AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Score Three Unanswered Goals to Down Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, 4-3

Published on November 6, 2010 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Wilkes-Barre, PA - The Syracuse Crunch scored three unanswered third period goals to defeat the previously unbeaten Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins tonight, 4-3, at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.

Rookie Brandon McMillan led the way with three points (1g, 2a) while Brett Festerling, Nicolas Deschamps and Trevor Smith scored the Crunch's other three goals. J.P. Levasseur recorded a season-high 42 saves to pick up his first win of the year.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton came out firing as the Crunch withstood a 17-shot barrage in the first period. Levasseur was very sharp, turning aside everything thrown his way.

The Crunch were able to rack up nine shots of their own in the first 20 minutes and nearly took the lead on the power play when Luca Sbisa's point shot was deflected by McMillan off the post with about three minutes left in the frame.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton broke the scoreless tie just 1:10 into the second period when Brett Sterling came in hard on the forecheck, stole the puck behind the net and tucked a shot in on the far side on a wraparound attempt past Levasseur to make it a 1-0 game.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton went up 2-0 about six and a half minutes later on the power play when the Crunch's John Mitchell was called for boarding at the 7:04 mark.

Chris Conner set the goal up when he deked his way around the Crunch defense and fed a perfect pass across to Tim Wallace, who one-timed it past Levasseur on the doorstep to put the Crunch at a two-goal disadvantage.

The Crunch got one back with a power play goal of their own at the 12:12 mark with Wallace off for interference. Maxime Macenauer was set up below the goal line and floated a beautiful saucer pass over a down Wilkes-Barre/Scranton defender to a streaking Brett Festerling, who punched it past John Curry for his first of the season to cut the Syracuse deficit to 2-1.

That did not last long, as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton re-took a two-goal lead just 1:42 later when Levasseur had trouble handling the puck behind his own net and gave it away to Sterling, who banked it in off the Crunch netminder to make it 3-1.

Despite being down, the Crunch kept battling and got back to within one at the 2:18 mark of the third period just after a power play had expired. McMillan raced into the zone, beat his man to the puck in the corner and threw the disk to the front of the net to a streaking Maxime Macenauer. The puck never got to Macenauer, as it deflected off of Curry and over the goal line to make it a 3-2 contest.

The Crunch kept riding the wave of momentum and tied the game at 3-3 just over four minutes later. Macenauer pulled up on the right side and found a racing Deschamps, who dove to re-direct the pass past Curry.

Syracuse continued to tilt the ice towards the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton net and scored the go-ahead goal just a minute and a half after Deschamps tied it. McMillan once again got control of the puck in the corner, spun away from his man and slid a backhand to the front of the goal mouth that was tapped in by Smith for what turned out to be the game-winner.

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American Hockey League Stories from November 6, 2010


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