2
0
New era in Syracuse starts off well.
SYR-4
UTI-3 (OT)
Pyotr Kochetkov allowed three goals on 34 shots for the OT win.
First Period
2:20 SYR Usau (1), (Chaffee, Thompson)(PP)
7:04 UTI Willman (1), (Foote, Clarke)
16:33 SYR Edmonds (1), (Usau, Fortier)(PP)
Second Period
NO SCORING
Third Period
9:44 SYR Koepke (1), (unassisted)
10:06 UTI Schmelzer (1), (Stillman, Gambardella)
19:19 UTI Foote (1), (Russo, Willman)
Overtime
4:45 SYR Robert (1), (Goncalves, Day)
My priors in this game were to talk about what’s new in Syracuse, which includes a new coach with Joel Bouchard and, with Andrei Vasilevskiy’s injury, a 2-3 month window of opportunity for prospects thanks to the organization’s increased roster and cap flexibility. And I think those were all positive storylines tonight despite the team being outshot 34-24 by their rivals.
I couldn’t help but get caught up with the backstory of the game which was Cal Foote playing a wild roller coaster of a game against his old mates. He had a slow change on Usau’s PP goal that gave Usau the partial breakaway. He then had the helper on the goal to tie it 1-1. He got his soul snatched trying to stickhandle out of the corner with Cole Koepke thieving the puck and a goal to put his club down 3-1. He scored the tying goal to force OT with the extra attacker on with under a minute to play. And then, to cap it all, he was on the ice with 15 seconds to play when Robert potted the winner, unable to cut off Goncalves from setting up the winning goal after his teammate got beaten badly coming off the wall. What was the Wide World of Sports line about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat? Footer experienced it all tonight against his ex-club.
Box score from TheAHL.com.
