Game Notes: 4/11/08 v. Rochester Americans
Crunch Get Lucky Number 13
Rochester, NY (April 11, 2008) – The Syracuse Crunch defeated the Rochester Americans tonight 4-0, at the Blue Cross Arena. Syracuse extended its franchise-high winning streak to 13 games and has an AHL season-high 21 game points streak.
Playing for the third time in eight nights and for the twelfth and final time this season, you can say that the Crunch are very familiar with their I-90 foes from the Flower City.
Even though Syracuse came in with a 9-2-0-0 record in the season series, the Amerks came out ready to play and established a physical presence early. In trying to establish that physical presence, Rochester spent some time in the box in the first frame.
Defenseman Mike Weber was given a two-minute minor for roughing and a ten-minute misconduct after he brought Brian McGuirk down, ripped off his helmet and threw it into the protective netting behind the Rochester net.
Even though they did not capitalize on that opportunity, The Crunch did draw first blood with just over two and a half minutes left in the period with Rochester’s Jordan Henry in the box for slashing.
On the power play, Derek MacKenzie found Clay Wilson on the right side and Wilson fired a wrister past Amerks’ starter Tyler Plante to give the Crunch a 1-0 lead.
The Crunch extended their lead nine minutes into the second stanza when David Cullen rifled home a point shot that found its way through a few bodies in front and into the back of the twine to put Syracuse up 2-0.
Crunch starter Karl Goehring stopped all 12 second period shots he faced, including two point-blank chances, robbing Marek Zagrapan with the left pad.
Rochester found themselves in penalty trouble once again when Jordan Henry took his third minor on the night just four minutes into the third.
The Americans almost scored shorthanded when Drew Larman broke in on a semi-breakaway but was denied by Goehring. Goehing also stopped the rebound attempt the keep it 2-0.
The Crunch took the momentum from Goehring’s save and turned into offense while still with the man advantage. Duvie Westcott found MacKenzie camped out alone on the right side of the net. MacKenzie one-timed it over the shoulder of Plante to put the Crunch up 3-0.
Syracuse added another power play marker at the 11:10 mark when Derick Brassard spun off a defender, turned around and fired a rocket to the top left corner of the cage to put the Crunch up 4-0.
Goehring stopped all 28 shots he faced to seal the victory for Syracuse.
Goehring stopped all 28 shots he faced to seal the victory for Syracuse.
CRUNCHABLES: Derick Brassard extended his point scoring streak to nine games…he has 20 points (7g, 13a) over that span…Karl Goehring notched his second shutout of the season and eleventh as a member of the Crunch, tying J.F. Labbe for first all-time in that category.