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Game Notes: 1/02/08 v. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
Crunch Tricked by Penguins
Wilkes-Barre, PA (January 2, 2008) – The Syracuse Crunch fell to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins tonight, 6-3 at Wachovia Arena in front of 6,817 fans. A hat-trick from the Penguins’ Chris Minard proved to be the difference.
The pace of this game was fast right from the opening face-off. Veteran Crunch defenseman Dan Smith tallied the game’s first goal just about eight minutes into the period. Smith took a feed from Zenon Konopka at the left point and sent a harmless wrist shot to the net that found the back of the twine to give the Crunch a 1-0 advantage. The goal was Smith’s first of the season.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton bounced back after the early Crunch goal just three and a half minutes later. Mark Letestu went to the net and found a rebound of a Jonathan Filewich shot. He slid the rebound past Crunch starter Craig Kowalski to tie the game 1-1. The goal was Letestu’s first of the year.
The Penguins controlled most of the action for the rest of the frame, but were not able to convert on a few quality scoring chances.
The Crunch would re-take the lead only 2:39 into the second stanza when Steven Goertzen tallied a short-handed goal. Curry tried to come out and play the puck but Goertzen swooped in, stole the puck and was able to slide a wraparound try under Curry’s pads as the Penguins netminder dove back to the net.
After that goal Wilkes-Barre/Scranton took over and would pile on the next four goals unanswered.
Chris Minard and Ryan Stone scored back-to-back power play tallies at the 3:25 and 4:33 marks to give the Penguins their first lead of the game.
Tim Wallace notched his sixth of the year at the 11:25 mark when he beat Kowalski to the stick side with a wrister from the slot to give Wilkes-Barre/Scranton a 4-2 lead. That goal prompted a goaltending change as Karl Goehring came in to replace Kowalski.
The Baby Pens would go up 5-2 when Chris Minard scored his second goal of the game by jamming in a loose puck through a pile up in front of Goehring with just over two minutes to go in the period. After the whistle Smith and Kurtis McLean were sent off for fighting and Aaron Rome received a roughing penalty and a ten-minute misconduct. The goal was Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s third power play marker of the frame.
Syracuse tried to mount a comeback when Goertzen tallied his second of the game 6:15 into the third. Goertzen took a feed in front from Derick Brassard and slid a backhand underneath Curry to cut the deficit to 5-3.
The comeback effort was quickly thwarted three minutes later when Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Chris Minard found a loose puck in front off a Kurtis McLean shot and fired it past Goehring to give the Penguins a 6-3 advantage. The goal was Minard’s third of the night.
The Crunch would not score again and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton skated away with a 6-3 win, their ninth victory in a row.
CRUNCHABLES: Crunch right wing Gilbert Brule made his American Hockey League debut tonight after being assigned by Columbus yesterday…Chris Minard’s power play tally in the second ended a streak of 26 consecutive penalties killed off by the Crunch…Crunch starter Craig Kowalski made his third straight start in goal tonight but was pulled halfway through the second period after allowing 4 goals on 20 shots…With a loss tonight, the Crunch are now 0-5-0-0 against the Penguins this season.