Rochester, NY (February 27, 2011) – The Syracuse Crunch racked up 41 shots on goal, but were only able to solve goaltender Tyler Plante once, falling to the rival Rochester Americans by a 2-1 score in overtime this afternoon at the Blue Cross Arena.
Josh Green scored the Crunch’s lone tally, extending his point streak to six games, and J.P. Levasseur recovered from his seven-goal outing on Friday with a strong 27-save performance despite taking the loss.
The Crunch are now winless in three straight after winning two in a row from February 19 – 22. Syracuse’s schedule takes it to the Lone Star State for the next three games, beginning with a Friday, March 4 match-up against the Houston Aeros.
Michael Dubuc scored the game’s first goal at the 9:45 mark of the first when he took a pass in the slot from newly-acquired Tim Kennedy and fired a wrister that found its way through a screen past Levasseur to put Rochester ahead 1-0.
The score stayed that way until the 12:30 mark of the second stanza, when Green took a pass from Patrick Maroon, slipped in down the right side and flicked a shot to the top left corner past Plante to knot the contest at 1-1. That goal came on a 5-on-4 power play advantage for Syracuse, after Rochester took back-to-back infractions but was able to kill off the first part of the 5-on-3.
The Crunch dominated the second and third periods and outshot the Americans by a combined 33-17 margin, but could not grab the go-ahead goal. Rochester’s PK unit was solid, only allowing one goal on seven Crunch power play opportunities on the afternoon.
Keaton Ellerby gave Rochester the win just over one minute into the extra session after taking a pass from Mark Cullen and sailing a wrister from the slot past Levasseur for the 2-1 final.
CRUNCHABLES: Nicolas Deschamps (six games) and Kyle Palmieri (four games), both had their point streaks snapped this afternoon…With an assist, Patrick Maroon extended his point streak to four games (3g, 3a)…The Crunch are now 3-4-1-0 in eight games against Rochester this season
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Courtesy: Syracuse Crunch
