtesy of their power play unit. Colby Armstrong corralled a loose puck to the right of the Crunch cage, turned and fired a shot from just behind the goal line that deflected off Syracuse netminder Pascal Leclaire and into the net for the score.
Just past the midway point of the second the Pens took their first lead of the night on a pretty goal from Matt Hussey. Streaking into the Crunch zone, Hussey collected a feed from Ryan Whitney, eluded a poke check from Syracuse defenseman Andy Delmore before stick-handling around Leclaire and depositing the puck into the open side.
The Crunch had plenty of opportunities in the second to notch the equalizer, especially with the man advantage. Syracuse received over six straight minutes of power play time, 1:52 of which was five-on-three, but they could not find the answer with the extra man.
The Penguins extended their lead early in the third on the second goal of the night from right wing Colby Armstrong. Leclaire made the initial save on the shot, but could not control the rebound with Tomas Surovy crashing the net and the puck trickled over the goal line for the score.
Center Erik Christensen closed out the scoring for Wilkes-Barre. His wrist shot beat Leclaire high to the glove side for his fifth goal of the season and a final score of 4-1.
Marc-Andre Fleury turned aside 32 of 33 Syracuse shots to move to 3-0 on the season. Pascal Leclaire recorded 26 saves to take the loss in his season debut for the Crunch.
Crunch Ice Pack :
Date:Friday, October 21, 2005
Where:War Memorial at Oncenter
Opponent:Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
Attendance:4,903
Boxscore:
First Period-Scoring-1. Syracuse, Johnson 1 (Simon, Lindstrom), 8:03, (pp). 2. Wilkes-Barre, Armstrong 1 (Surovy, Hussey), 18:41, (pp). Penalties-Welch, WBS (roughing), 5:14; Fleury, WBS (delay of game, served by Corupe), 6:09; Whitney, WBS (roughing), 10:54; Methot, Syr (cross-checking), 10:54; Mauldin, Syr (roughing), 10:54; Mauldin, Syr (interference), 14:18; Johnson, Syr (interference), 17:51.
Second Period-Scoring-3. Wilkes-Barre, Hussey 2 (Whitney), 11:27. Penalties-Carcillo, WBS (high-stick), 10:21; Pushor, WBS (roughing), 10:21; Christensen, WBS (double minor)(high-stick, hooking), 12:35; Nasreddine, WBS (holding), 15:26; Kelleher, WBS (hooking), 16:44.
Third Period-Scoring- 4. Wilkes-Barre, Armstrong 2 (Hussey), 3:14. 5. Wilkes-Barre, Christensen 5 (Lannon), 17:07. Scoring-Penalties-Delmore, Syr (hooking), 3:31; Carcillo, WBS (high stick), 8:50.
Shots on Goal-Wilkes-Barre, 10-10-10----30; Syracuse, 9-16-8---33.
Power Play Opportunities-Wilkes-Barre, 1-4; Syracuse, 1-7.
Goalies-Wilkes-Barre, Fleury (3-0-0), 33 shots-32 saves; Syracuse, Leclaire (0-1-0), 30 shots-26 saves.
Referee-David Banfield (85); Linesmen-Jeffrey Walker (17), Andy Petrus (26).
Three Stars:
1. Marc-Andre Fleury: Wasn’t challenged much, but still did his job turning aside 32 Syracuse shots.
2. Matt Hussey: Notched a gorgeous goal in the second and added a pair of assists.
3. Colby Armstrong: Potted two goals on the night for the Pens.
Lineups:
Penguins:Goal: Marc-Andre Fleury, Dany Sabourin. Defense:Andy Schneider, David Koci, Chris Kelleher, Noah Welch, Ryan Whitney, Ryan Lannon, Alain Nasreddine. Forwards: Michel Ouellet, Colby Armstrong, Stephen Dixon, Ben Eaves, Daniel Carcillo, Kenny Corupe, Erik Christensen, Guillaume Lefebvre, Jonathon Filewich, Ryan Stone, Tomas Surovy, Dennis Bonvie, Matt Hussey.
CrunchGoal:Pascal Leclaire, Andrew PennerDefense: Marc Methot, Mark Flood, Jeff MacMillan, Jamie Pushor, Andy Canzanello, Ole-Kristian Tollefsen, Aaron Johnson, Andy Delmore. Forwards:Tyler Kolarik, Ben Simon, Geoff Platt, Bill Lindsay, Andrew Murray, Peter Sarno, Joe Motzko, Alexandre Picard, Brandon Sugden, Joakim Lindstrom, Greg Mauldin, Jaroslav Balastik.
Pre-Game Skate:
Scratched for the Crunch was center Peter Sarno (wrist), left wing Alexandre Picard and defenseman Jeff MacMillan. The Pens didn’t dress defenseman David Koci along with centers Ben Eaves and Ryan Stone.
Crunch One-Timers:
The Crunch announced prior to Friday’s game that center Peter Sarno will miss up to six weeks with an injured wrist. Sarno reportedly suffered the injury in the Crunch’s opener against Albany………Syracuse dressed seven defenseman on Friday with Andy Canzanello spending some time up front at the forward spot………..Jaroslav Balastik made his AHL and Crunch debut Friday night. He skated on a line for most of the night with Geoff Platt and Joakim Lindstrom and also played the point on the Crunch power play. He recorded five shots on the night and was a -1………Both Mark Hartigan and Steve Goertzen made their 2005 Blue Jackets debut in Columbus’4-1 win over San Jose. Hartigan received 11:04 of ice time and finished the evening a +1 while Goertzen was on the ice for 9:55 and was even.
From the Hangar :
The Dayton Bombers fell in their season opener 6-5 to the Toledo Storm. Former Crunch player Scooter Smith assisted on the tying goal with less than three minutes to play and then notched the game-winner with 36 seconds to go in the third. Smith finished the game with a five-point night for the Storm.
Crunch training camp participants Brett Nowak tallied a goal and two assists for Dayton and Jeff Szwez and Brian Gornick each scored once for the Bombers. Michael Ayers took the loss for Dayton.
On Deck:
Rochester comes to town on Saturday to renew hostilities with the Crunch. On Friday the Amerks downed the Cleveland Barons 8-4 behind five goals from Jason Pominville. Veteran Chris Taylor chipped in with six assists and Derek Roy had a five-point night (1g, 4a). The Amerks were 5-6 on the power play in the game. The puck drops at 7:30 on Saturday.