Crunch Shut Out by Baby Pens
Syracuse, NY, (Wednesday, November 19, 2008)
Wilkes-Barre, PA (November 19, 2008) – The Syracuse Crunch were shut out for the first time all season by the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins tonight, 3-0, at Wachovia Arena in front of 6,117 fans.
Playing each other for the second time in four nights, the Crunch and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton wasted no time feeling each other out as the two clubs traded power play opportunities within the first five minutes of the opening frame.
Neither team converted, but the Baby Pens put Crunch starter Dan LaCosta to the test, peppering him with five shots on the man-advantage and nine overall in the period. LaCosta robbed Penguins sniper Jeff Taffe with a quick glove save with less than 10 minutes to play in the first.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton starter Adam Berkhoel showed that he was equal to the task, as he denied 10 first period Syracuse bids including a diving right arm save on Adam Pineault’s backhander late in the stanza.
The Penguins came out hard in the second period and drew a holding infraction on Pineault just one minute in. Although not credited with a power play goal, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton tallied the game’s first marker just six seconds after its man-advantage had expired.
Luca Caputi made a nifty play when he skated in to the left of LaCosta, stopped short and turned to face the front of the net, shaking off a Crunch defender in the process. Caputi’s centering feed found a streaking Ryan Stone, who one-timed it past LaCosta for his fifth of the year.
That was one of the many quality scoring opportunities Wilkes-Barre/Scranton had in the second, but once again LaCosta was stellar, denying chance after chance, including two highlight-reel stops.
The first came on a boomer from the top of the left circle from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Janne Pesonen. LaCosta blocked the shot through a screen and then acrobatically batted the puck out of mid-air with his paddle as it was coming down towards the goal.
His second came on a shorthanded penalty shot, when Crunch defenseman Andrey Plekhanov had trouble handling the puck at the point which sent Dustin Jeffrey was off to the races before Plekhanov pulled him down from behind, resulting in the ruling.
Jeffrey came in on an angle from the right side, cut to the middle and made a move to his forehand before being stuffed by the right pad of LaCosta to keep it a 1-0 game.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton kept the pressure coming in the third period and went up by a 2-0 score just four minutes into the frame.
A miscommunication between Crunch defensemen led to a shorthanded breakaway for Connor James. James skated in and shot a puck that LaCosta got a piece of, but just trickled between his pads and over the line.
Crunch head coach Ross Yates pulled LaCosta for an extra skater with a minute and a half to go, but Syracuse could not manage to put up a marker.
The Penguins were awarded a goal when Dave Gove was impeded while trying to score on a clear path the empty net to make it a 3-0 final.
CRUNCHABLES: The Crunch has entered the third period tied or down a goal in 14 of 17 games this season…Syracuse’s five-game points streak came to an end tonight…Tonight’s shorthanded goal against is the first the Crunch has given up all season…Jonathan Sigalet’s 11-game streak without registering a negative plus-minus rating came to an end tonight...When scoring less than two goals the Crunch is 0-4-0-1.