Crunch fall to second place after falling to Toronto on Sunday

By Steven DiOssi | @StevenDiOssi | Like us on Facebook
March 26, 2017

The Syracuse Crunch dropped a 4-0 decision to the Toronto Marlies at Ricoh Coliseum to complete their third game in three days on Sunday.

With the loss, the Crunch are 33-23-6-5 on the season with 77 points and have fallen to second place in the North Division, the first time Syracuse has not occupied the top spot in the division since Nov. 29.

The Marlies have taken the division lead with 79 points but just five points separate the top four teams in the North, as the AHL enters the final weeks of regular season play.

Mike McKenna stopped 24-of-27 shots he faced and Marlies goaltender Garret Sparks made 26 saves to earn his fifth shutout of the season. Both teams went 0-for-5 on the power play, in a game that had six fighting majors, three game misconducts and 112 penalty minutes. The Crunch are 18-for-18 on the penalty kill in their past three contests.

The Marlies took a 1-0 lead just 1:13 into the first period when Kasperi Kapanen sent a pass to Colin Greening and he wristed it past McKenna.

The Crunch were outshot 17-6 in the first period and were unable to find the back of the net in one power play opportunity.

After a scoreless second period, the Marlies added to their lead when Steve Oleksy beat McKenna at 6:22 of the third period and Sergey Kalinin tallied his first goal of the season just 2:31 later.

Tensions boiled over at 10:45 of the third when Dominik Masin and Jonathan Racine each received fighting majors, with Masin being tossed from the game. Syracuse forward John Kurtz (third man in) and Toronto defenseman Travis Dermott (fighting) each received game misconducts. When the smoke cleared, 73 penalty minutes were handed out between both clubs.

Syracuse pulled McKenna for an extra attacker late in the third period, but the Marlies put the game out of reach when Brendan Leipsic tallied an empty netter at 17:39.

The Crunch have just nine games left in the regular season and return to action for a road matchup against the Binghamton Senators on Wednesday.