Crunch Earns Point with Shootout Loss in Springfield
Syracuse, NY, (Friday, November 14, 2008)
Springfield, MA (November 14, 2008) – Fourth and fifth round shootout goals from Springfield’s Ryan Potulny and Viacheslav Trukhno prevailed over only Mike York’s first round shootout bid for the Crunch, as Syracuse fell to the Springfield Falcons in a shootout tonight, 2-1, at the MassMutual Center in front of 3,594 fans
It had been two years since the Crunch faced Springfield and these two teams felt each other out for the first half of the first period. Syracuse seemed to be trying to find its legs and took three first period penalties in the process
Springfield started to control the action and was rewarded with a penalty shot when Tim Sestito was brought down on a breakaway from behind, but Crunch starter Dan LaCosta denied his bid with a left pad save to keep the game scoreless.
Although the Falcons did not convert on their power plays, the momentum they built from those man-advantages propelled them to a 1-0 lead with just one minute left in the frame.
Carl Corazzini took a feed from former Crunch member Gilbert Brule, came in down the right side, used a Crunch defenseman as a screen and squeezed one through the pads of LaCosta with a wrister from the right face-off dot.
The Crunch had some quality scoring chances in the second stanza, but were denied time and time again by Springfield starter Devan Dubnyk. Dubnyk had 27 saves through two periods of play and finished with 43 on the evening.
Syracuse stepped it up a level in the third period and tied the contest at the 8:21 mark. After a scramble in front of the Springfield net, Aaron Rome pinched it to find a loose puck in the slot and rifled it by Dubnyk to tie the game at 1-1.
The Crunch had a late power play chance with Mathieu Roy in the box for tripping at 14:34, but again, Dubnyk held his ground to keep the game deadlocked after three periods.
The Crunch controlled most of the action in overtime, although shots were even at one apiece after the five minute extra-session.
CRUNCHABLES: Nikita Filatov had his four game point-scoring streak snapped tonight…Coming into tonight, the Crunch were undefeated in shootuts (2-0) and had tallied on six of eight shootout chances…The Crunch registered a season-high 43 shots on goal tonight…Clay Wilson extended his point-scoring streak to three games (1g, 2a) and now leads the team in scoring with 12 points (6g, 6a), on the campaign…The Crunch faced left wing Tom Sestito’s brother Tim tonight, currently playing for Springfield.