AHL Game Night: 4-14-23 Crunch at Rocket

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Goaltending disparity spoils Crunch’s night.

SYR-3
LAV-4

Hugo Alnefelt allowed four goals on 22 shots for the loss. Jack LaFontaine stopped all six shots he saw in a brief relief stint at the end of the First Period before Hugo went back in. Alnefelt’s season save percentage has now dropped to .904 after a month (plus) slump.

First Period
1:23 LAV Dube (15), (Simoneau)
5:03 SYR Thompson (8), (unassisted)
12:35 LAV Dube (16), (Simoneau)
13:34 LAV Schueneman (6), (Richard, Stephens)
14:36 LAV Richard (30), (unassisted)
18:36 SYR Walcott (12), (Koepke, Crozier)

Second Period
NO SCORING

Third Period
7:49 SYR Walcott (13), (Crozier, Walker)

With score effects on their side, Syracuse outshot Laval 31-12 in the final 40 minutes of the game but could not buy the equalizer. It remains to be seen how costly that will be, though.

Utica defeated Cleveland tonight 2-1 while Belleville upset Rochester 7-4. So, second place Syracuse sticks on 80 points, Rochester sticks on 79 points, and Utica moves up to 78 points. Syracuse and Utica finish their seasons in a head-to-head in Syracuse Saturday night. A point by the Crunch clinches them an opening round bye. Lose in regulation and the possibility of tiebreak hell opens up. Rochester has a home and home with floundering Cleveland on Saturday and Sunday. Laval clinched the 5th seed tonight sitting on 76 points with no more games left to play. Cleveland and Belleville have been eliminated. Syracuse does not want to fall into another best of three gauntlet with Laval, which has run up an impressive record against Syracuse this season. The Crunch finished the regular season 2-5-1 against the Rocket.

Finish strong at home against Utica on Saturday night. Don’t mess around.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

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