Syracuse Crunch
Facing elimination, Syracuse Crunch erupt in Calder Cup Final
By Erik Erlendsson | 
@Erik_Erlendsson | 
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June 10, 2017
The season was on the line for the Syracuse Crunch on Saturday.
They went out and played like it.
The Crunch offense erupted in the first period and Syracuse never looked back, cruising to a 5-1 victory against Grand Rapids in Game 5 of the Calder Cup Final and staving off elimination.
The Crunch trail the best-of-seven series 3-2 and look to keep the season alive on Tuesday in Grand Rapids in Game 6.
Cory Conacher notched his 12th goal of the playoffs and added an assist to break the franchise record for postseason points with 27, previously held by Ondrej Palat from the 2013 run to the Calder Cup Final. Yanni Gourde added three assists while rookie defenseman Ben Thomas scored his fifth postseason goal, one more than he had in the regular season.
Goaltender Mike McKenna finished with 36 saves to help the Crunch avoid losing a second consecutive game on home ice.
All the offense McKenna needed came early and often, starting with Kevin Lynch’s opening just 17 seconds in to the game.
”It was a great, great start with Lynch’s goal,’’ Syracuse head coach Ben Groulx said. “It’s a great start when you can score in the opening (20) seconds. It gives you great momentum and then you can come back and get that second goal. So we had a great start.’’
Defenseman Mathieu Brodeur added that second goal at the 4:33 mark of the first period before the offense exploded in the final six minutes of the period.
Byron Froese made it 3-0 on a rebound in the crease at 14:05, Conacher delivered a one-timer from the right circle on the power play two minutes later before Thomas capped off the period, up in the play to tap in a backdoor pass from Gourde with 44 seconds remaining in the opening period.
That first 17 seconds was unbelievable,’’ McKenna said. “We got the puck in deep, they get four or five hits, they look like the Hanson Brothers and then it’s in the net. What that does for your bench, seeing the raw emotion from Kevin after scoring that goal. It’s huge, for sure, and it sets the tone.’’
After the first four games of the series were all close with three decided by one goal, including a double-overtime thriller in Game 2, this one was never close and as a result started to get chippy and out of hand at times.
Grand Rapids forward Tyler Bertuzzi, the nephew of former NHLer Todd Bertuzzi, delivered a pair of punches to Matthew Peca as Peca was hunched over forward at the Grand Rapids bench during a scrum late in the second period. Then as Bertuzzi was being escorted to the locker room he took a couple more shots at Gabriel Dumont as he skated by, resulting in a 10-minute misconduct play.
”It’s playoff hockey,’’ Groulx said. “I thought the officiating was great tonight, they have been around and they know what is going on.’’
The Crunch know what they are up against, as well, heading to Grand Rapids where the Griffins remain unbeaten during the playoffs.
”We just have to go there and play our game,’’ Groulx said. “I really feel like our energy is back. When you are coaching and you see (the flu bug that affected the locker room last weekend) and you see they are battling and you try to give them rest. And what really helped us out is our organization is chartering us back and forth. So I really feel that our energy is back and we will be ready next week.’’
Calder Cup Final schedule
Game 1 – Grand Rapids 3, Syracuse 2 (Grand Rapids leads series 1-0)
Game 2 – Grand Rapids 6, Syracuse 5 (2OT) – (Grand Rapids leads series 2-0)
Game 3 – Syracuse 5, Grand Rapids 3 – (Grand Rapids leads series 2-1)
Game 4 – Grand Rapids 3, Syracuse 2 – (Grand Rapids leads series 3-1
Game 5 – Syracuse 5, Grand Rapids 1 – (Grand Rapids leads series 3-2)
Game 6 – Tuesday, June 13 – Syracuse at Grand Rapids, 7:00
*Game 7 – Wednesday, June 14 – Syracuse at Grand Rapids, 7:00
*if necessary… All times Eastern
All games streamed for free on AHLLive.com, use promo code FINALS17