Norfolk, VA (February 12, 2011) - The Syracuse Crunch fell behind 3-0 after 20 minutes of play and ultimately lost 4-0 to the Norfolk Admirals, tonight at the Norfolk Scope Arena. The loss was the second straight via a shutout against Norfolk this weekend.
Dustin Tokarski registered his first shutout of the season, stopping all 19 Crunch shots he faced. He was helped by first-period goals by Blair Jones, Marc-Andre Pouliot and Mark Barberio. For the second night in a row, Mattias Ritola registered two assists.
The Crunch will head to Glens Falls on Wednesday to meet the Adirondack Phantoms at 7 p.m., before returning home for contests against the San Antonio Rampage on Friday and the Rochester Americans on Saturday. Both home games are scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
The Admirals took a 1-0 lead when Ritola led a four-on-two rush and fed Jones, who wristed a shot by J.P. Levasseur with 5:30 remaining in the first period. Norfolk went up 2-0 on the power play with 3:48 left in the opening period off of a wrist shot from Pouliot. Barberio gave Norfolk a 3-0 lead, scoring on a one-timer from the point just as Eric Regan was exiting the penalty box for an even strength tally with 4.4 seconds left in the first.
The Crunch were out-shot 12-3 in the first period, and failed to score on their lone power play opportunity.
In the second period, there were few scoring opportunities. Levasseur stopped all six shots he faced, while Tokarski turned away the three Crunch shots on goal.
Troy Milam finished off the scoring with a one-timer from the point on the power play with under 56 seconds remaining in the game.
After taking just six shots through the first 40 minutes of play, the Crunch registered 13 shots in the third period, but could not solve Tokarski, who improved to 2-0 against the Crunch this season. The Crunch were out-shot 28-19 in the game.
CRUNCHABLES: The Crunch are 4-3-1 in games after being shut out...The Crunch finished 2-2 on the season against the Admirals in Norfolk...The Crunch and Norfolk will meet again in Syracuse on Apr. 8 and 9…The Crunch have been shut out in back-to-back games three times this season…A total of six fighting majors were handed out in the game, including three to the Crunch (Mat Clark, Aaron Voros and Matt Kennedy) and three to the Admirals (Pierre-Cedric Labrie, Radko Gudas and Levi Nelson)
Courtesy: Syracuse Crunch
