Syracuse Crunch
Crunch fall to Toronto in a shootout for the second consecutive night
By Kevin Erlendsson | 
@KErlendsson | 
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April 1, 2017
The Syracuse Crunch failed to maintain a two-goal lead Saturday night as they dropped a second consecutive shootout loss to the Toronto Marlies, 3-2.
Kevin Lynch opened the scoring in the first period, and was the lone scorer in the shootout for Syracuse. Tanner Richard added his 13th of the season to extend the lead to two, Tye McGinn contributed two assists, and Erik Condra added a helper on Richard’s goal.
Frederik Gauthier and Brendan Leipsic scored for the Marlies, and Dmytro Timashov converted on his fifth-round shootout attempt to secure the win and move Toronto into a two-point lead over the Crunch in the North Division standings. The Marlies finished the season series against Syracuse with wins in back-to-back nights at the War Memorial Arena, going 5-2-1-0 on the season against the Crunch.
Toronto goaltender Kasimir Kaskisuo stopped 30 of 32 shots and four in the shootout to get his fourth win in five starts, while Kristers Gudlevskis made 21 saves on 23 shots in the Syracuse net.
The night started out much differently than Friday for the Crunch, opening the scoring just 5:07 into the game. Lynch followed McGinn’s drive to net, collecting his rebound and outwaiting a scrambling Kaskisuo before back-handing the puck over the sprawled Marlies netminder.
Syracuse kept the offense rolling into the second frame, when Richard increased the lead to two. Condra skated the puck into the zone and fluttered a shot on goal. The puck bounced up into the crease, and was whacked at by McGinn in front of the net before Richard skated in from the top of the circle and fired the loose puck home.
However the Crunch found themselves in penalty trouble, having to kill off a 5-on-3 power play. They managed to kill off the first one thanks to some heroics from Gudlevskies, but the Marlies were able to get on the board just seconds after the first penalty expired ( OR: with only 17 seconds remaining on Slater Koekkoek’s boarding call). Leipsic took the feed from Trevor Moore and one-timed it from below the right circle to cut the lead to one.
Toronto didn’t waste anytime in the third, scoring just 6:07 into the period to tie the game up at two. Mike Sislo found room behind the net and dished to Gauthier, who put a shot from the left circle past Gudlevskies. Despite registering 13 shots during the period the Crunch were unable to find the winner, and would go on to lose the shootout 2-1 in five rounds.
Despite the loss, the Crunch earned a valuable point for their efforts, which reduces the magic number to clinch their playoff spot to seven. They currently hold down the number two seed, five points above Albany, who have a game in hand. Syracuse have just six games remaining on the schedule, and will close out the year with two games each against Albany, Utica, and Binghamton.