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Crunch Maul Marlies to Take Game One
Syracuse, NY, (Saturday, May 3, 2008)
Toronto, ON (May 2, 2008) – The Syracuse Crunch defeated the Toronto Marlies tonight, 5-1 at Ricoh Coliseum in front of 2,931 fans to draw first blood in their best-of-seven North Division Final Series.
The tone for the series was set three seconds into the game when, right off the opening face-off, Crunch captain Zenon Konopka squared off with Toronto’s Colin Murphy.
Konopka seemed to spark his team, as the Crunch struck first just 1:37 later. Gilbert Brule sent a bouncing pass to Derek MacKenzie positioned in the slot. MacKenzie was able to corral the puck and roof the skipping biscuit past Scott Clemmensen to the top corner to give the Crunch an early 1-0 advantage.
The game was delayed for several minutes six minutes in to repair a piece of glass in the right corner behind Clemmensen. Just seconds prior to that, Toronto’s Derrick Walser was ushered off for hooking, but the Crunch failed to capitalize on the ensuing power play.
Syracuse kept the momentum going when Clay Wilson took advantage of a Michel Leveille turnover behind his own net. Leveille gave the puck away and the disc squirted into the slot. Wilson pounced on the loose puck, skated in a few strides and stepped into a slapper that he rifled past Clemmensen to put the Crunch up 2-0.
The Crunch came out storming in the second stanza and took a 3-0 lead on the power play halfway through the period after a tremendous right pad save on a shorthanded 2-on-1 by Karl Goehring on Ben Ondrus.
Just seconds after that, the Crunch came down the ice and Nate DiCasmirro redirected a Derek MacKenzie shot past Clemmensen for his second of the post-season.
The three-goal Crunch lead did not last long when, with David Cullen in the box for interference, former captain and current Crunch nemesis David Ling fired home a shot from the point that found its way through a screen and the body of Goerhring to make it 3-1.
The Crunch recaptured their three-goal advantage when Trevor Frischmon picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and broke in 2-on-1 with Mark Rycroft. Frischmon skated wide and sent a feed right to the tape of Rycroft who slid it past Clemmensen to make it 4-1 in favor of Syracuse.
The Crunch made it 5-1 just two and a half minutes later when Wilson sent a rising shot from the point that hit Clemmensen up high, bounced down and was stuffed in by Derick Brassard on the doorstep.
Goehring slammed the door shut the rest of the way, making one acrobatic save after another to deny Toronto another tally. He finished with 31 saves in the game.
CRUNCHABLES: The Crunch set an all-time AHL record by winning all four games of their North Division Semifinal Series vs. Manitoba in overtime…Syracuse is 4-1 when allowing the first goal of the game in the playoffs…15 different players recorded at least a point in their first round series against Manitoba…Derick MacKenzie extended his playoff point-scoring streak to four games…Derick Brassard and Nate DiCasmirro extended their playoff point-scoring streaks to three games.