LAVAL, QUEBEC – The Syracuse Crunch gave up the first goal less than a minute into the contest and spent the night chasing the Laval Rocket in a 5-2 loss tonight at Place Bell.
The Crunch evened the score twice, but allowed a season-high nine power play opportunities for their opponent, hindering all momentum as the team dropped their second consecutive game and move to 14-11-1-2 on the season. Laval now has a 3-1 lead in the eight-game season series.
Louis Domingue stopped 20-of-24 shots in net for the Crunch. Charlie Lindgren earned the win with 22 saves for the Rocket. Syracuse was able to convert on 1-of-4 power play opportunities and went 7-for-8 on the penalty kill.
Laval jumped out to a 1-0 lead just 28 seconds in. Chris Terry fired a shot off the crossbar from the left circle. The rebound ricocheted out to the right for Adam Cracknell to chip in behind Domingue as he crashed the net. Nikita Scherbak tallied an assist on the opening marker.
With 2:54 remaining in the first period, the Crunch evened the score on the power play. Ben Thomas passed over to Jamie McBain at the point who backhanded the puck to Matthew Peca. The center walked into the left circle uncontested and sniped a wrister from the face off dot.
The Rocket went back on top with a power-play goal from the exact same spot five minutes into the second period. Scherbak potted the go-ahead tally with the help of Matt Taormina and Terry.
At the 15:55 mark, Syracuse knotted the score for a second time. Carter Verhaeghe dug the puck out of the corner to feed Mathieu Joseph for a one-timer from the slot.
Less than a minute later, Laval regained the lead when Cracknell went bar down from the right circle off assists from Terry and Scherbak.
Seven minutes into the third period, the Rocket went up by two. As Brett Lernout came out of the box for boarding, he picked up the rebound of a blocked shot at center ice and scored his first of the year on the breakaway. Cracknell earned another point with the helper.
Terry added an empty-netter during 4-on-4 play late in the frame to secure victory over Syracuse.
The Crunch travel to face the Belleville Senators on Friday at 7 p.m.
Ticket packages for the 2017-18 season are on sale now and can be purchased in person at the Crunch office located inside the War Memorial Arena at 800 S. State St. in Syracuse, by calling the office at 315-473-4444 or by logging on to Ticketmaster. For the latest Crunch news, visit www.syracusecrunch.com or follow the club on Facebook (www.facebook.com/syracusecrunch), Twitter (@SyracuseCrunch) and Instagram (@syracusecrunch) using #SyrCrunch.
Crunchables: Matthew Peca is on a four-game scoring streak with two goals and four assists…Carter Verhaeghe is on a seven-game points streak (4g, 4a).
