AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Sink Admirals, 3-2

Published on January 22, 2011 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Syracuse, NY - Left wing John Mitchell recorded his first two-goal game as a professional and J.P. Levasseur sparkled in net, stopping 41 of 43 shots en route to a 3-2 Crunch win over the second-place Norfolk Admirals in front of 5,542 fans tonight at The Oncenter War Memorial Arena.

The win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Crunch, who's last ‘W' came last Saturday at home against Rochester. With the win, Syracuse improved its record on Saturdays to 8-4-0-1.

The Crunch started the game with a lot of jump, generating the game's first five shots on goal. The contest also had a very physical tone set early, as Patrick Maroon and Mark Barberio both took roughing minors and Leigh Salters and Vladimir Mihalik were both given five minutes each for fighting, all at the 6:01 mark of the first.

After scoring just eight goals over their last seven contests prior to tonight, it wasn't set up to get any easier for the Crunch, with Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Mike Smith down on a conditioning assignment in between the pipes for Norfolk.

Smith reminded the Crunch of that when he made a sprawling double pad stack save on Josh Green about halfway through the first period.

Just prior to that, Norfolk capitalized on its first power play opportunity of the game with Mitchell in the box for tripping when former Crunch winger Matt Fornataro slipped a bid from the left side through the five-hole of Levasseur to make it 1-0 about eight and a half minutes in.

The physical play continued with just under five minutes left in the first when John Kurtz and Mike Angelidis were both given five minute majors for fighting and 10-minute misconducts after a scrum in front of the Norfolk net.

That seemed to spark the Crunch, and Mitchell made up for his earlier infraction when he re-directed a Mark Mitera point shot past Smith to knot the game at 1-1 with just over two minutes remaining in the first.

The Crunch's high-energy game carried over into the second stanza and the Crunch went up 2-1 just 2:34 in when Nicolas Deschamps skated into the offensive zone flanked by Patrick Maroon, who had lost his stick after giving it to John de Gray, who had broken his earlier.

After Deschamps lost control of the puck, Maroon was able to smartly step in and kick the disk over to Stefan Chaput who was streaking in down the left side. Chaput took aim and ripped a wrister over the shoulder of Smith to give the Crunch its first lead of the game at 2-1 and break a streak of being held to just one marker for three straight games.

Norfolk managed to tied the game at the 9:57 mark when Marc-Antoine Pouliot one-timed a cross-ice feed from Johan Harju past Levasseur to knot it up at 2-2.

The Crunch quickly answered to re-gain the lead just two minutes later, as Mitchell picked up his second of the game after again deflecting a shot from the point, this time by Nigel Williams, past Smith to nudge Syracuse to a 3-2 advantage.

Norfolk came out flying in the third period, but Levasseur showed he was up to the task, stifling all 19 shots the Admirals threw his way in the game's final 20 minutes, including a sprawling blocker save from flat on the ice, robbing Norfolk of a tap-in goal in the final seconds to seal the win for the Crunch.

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American Hockey League Stories from January 22, 2011


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