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Game Notes: 1/22/08 v. Lake Erie Monsters
Crunch Sink Lake Erie in Overtime
Cleveland, OH (January 22, 2008) – The Syracuse Crunch defeated the Lake Erie Monsters in overtime tonight, 2-1 in front of 2,748 fans at the Quicken Loans Arena.
The Syracuse Crunch came out looking to enact some revenge for Saturday’s 3-2 overtime loss at the hands of Lake Erie. They got off to a good start by breaking through late in the first period with just over three minutes to go.
On their only power play opportunity of the frame, Duvie Westcott rifled a shot towards the net from the point. After getting knocked down to his knees, Adam Pineault’s relentlessness paid off when he found the rebound and batted the puck past Monsters starter Tyler Weiman for the 1-0 Crunch lead.
Lake Erie struck back five minutes into the second period when the Crunch got themselves into penalty trouble. Derek MacKenzie took a hooking infraction at the 3:05 mark and Steven Goertzen also took a hooking penalty at the 4:44 mark. Lake Erie capitalized on a 21 second 5-on-3 when Wyatt Smith’s shot eluded Crunch starter Adam Munro to tie the game 1-1.
Syracuse came very close to taking back the lead, but two posts and a crossbar stymied that hope. The Crunch were given a five-mintue power play when Dale Purinton speared Derek Dorsett just before the second period buzzer.
The Crunch could not convert on the major advantage and failed to sustain any pressure on Lake Erie. The Monsters had two man-advantages and the Crunch had one the rest of the period, but neither scored.
Regulation ended with the game still knotted at 1-1.
Syracuse did not want to lose a second straight overtime game to Lake Erie and Joakim Lindstrom made sure that did not happen. Zenon Konopka streaked up the left side and threw a shot on net. Lindstrom found the rebound and roofed a shot to the upper right corner for his team-leading 18th goal of the season. The Crunch skated away with the 2-1 win.
CRUNCHABLES: After being acquired in a trade for Philippe Dupuis and Darcy Campbell earlier in the day, right wing Mark Rycroft made his Crunch debut tonight…Adam Munro made his fourth straight start in goal tonight…After being assigned by Columbus to the Crunch Saturday, Duvie Westcott notched an assist in his first game down…The Crunch and Lake Erie played into the extra session for the second consecutive game…Lindstrom’s overtime winner was his fourth game-winning goal this season.