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Game Notes: 2/16/08 v. Rochester Americans
Crunch Bury Amerks in Overtime Thriller
Syracuse, NY (February 16, 2008) – The Syracuse Crunch defeated the Rochester Americans in overtime tonight, 3-2 at the War Memorial at Oncenter in front of 6,038 fans.
The Crunch came out of the gate looking to capitalize on the momentum built from last nigtht’s 4-1 home thrashing of Binghamton and did just that.
Syracuse struck first just under seven minutes into the game on the power play when Zenon Konopka fired a shot from the point and it bounced around in the crease until it found the waving stick of Adam Pineault. Pineault whacked it past Rochester starter Adam Dennis for the 1-0 Crunch advantage.
Rochester tied the game on their own power play just two and a half minutes later on a nice tic-tac-toe passing play. Marek Zagrapan took a feed from Marc-Andre Gragnani and one-timed the puck back to the waiting stick of Andrej Sekera. Crunch netminder Dan LaCosta was fooled on the play and came too far over to the right side of the net. Sekera rifled it into the vacant twine to tie the game at 1-1.
The second stanza was an even affair that saw no scoring, but lots of hard-hitting action, including a scrap at the 13:29 mark between Crunch defenseman Aaron Rome and Rochester’s Drew Larman. Both players received five-minute majors, but Rome was handed a game misconduct for being the third man in on a pile-up just prior. Each team had ten shots on goal in the period.
The Americans struck to take a 2-1 lead just sixteen seconds into the third frame. Anthony Stewart, who was denied on a breakaway in the first period by LaCosta, found a rebound of his own shot right on the doorstep and cranked it past him for the tally.
Syracuse had an answer for that goal nine and a half minutes later, again on a power play. Duvie Westcott took a feed from Konopka at the point. Westcott’s shot was deflected, sent fluttering towards the net and hit off the crossbar. Derek MacKenzie, who was planted in front of the net, found the loose puck and banged it past Dennis to tie the game at 2-2.
The game stayed deadlocked for the remainder of regulation.
In overtime, Marc Methot was the hero. He took a pass at the right point, skated in through an open lane, cut to the front of the net and beat Dennis for the game-winner at the 2:25 mark.
CRUNCHABLES: The Crunch are now 5-1-0-2 in their last seven games…After tonight, the Crunch have now outscored Rochester in the season series by a 29-14 margin…Marc Methot has three goals in his last two games…Derek MacKenzie has 9 points (6g, 3a) in his last 6 games.