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Syracuse Crunch

Crunch rally in third before falling to Rochester

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by Steven DiOssi | @StevenDiOssi | Like us on Facebook
January 6, 2017

The Syracuse Crunch overcame a two-goal deficit in the third period but fell to the Rochester Americans 4-3 in a shootout at Blue Cross Arena on Friday.

The Crunch have now earned six points in their past four contests and are sitting atop the North Division standings with a 18-9-0-5 record. Their 41 points are tied with the Albany Devils, but Syracuse has three games in hand and maintains their division lead.

Matt Taormina, who was named to the AHL All-Star team on Thursday, led the Crunch with one goal and one assist, while Mike Halmo and Erik Condra added goals in the third period. Condra’s shorthanded marker came just past the midway point of the final frame to tie the game and send it to overtime.

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Kristers Gudlevskis, in his first game action since before Christmas while he was with the Lightning, stopped 15-of-18 shots and two of Rochester’s three shootout attempts. Amerks goaltender Linus Ullmark made 36 saves and kept all three Syracuse shooters from finding the back of the net during the shootout.

Both teams went 1-for-4 with the man advantage in the game.

Syracuse fired 16 shots on goal during the opening period but Ullmark was sharp between the pipes, helping Rochester carry a 2-1 lead in to the first intermission despite managing just four shots on goal.

The Amerks opened the scoring when Vaclav Karabacek found Kyle Bonis, who beat Gudlevskis for his fifth goal of the season at 8:06 of the period. Tanner Richard was called for a boarding penalty a couple of minutes later, putting the Amerks on the power play and giving the Syracuse penalty-killing unit their first work of the night. The Crunch were able to keep it a one-goal game and the teams went back to even strength.

Rochester forward Daniel Muzito-Bagenda gave the Amerks a two-goal lead when he tallied his fourth goal of the season at 13:27 of the opening frame.

The Syracuse power play got their first opportunity of the contest after Rochester forward Dan Catenacci was taken off for tripping just past the 15-minute mark. Adam Comrie received a Cory Conacher feed at the top of the left circle and dished it over to Taormina who fired a slap shot past Ullmark to bring the Crunch within one goal with three minutes left in the period.


Taormina’s 10th goal of the season tied him with Yanni Gourde, who will join Taormina and head coach Benoit Groulx at AHL All-Star game, for the team lead in that department. Halmo’s tally in the third period made it a three-way tie for the goal-scoring lead on the Crunch.

With under 30 seconds to play in the first period, the Crunch gave the Amerks their second power-play opportunity after Mathieu Brodeur sent the puck out of play in the Syracuse defensive zone and was called for a delay of game. As the period came to an end, Gabriel Dumont was given a slashing penalty, which gave the Amerks a two-man advantage to open the middle frame.

Rochester took advantage of the power play and extended their lead to two goals again as Nick Baptiste fired the puck past Gudlevskis for his 16th goal of the season.

The Amerks gave the Crunch two more opportunities with the man advantage during the second period, but Syracuse was unable to add to the score despite out-shooting Rochester 10-6 for a combined total of 26-10 through 40 minutes of action.

The Crunch dominated the final period, out-shooting Rochester by a 12-5 margin and scoring two goals to tie the game.

Halmo made it a one-goal contest just past the two-minute mark when he drilled an Amerks puck carrier behind the Rochester goal line and grabbed the loose puck before stickhandling past Rochester defenseman Brady Austin and backhanding a shot past Ullmark. Halmo’s 10th goal of the season was unassisted.


After Henri Ikonen and Rochester forward Tim Kennedy each received matching minors for roughing at 8:22 of the period, the teams were on a brief 4-on-4 before Conacher was called for tripping 20 seconds later.

With just three Syracuse penalty killers on the ice, Condra broke loose with the puck and carried it into the offensive zone. Ullmark skated out of his crease in an effort to poke check the puck away but missed allowing Condra to stickhandle around a sprawling Ullmark. As he moved around, Condra caught his skate on Ullmark’s left pad and went flying into the air. Condra landed on the ice and slid into the Rochester net, following the puck in to the net to tie the game at three goals a side in a dramatic shorthanded effort.

Taormina added his 22nd assist of the season, bringing his point total to 32 to lead all Syracuse players on the season.


Syracuse was put on their fourth power play of the contest at 13:22 of the period but was unable to score the go-ahead goal and the game remained tied at regulation.

During the extra session, Rochester outshot the Crunch 3-1 but the game was knotted at three and went to a shootout.

Jeremy Morin, Richard and Gourde were each unable to beat Ullmark on their attempts, while Rochester forward Cal O’Reilly was the only Rochester player who converted on his opportunity, earning the Amerks the extra point.

Syracuse returns to action when they host the St. John’s IceCaps in an important North Division matchup at War Memorial Arena on Saturday.

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