Game Notes: 5/07/08 v. Toronto Marlies
Cardiac Crunch Come Back Again
Syracuse, N.Y. (May 7, 2008) - The Syracuse Crunch are truly the cardiac kids.
Syracuse, N.Y. (May 7, 2008) - The Syracuse Crunch are truly the cardiac kids.
Joakim Lindstrom fired home the game-winner nearly 10 minutes into overtime to give the Crunch a 5-4 win and a three games to one lead over the Toronto Marlies in the North Division finals.
Down 4-2 with eight minutes to play, it looked as if the Marlies were going to even the series at two games each, but then at the 12:18 mark Derek MacKenzie whistled a shot from the right circle that found the top corner on the short side.
Suddenly the Crunch found the spark that had been missing for the last five periods and started an onslaught of Toronto goalie Scott Clemmensen.
Clemmensen and the rest of the Marlies were equal to the task but Derick Brassard fired a desperation shot toward the net from a sharp angle near the goal-line while the Crunch were on a power play and what-do-you-know it the puck hit a Toronto players skate in front and popped into the net to tie the game at 4-4 with only a little over 90 seconds left in regulation.
Crunch captain Zenon Konopka tied the game at one and Tom Sestito gave Syracuse a 2-1 lead after the first period.
3-Stars—No. 1, Lindstrom, No. 2, Brassard, No. 3, Jay Harrison (four assists for Toronto)
They said it -
“We didn’t feel very good about ourselves after the first period. We didn’t play with desperation or enough energy. We had a big talk between the first two periods. Guys like mark Rycroft and Zenon Konopka let us know that we need to play with a lot better effort. We came out with a lot more energy the second and third periods.” Joakim Lindstom’s post-game comments.
“You feel that if you keep the pressure on that at any time the puck will go into the net. We’ve been stressing this whole series to just throw the puck on net. The first two goals tonight weren’t pretty at all but we got some lucky breaks. It was only a matter of time before one of those shots was going in.” Derek MacKenzie on the Crunch flurry in the game’s last eight minutes and overtime.
“I thought we did a real good job of sending wave after wave at them in the overtime. I wasn’t happy with our effort early on in the game. We weren’t working hard enough. Hard work is what got us here over the last three months and we weren’t doing it. We worked hard in spurts but we’d take the last 15-seconds of a shift off, it was killing us. It was giving them great scoring chances and they capitalized on them. There was little doubt we’d come back but we needed to get more traffic in front of their goalie. He’s been playing really well but we needed to get in front of him and we did and we won.” Zenon Konopka’s post-game comments.