Syracuse Crunch hold off late rally to get back in the win column

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
January 27, 2017

Syracuse held off a late rally and hung on for a 4-3 victory at Springfield on Friday.

The Crunch snapped a four-game winless streak, picking up their first win since Jan. 16. The victory also ended a six-game road winless streak for Syracuse.

Cory Conacher, Yanni Gourde and Henrik Ikonen each finished with a goal and an assist. Adam Wilcox finished with 26 saves, holding off the Thunderbirds third-period surge.

Mathieu Brodeur, who earlier in the day signed his AHL contract, also scored for the Crunch, which improved to 21-12-4-5 on the season. Syracuse will close out the weekend on Saturday at Utica before the All-Star break.

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Conacher put the Crunch up 1-0 as he worked a give-and-go with Joel Vermin, who fed a pass across the crease to Conacher at 14:37 for his seventh goal of the season. Syracuse held the lead in to the first intermission despite being held to five shots on goal. It was Conacher’s first goal since New Year’

Here's a better look at Vermin's pass to set up the goal pic.twitter.com/Q46Bfo3b84

— Jeremy Houghtaling (@JGHoughtaling) January 28, 2017

The Crunch grabbed a 2-0 lead midway through the second period when Brodeur took a pass out of the corner from Jeremy Morin and fired a shot from the left point that found its way past Thunderbirds’ goaltender Reto Berra at 11:27. The goal for Brodeur, who spent half the season with Adirondack in the East Coast Hockey League, was his second of the season for the Crunch.

The #SyrCrunch lead the @thunderbirdsahl, 2-0, courtesy of @mbrods62!@jmorin91 and and @IkonenHenri record the ?s. pic.twitter.com/EFktaKvwCs

— Syracuse Crunch (@SyracuseCrunch) January 28, 2017

Syracuse appeared to blow the game open with a pair of goals six minutes apart in the third period to build a 4-0 lead.

Ikoken notched his second goal of the season, sitting in the slot to jump on a rebound off Conacher’s shot from the right circle at 5:43.

.@IkonenHenri nets a juicy rebound and the #SyrCrunch lead 3-0! Assists to @conhockey19 and Slater Koekkoek. #SYRvsSPR pic.twitter.com/ameWEw4tCm

— Syracuse Crunch (@SyracuseCrunch) January 28, 2017

Gourde, who will represent Syracuse at the All-Star game along with Matt Taromina, provided a four-goal lead on a shorthanded breakaway, putting on a couple of dekes before snapping a quick wrist shot over the left pad of Berra at 11:21 for his 15th goal of the season to seemingly put the game away.

Here's a look at Gourde's shorthanded goal pic.twitter.com/QB085z8HPG

— Jeremy Houghtaling (@JGHoughtaling) January 28, 2017

Springfield started to mount a comeback shortly after Gourde’s goal with a power play goal during a two-man advantage as Jayce Hawryluk scored on the front half of the 5-on-3 at 13:53. Kyle Rau cut the deficit to 4-2 on the second half of the power play at 15:08.

Brody Sutter made it a one-goal game with 1:32 left, but the Crunch were able to hold on to get back in the win column.

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