By Warren Kozireski —
Outscoring Rochester 18-10 in three games, the Syracuse Crunch advanced to the AHL North Division finals with a 6-3 victory at Rochester to complete the three game sweep.
The Amerks held 1-0 and 2-1 leads on goals by Zach Redmond in the first and Justin Bailey at 7:48 of the second before the Crunch retied the game on the next shift on a goal from defenseman Cal Foote followed quickly by tallies from Olivier Archambault and Mitchell Stephens to take a 4-2 lead. Syracuse scored three times in 2:32 against three different Amerks forward lines and defense pairings.
Syracuse opened the third period with another goal from Mathieu Joseph before Amerks forward Danny O’Regan cut the Crunch lead back to two with 6:10 remaining. Syracuse finished the sweep with an empty-netter by Alexander Volkov.
“Our speed and our execution, but I really like the way we came out tonight even we took a penalty and they scored the first goal,” Syracuse head coach Benoit Groulx said. “I really liked our game.”
“The goal by Call Foote was an important one. When you go down by a goal in the playoffs…we showed a lot of character and bounced back.
“Overall I’m very happy with how we prepared for this first round.”
