The Syracuse Crunch is back on track.
The Crunch, on the heels of a four game losing streak won at The Rock (St. John's New Foundland) on Friday 3-2 in a shootout.
It's a huge win for Syracuse, which, despite the four game losing streak, still has the best record in the entire American Hockey League
Below is a release on the game from the Syracuse Crunch:
Syracuse, NY – Brett Connolly scored in the fifth round of a shootout to lift the Syracuse Crunch over the St. John’s IceCaps tonight at the Mile One Centre.
Crunch netminder Riku Helenius stopped all five St. John’s shooters after the Crunch overcame a two-goal deficit to force the tie-breaker. The win improves the Crunch’s overall record to 35-17-3-4 and road record to 21-8-0-2.
Jasson Jaffray gave the IceCaps a 1-0 lead with less than a minute to play in the opening frame. Jaffray capitalized on a turnover at the blue line before breaking away from the Crunch defensemen to be in all alone against Helenius.
St. John’s went up 2-0 on a power-play goal from Patrice Cormier 2:48 into the second stanza. Cormier redirected Ben Maxwell’s shot from the point past Helenius for the two-goal lead.
Tyler Johnson cut the IceCaps lead in half, beating goaltender Eddie Pasquale for his league-leading, 30th goal of the season. Johnson scored on the rebound of a Richard Panik shot during a two-on-one rush 8:15 into the second period.
Syracuse tied the game with a goal from Dana Tyrell at the 11:37 mark of the final frame. Tyrell scored from the right circle by one-timing a feed from JT Brown past Pasquale.
The Crunch’s shootout record improves to 3-4 after tonight’s win. Syracuse and St. John’s are at it again Saturday at 6:00 p.m. eastern time.
Crunchables: JP Cote was suspended for tonight’s game…tonight’s game was the first game this season that Cote did not play…Mark Barberio and JT Wyman are the only remaining players to have appeared in every game this season…With an assist on Tyler Johnson’s first period goal defenseman Matt Taormina has a point in his last three games.
