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Crunch counter with 2-1 OT win

April 22, 2008 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manitoba Moose News Release


WINNIPEG, MB. -- For the third consecutive game, the Manitoba Moose and Syracuse Crunch required extra time to decide a winner in Tuesday night's North Division Semi-final Game 3. 11 minutes into sudden death, Crunch winger Tom Sestito beat goalie Cory Schneider from near the blue-line to secure a 2-1 OT win and a 2-1 series lead for Syracuse.

Just over six minutes into the game, Moose sniper Brad Moran took a high-sticking penalty to give the Crunch the game's first powerplay. But the home team shut down the visitor's man advantage and then soon experienced their own scoreless powerplay when Syracuse's Brett Motherwell served a full two minutes for holding.

A handful of scoreless powerplays for both teams concluded in a late penalty to Manitoba's Maxime Fortunus, which put Syracuse up a man but down three shots heading into the second period.

The Moose killed Fortunus' penalty and then another, limiting the Crunch to one shot in the frame's first six minutes. Eager to continue the game's perfect penalty killing, Syracuse then stifled a third Manitoba powerplay, helping maintain the scoreless deadlock through the midway point of the game.

At that point, seven and a half periods of gritty playoff hockey erupted into the first fight of the series. After a group tussle near Schneider's net, Greg Rallo and Dorsett broke off from the group and went toe-to-toe along the boards. By the time play resumed, four different players had been assessed penalties, with the Crunch coming out on top with a two minute powerplay.

Moose penalty killers prevailed once again. Upon the return of five-on-five play, Jannik Hansen got a breakaway but fired just above the net. The puck bounced back out into play, and though goalie Karl Goehring stopped an original shot, the disc landed on Michael Grabner's stick and he fired it home to score the game's opening goal.

Four minutes later, the Crunch got their equalizer. Immediately after successfully killing Manitoba's fourth powerplay, Syracuse Captain Zenon Konopka bounced the puck off Rick Rypien and into the net to tie the game 1-1 heading into the third period.

An interference penalty to Clay Wilson at the end of the second and another Crunch penalty three minutes into the third kept the Moose on the powerplay for the early part of the final frame. But the club struggled to keep the puck in the Crunch zone, tallying only two shots and surrendering three shorthanded attempts.

Despite the failed powerplays, the Moose broke the 30-shot mark with nine minutes left in the game but were shut down by Goehring's athletic goaltending. Although the Moose eventually cracked the Crunch goalie, the third-period buzzer had already sounded, forcing overtime for the third straight game.

The teams matched eachother shot-for-shot leading up to a cross-checking penalty to Syracuse's Derick Brassard eight minutes in. After a minute of attempting to set something up, the Moose created a handful of great scoring chances but missed rebounds and a sturdy post kept the home team from earning the game-winning goal.

The visitors wouldn't suffer the same fate. After receiving a feed from Motherwell, winger Tom Sestito strode in from the blue line and wired a wrister through traffic to secure a 2-1 overtime win and 2-1 series lead for Syracuse.

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