3
0
Huge road win and some help puts things all square.
SYR-5
WBS-1
Brandon Halverson allowed one goal on 27 shots for the victory. He came up with a big start when the stakes were very high. Halverson’s season marks rose to 14-9-8 with 4 shutouts, a 2.34 GAA, and a .913 save percentage. What’s wild is that he’s only had a couple of really quality starts in the past month, including tonight, and his stats are still that robust.
First Period
3:15 WBS Lafrerriere (4), (Kral, Hollowell)
16:16 SYR Allard (4), (unassisted)
Second Period
17:16 SYR Angello (8), (Bisson, Brown)
Third Period
11:04 SYR Geekie (4), (Crozier, Angello)
17:23 SYR Crozier (7), (unassisted)(EN)
17:56 SYR Teasdale (7), (Walcott)
Anthony Angello and Tristan Allard were the game’s first and second stars.
The final score make it appear this game was more comfortable for the Crunch than it really was. It was a tight affair they finally blew open in the last ten minutes of the game and the 30-27 shot margin for Syracuse is probably a more fair indicator of the degree of difficulty. The Pens are currently tied for second in the Atlantic Division and this was a got-to-have-it game for Syracuse in their barn one night removed from the Pens killing Belleville 8-3. So, to be clear, this was a gigantic victory in a huge pressure moment for the Crunch.
Anthony Angello got his first points in a Crunch uniform in his second contest with the team. Meanwhile, steady Max Crozier now has 6-15-21 in his last 22 games with a +10 rating in that span. Tonight’s two point night means Crozier just set a new career mark for points in 13 less games than it took last season. I am kind of surprised given how impoverished the league is at RHD that some team didn’t extract Crozier from Julien BriseBois at the deadline.
Belleville’s loss last night coupled with Belleville’s loss today in Hartford means the Crunch and Senators are now tied at 60 points with each team having 17 games left to play. The Crunch’s scant one game lead in regulation wins means they’d get the playoff bid if everything ended today. It’s that razor close. Additionally, the Crunch hold a game in hand now on Cleveland who are just six points ahead as the Crunch hope to run down the Monsters and increase their odds of making the postseason in the process.
Box score from TheAHL.com.
