1
0
A rarity in another crucial Crunch win.
SYR-3
LV-0
Matt Tomkins stopped all 16 shots he faced for the victory before giving way to recently recalled Ryan Fanti who stopped four shots the rest of the way to secure the rare combined shutout. Not sure if Tomkins got hurt or maybe there’s some illness going through the goalie corps that led to Fanti’s callup in the first place, but there’s something you don’t often see and you saw it in another critical spot.
First Period
NO SCORING
Second Period
1:17 SYR Geekie (4), (Brown, Finley)(PP)
9:48 SYR Geekie (5), (Bisson, Angello)
Third Period
12:16 SYR Angello (9), (Duke, Huuhtanen)
Conor Geekie and Anthony Angello were the game’s first and second stars. In his last eight games Geekie is at 4-4-8 including five points in his last three games which suggests he’s starting to power through that rookie wall a bit like the Kool Aid Man. And, on paper, when the Crunch swapped Jesse Ylonen for Angello it appeared they had given away the more productive player, but in the six games since the trade Angello has 2-5-7. Looks like an early W for the pro scouting department there with the big centerman.
As has been said many times in the last month, these are all gotta-have games. The Crunch victory helps them maintain a two point edge on Belleville after the Sens defeated the Marlies. Glass half empty: the Crunch are just two points up on the last team out in the North and the Sens have a game in hand. Glass half full, the Crunch have now actually pulled within three points of Toronto for third place in the North Division. I declare that officially close enough to smell Toronto’s aftershave in the playoff race. Meanwhile, Cleveland defeated Laval in OT so the Crunch will be tied with the Blue Jackets’ farm hands at night’s end and at this moment Syracuse’s 23 regulation wins gives them the tiebreaker on all three of the other aforementioned teams.
13 games left to go in the regular season. Still a lot of permutations on how this can go and everything’s razor thin. Pressure makes diamonds. Are you not entertained?
Box score from TheAHL.com.
