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Game Notes: 5/04/08 v. Toronto Marlies
Crunch Take Two in Toronto
Syracuse, NY (May 4, 2008) – Syracuse, NY (May 4, 2008) – The Syracuse Crunch defeated the Toronto Marlies tonight, 3-1 in front of 3,133 fans at Ricoh Coliseum to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven North Division Final series. The series moves to Syracuse for Game Three at the War Memorial at Oncenter Tuesday night.
For the second straight game, the Crunch struck first and struck early. With Syracuse on a two-man advantage for just 30 seconds, Zenon Konopka made the most of that small window of opportunity and punched home the game’s first goal 2:32 into the opening frame.
Konopka positioned himself in front of the net, found a loose puck, turned and fired home a shot past Scott Clemmensen to make it 1-0.
Many of Toronto’s shots were forced from the outside or blocked by a stingy Crunch defense and Karl Goehring was good, stopping all 14 shots he faced in the first.
The Crunch went up 2-0 at the 7:18 mark of the second stanza. Derek MacKenzie snuck behind the defense as the puck squirted out to Brett Motherwell at the point. Motherwell sent a bouncing pass to MacKenzie, who moved in on Clemmensen and tucked it between his legs.
Toronto had an answer just three and a half minutes later when Kris Newbury threw the puck from the corner to the front of the net and the puck was poked in by Bates Battaglia to make it 2-1.
Goehring faced an 18-shot barrage in the second period and shut the door on 17 of them.
It was more of the same for Goehring in the third period, as he denied another 13 shots on his way to being named the game’s first star. He ended with 44 saves in the game.
The Crunch sealed the game with 1:23 remaining when Mark Rycroft sent a centering feed from MacKenzie into an empty net to cement a 3-1 Crunch Victory.
CRUNCHABLES: Karl Goehring tied Mike Fountain and J.F. Labbe tonight for first in all-time playoff wins (9)…Derek MacKenzie extended his playoff point-scoring streak to five games…Derick Brassard extended his playoff point-scoring streak to four games.