SYRACUSE -- Nic Riopel stopped all 26 shots he faced and Greg Moore and Luke Pither each scored a goal for the visitors, as the Syracuse Crunch were shut out by the Adirondack Phantoms by a 2-0 score Tuesday night in front of 5,289 fans at The Oncenter War Memorial Arena. The win was Adirondack's seventh of the season and third against the Crunch.
The Crunch had trouble generating offense in a scoreless first period of play, setting a season-low for shots in a period as they were outshot by a 10-2 margin by the Phantoms.
The game remained scoreless until former Crunch player Moore converted a chance on a feed from Zac Rinaldo from the slot that beat J.P. Levasseur low to the glove side to make it a 1-0 Adirondack advantage.
Syracuse came back strong in the shots department in the second period, generating 12 bids to Adirondack's seven.
The Crunch were able to muster up a few more offensive opportunities in the third, including a great chance after Patrick Maroon drove hard to the net, but were denied time and time again by Riopel, who picked up his first career shutout in the victory.
Adirondack gave itself some breathing room when another former Crunch player, Rob Bordson, fed Luke Pither in front of the net off a Crunch turnover, and Pither pinpointed a shot top shelf past Levasseur to make it a 2-0 game.
The Crunch pulled Levasseur with about a minute and a half remaining, but could not put one in the back of the net.
CRUNCHABLES: Tonight marked the Crunch's last home game of 2010…The Crunch embark on a season-high seven game road trip starting tomorrow night at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and ending on January 14 at Hamilton…Dan Sexton had his four-game point streak snapped tonight…The Crunch have killed off 20 of their last 21 penalties against…The Crunch have either outshot or tied the opposition in shots in each of the last three games.
Courtesy: Syracuse Crunch
