AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Mightier than Ducks

by Ed Gonser
February 12, 2005 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch


Syracuse -- Brad Moran scored a pair of goals and added an assist, defenseman Francois Beauchemin scored a goal and an assist, defenseman Preston Ryan scored his first AHL goal and Karl Goehring became the all-time wins leader in franchise history as the Syracuse Crunch routed the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks 6-1 Friday at the Onondaga County War Memorial.

Penalties cost Syracuse early in the game but it was Cincinnati infractions that turned the game in the Crunch's favor.

Syracuse forward Peter Ferarro was called for a slashing penalty 23 seconds into the start of the game. Cincinnati (25-22-1-3) took advantage of the early man advantage 42 seconds later when Tomas Malec knocked in his own rebound.

Malec returned the favor by taking a tripping call at the 10:41 mark. Moran drew Syracuse even 10 seconds later by banging home Joe Motzko's rebound.

The goal tied Moran with Reggie Savage for all-time franchise power-play goals scored with 36.

Power play goals by Beauchemin and Alexander Svitov along with a shorthanded goal by Moran kept the goals coming for Syracuse in the second period.

Beauchemin lofted a shot from the top of the right circle that found the back of the Mighty Ducks net through a maze of players nearly five minutes into the period.

Moran collected his second of the net when he was sent in all alone on Cincinnati goalie Frederick Cassivi by Mark Hartigan while Syracuse was shorthanded five minutes later and Svitov fired a shot from a sharp angle that caught the top corner on the shortside with 63 seconds left in the period that gave the Crunch a 4-1 lead.

With the goal Moran is tops in franchise history for shorthanded goals with nine. It was his first shorthanded goal of the season.

Cincinnati pulled Cassivi in favor of Ilya Bryzgalov at the start of the third period. The results were the same as Mike Pandolfo picked the top corner on the shortside at 3:29 of the third.

Ryan scored the prettiest goal of the game as he took a shot from the slot then followed the shot and pumped in the rebound while being checked into the Mighty Ducks' goal just passed the nine minute mark.

Goehring made 29 saves and became the all-time wins leader in Syracuse franchise history with 55. He passed former Crunch goalie Mike Fountain. Cassivi a former Crunch goalie is sixth on the Syracuse list with 23.

Syracuse is chasing Edmonton for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference's North Division and after being back by as many as 14 points just a couple of weeks ago have trimmed the margin to eight by winning seven of its last 10 games for 15 points during the span including an overtime loss at Cincinnati last week.

The teams will lace the skates up once again as the teams finish off playing each other four times in Syracuse's last five games (for Cincinnati its four straight) in a rematch tonight in Syracuse.

Check out the Syracuse Crunch Statistics



American Hockey League Stories from February 12, 2005


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