Special teams disadvantage leads to Crunch loss to Toronto

By Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
May 15, 2017

The Syracuse Crunch lead the American Hockey League in shorthanded goals this postseason.

On Monday, the Crunch pushed that number to four, double the amount of the next closest team.

Of course, with the number of penalties the Crunch have taken during the playoffs, they’ve had plenty of opportunities to score while down a man. But the flip side is having to kill off all those penalties.

Eventually, it comes back to bite you.

That proved to be the difference in Game 6 of the North Division finals as Toronto scored a pair of power play goals to propel the Marlies to a 2-1 victory and force a decisive Game 7 on Wednesday.

The Toronto power play has been a big part of the series against the Crunch. Some of the undisciplined play of Syracuse has been a factor in that decisive advantage the Marlies through the first six games of the series. Syracuse has already had one player suspended in the series when Jake Dotchin was handed a three-game suspension for a hit on Toronto forward Fredrik Gauthier that knocked him out for six months.

That has led to a 29-20 advantage in the number of power plays in favor of Toronto. In the three games at Richoh Centre in Toronto, the advantage has been 13-5 for the Marlies.

That proved to be a factor on Monday as the Crunch had the opportunity to end the series and advance to the Eastern Conference finals.

Syracuse took five consecutive penalties in the game from the first period until the beginning of the third.

Despite all the time down a man, the Crunch did manage to open the scoring on Michael Bournival’s shorthanded goal at 2:09 of the second period. But the lead did not last long, however, as the Marlies would notch the first of two power play goals at 7:24 of the second period with Slater Koekkoek in the penalty box for holding.

Then in the third, with Daniel Walcott off for slashing at 11:01, Toronto would take the lead as defenseman Andrew Nielsen fired a one-timer from the center point off a feed from Seth Griffith to put the Marlies up 2-1 with 8:27 left to play.

Nielsen’s goal marked the fifth that Toronto has scored at home on 13 power play chances.

Full game highlights from Toronto Marlies

Series schedule

Game 1 — Syracuse 3, Toronto 1 (Syracuse leads series 1-0)

Game 2 — Syracuse 8, Toronto 5 (Syracuse leads series 2-0)

Game 3 — Toronto 5, Syracuse 3 (Syracuse leads series 2-1)

Game 4 — Toronto 3, Syracuse 2 (Series tied 2-2)

Game 5 — Syracuse 5, Toronto 1 (Syracuse leads series 3-2)

Game 6 — Toronto 2, Syracuse 1 (Series tied 3-3)

Game 7 — Wednesday, May 17, 7 p.m. at Syracuse