With an outstanding, all-around,
defensive effort backstopped by goaltender J.F. Labbe's 18 saves,
Mathieu Darche and Kent McDonell each scoring a pair, the Crunch
spotted the Penguins two goals and then scored five unanswered to
record a 5 to 2 victory before a crowd of 3,971.
The Penguins opened the scoring at 11:50 of the first period during a
5 on 3 power play when rightwing Tom Kostopoulous scored his third of
the season with assists to Rob Scuderi and Peter Latchuk. At
13:05, Crunch leftwing Jeremy Reich and Pen's D Ross Lupaschuk dropped
the gloves with Reich providing the excitement by shifting hands three
times during the bout to score a clear-cut victory. Just 41
seconds later, a scrum started behind the Pen's goal with Syracuse's
Jody Shelley and McDonell getting into a shoving match with Pen's
David Koci, Darcy Verot, and Brandon Buckley as a delayed penalty was
being called against the Pens. The main event, however, occurred
at the blue line as defenseman Andrei Sryubko and Pen's captain Jason
MacDonald engaged in this game's second bout with Sryubko getting the
decision with a takedown. At 17:06, Shelley and Penguin's
enforcer Steve Parsons dropped the gloves and after some jousting,
Shelley knocked off Parsons' helmet and landed the only solid punch of
the fight. Martin Sonnenberg gave the Pen's a 2-0 lead with a
power play goal at 18:53, assisted by Ratchuk and Scuderi. The
period ended by that score with the Pens outshooting the Crunch 10 to
7.
In the second, the Crunch got on the board at the 10:28 mark as Darche
scored, assisted by Martin Peroulek and Brad Moran. The Syracuse
"crashline" of Shelley, McDonell, and center Blake
Bellefeuille continued their strong play with McDonell scoring his
first of the season, assisted by She4lley and Bellefeuille, following
a strong fore-checking effort in the Pen's zone at the 14:34 mark.
Darche closed the period in scoring at the 17:15 mark on the
power play, assisted by Matt Davidson and Brett Harkins. The
Crunch also took over the SOG lead 18 to 17.
The teams returned to the ice to start the third period, finding the
surface had not been cleaned due to mechanical problems with the
Zamboni. At 14:22 of the third, Crunch D Darrel Scoville scored
his first, unassisted, following another solid forechecking effort by
the crashline. Sryubko and MacDonald engaged in their second
bout of the game at the 15:24 mark with Sryubko having the upper hand
until MacDonald's jersey came off. The bout was a draw;
although, MacDonald earned a game misconduct for not having his
fighter's strap hooked up. Just five seconds later, David Ling
and Verot had a very spirited bout near the Crunch blue line with lots
of punches thrown by both players. Ling, with a clear decision,
out punching his opponent and scoring the knockdown. Ling had
tried to get Verot to fight in the second period, with Ling dropping
his gloves and stick, grabbing Verot, but Verot wanting nothing to do
with it at that time. McDonell closed the scoring at the 18:33
mark with an unassisted power play goal for his second of the game and
season. The final score was 5 to 2 with the Crunch outshooting
the Pens 26 to 20. The Pens were 2 of 6 on the power play while
the Crunch were 2 of 5.
Sryubko was named defenseman of the game, Darche third star, McDonell
second star, and Bellefeuille first star.
The Crunch host the Norfolk Admirals this evening with game time at
7:30.
review by KC
|
|