SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Syracuse Crunch were first on the board, but proceeded to give up five unanswered goals as they were halted by the St. John’s IceCaps, 5-1, tonight at the War Memorial Arena.
The loss drops the Crunch to 21-23-9-2 on the season and 1-2-2-1 in the eight-game series with the IceCaps. St. John’s advances to 24-23-7-3.
Crunch goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis stopped 40 of 44 shots on goal, while his counterpart, Eddie Pasquale, earned the win with 29 saves. For the second consecutive night, Syracuse was only allowed one power play opportunity. The team was successful in shutting down 3-of-4 St. John’s man-advantages.
After a series of opportunities, Adam Erne capitalized on a turnover in the neutral zone and opened scoring for the Crunch. He got the puck from Anthony DeAngelo and beat the defense down the right boards before wrapping around the back of the cage and dumping one in back door at the 7:18 mark. The lead didn’t last long and with 2:08 remaining in the first, the IceCaps evened the score. While Gudlevskis was screened down low, Joel Hanley scored from the high slot off assists from Charles Hudon and Gabriel Dumont.
The IceCaps took over with two consecutive tallies in the middle stanza. Just 1:05 in, Tim Bozon received a pass from Bud Holloway and fired from the point. Nikita Scherbak picked up a point on the go-ahead tally. At 14:44, Alexandre Ranger built a two-goal lead when he netted his first of the season with a shot from the right circle.
Two more IceCaps goals in the third period sealed a 5-1 victory. Hudon cleaned up a rebound from the right of the cage at 12:29 while on the power play before Dumont topped off scoring with an empty net marker.
The Crunch wrap up a three-in-three against the Binghamton Senators tomorrow at 5:05 p.m.
Syracuse Crunch single game and season tickets are on sale now and can be purchased either in person at the Crunch Box Office located in the War Memorial on 800 South State Street in Syracuse or by calling the office at 315-473-4444. For the latest Crunch news, visit www.syracusecrunch.com or follow the club on Facebook (www.facebook.com/syracusecrunch), Twitter (@SyracuseCrunch) and Instagram (@officialsyracusecrunch) using #SyrCrunch and #BelieveInBlue.
Crunchables: Jeff Tambellini had a three-game points streak snapped tonight (2g, 2a)…Anthony DeAngelo is second on the team with 26 assists this season.
