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Dramatic Late Comeback in Overtime Loss at Syracuse

March 1, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Adirondack Phantoms News Release


Adirondack and Syracuse traded three-goal surges in a wild back-and-forth affair on Saturday night in a memorable and entertaining contest. Trailing 4-1 in the third period, the Phantoms roared back to force overtime including back-to-back goals 51 seconds apart with less than three minutes remaining by Mark Alt and Tye McGinn. But Syracuse prevailed in the end on a power-play goal by Richard Panik to steal the 5-4 overtime decision.

Just 24 hours removed from his exciting game-winner at Utica with about three minutes left, Tye McGinn would come through clutch yet again and this time even later in the contest scoring a dramatic tying goal with about two minutes remaining.

After the crazy trade of scoring dominance, the stage has been set for the rematch of the two-game home-and-home series. The Phantoms and Crunch will meet again on Sunday at 5:00 at the Glens Falls Civic Center in what should prove to be an entertaining encore encounter for the two upstate rivals.

Syracuse scored three goals in the second period to break a 1-1 tie and take a 4-1 lead. With about five minutes remaining in the period, the Crunch registered lamplighters back-to-back just 18 seconds apart by Dana Tyrell and Jon DiSalvitore marking the quickest consecutive goals surrendered by the Phantoms this season.

But Adirondack would score three goals of their own in the third period in their dramatic come-from-behind effort. The Phantoms looked to have little chance when they were still down by a three-goal margin with under 12 minutes remaining. But Kyle Flanagan sparked the comeback efforts with his power-play goal from the high slot through Cedric Desjardins to get Adirondack back into the game.

Mark Alt's drive from the right point deflected off the blocker of Desjardins and fluttered into the goal with 2:50 remaining to cut the score to 4-3. It was Alt's third goal of the season.

And then Bruno Gervais' long pass up the right-wing connected with Tye McGinn who dangled around a defenseman and moved into the right circle to fire a wrister past Desjardins for the equalizer with 1:59 remaining. McGinn's 17th of the season comes one day after he had scored a game-winning goal at Utica with just 2:58 to go as part of a two-goal game.

But Gervais was tagged for a hooking infraction in the overtime breaking up an odd-man rush and after a couple of attempts back-and-forth across the slot and crease, Richard Panik eventually converted on a give back by Jon DiSalvitore to bang home the 4-on-3 game-winner. Dana Tyrell led the way for the Crunch with a pair of goals including a first-period breakaway and also a second-period conversion of a 2-on-1 rush. Both of his goals were set up smartly by Tanner Richard.

In one of the strangest statements to be made in the game, Yann Danis played extremely well. Despite deceiving stats in which he allowed five goals on 39 shots, Danis was actually quite good and made a number of point-blank stops on Syracuse drives to hold the opposing offense in check. And there was very little Danis could have done to stop most of the goals that Syracuse did score. Two of his more memorable saves came in the second period on point blank drives by Cedric Paquette and Mike Angeledis. But he also flashed the glove for a couple of biggies in there as well and made some other dandies on scrambles going each way.

Nick Cousins scored in the first period on a power-play blast from the left wing that was off the stick of Desjardins but too hard for him to stop clean. Cousins' sixth of the season is also his second goal in as many weekends having also tallied last Saturday against Bridgeport.

The loss in overtime is the first of the season for Adirondack and they are one of the last teams in the league to have finally taken an OTL. Only two other teams, Hartford and Lake Erie, have yet to suffer an overtime defeat this year.

Syracuse outshot Adirondack in the game 39-38. The Phantoms ended a recent power-play drought going 2-for-4 on the man-advantage. Syracuse was held to 1-for-6 but their lone power-play tally was the game-winner in overtime. The Phantoms pushed through different 5-on-3 and 4-on-3 disadvantages through the game. THe Phantoms are 0-1-1 against Syracuse this year and the two teams will meet again four more times including Sunday in Glens Falls.

The contest was somewhat reminiscent of a contest at Hartford last season on January 21 in which the Phantoms trailed 5-1 in the second period and 5-2 in the third only to storm back to tie the game. The Phantoms scored a pair of goals in the last two minutes in that contest to get the score to 5-5. Just like this comeback-game in Syracuse, the Phantoms would just fall short on their efforts to snag the second standings point losing that Hartford game in overtime as well on a Brandon Segal breakaway goal.

Adirondack returns home Sunday at 5:00 against the Syracuse Crunch on Sunday Family FunDay! join the players for a Postgame Open-Skate (must bring your own skates to participate). Purchase a Sunday Family Fun Pack for only $43 to receive 3 tickets, 3 hot dogs, 3 sodas, 1 large popcorn and 1 program. Call the Phantoms at 518-480-3355.

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