3
0
Conor Geekie leads Crunch’s climb to third in the North.
TOR-1
SYR-4
Ryan Fanti allowed one goal on 31 shots for the victory. I don’t bat an eyelash when he’s in. In parts of five games he now has a gaudy .949 save percentage. Robust.
First Period
0:31 SYR Geekie (10), (Sheary, Crozier)
3:55 SYR Angello (11), (Teasdale, Santini)
Second Period
8:03 SYR Geekie (11), (Finley, Sheary)(PP)
13:58 SYR Finley (14), (Sheary, Geekie)
Third Period
7:29 TOR Webber (1), (Barbolini, Pare)
Conor Geekie, Conor Sheary, and Fanti were the game’s three stars. Geekie’s one of the hottest goal scorers in the AHL right now with eight goals in his last seven games including three two-goal games. He now has 20 points in 22 games since going down to the farm and is flirting with a point a game pace. Jack Finley (always bet on JACK) set a new AHL career high in goals with 14. In his last 22 games he has 12-10-22 for a point a game pace. In his last 32 games, Max Crozier has 7-21-28 and he’s been the model of consistency just like Finley.
Toronto actually outshot the Crunch 31-20 tonight, but they gave up far too many open chances in the slot and around the circles and a guy like Conor Geekie who has an NHL shot is going to make you pay. Wednesday he did his damage off one timers from the RW circle on the PP. Tonight he sniping from the slot and down the LW on rushes. There are times he looks like a man among boys at this level.
Unfortunately, it was brutally put your opponent to the sword night for North Division teams so Belleville killed Rochester 5-0 and Cleveland made Wilke-Barre/Scranton beg for mercy to the tune of 7-1. The Crunch did move into a tie with Toronto at 76 points and if the playoffs started right now the Crunch would get the three seed and a bye from the play-in round by virtue of the regulation wins tiebreaker, plus they have a game in hand on the Marlies. They just didn’t open up any turf on anyone else. Cleveland lurks one point off and Belleville stayed on the outer fringes of the hunt five points behind Syracuse.
The Crunch go to Toronto tomorrow to complete the home-and-home and I’m sure the Marlies will be spicy after tonight’s outcome. The Crunch’s magic number to clinch the postseason is now 10 points. For simplification’s sake, any combination of Syracuse points gained and Belleville points lost right now contributes to shaving that number down. Seven games remain in the regular season.
Box score from TheAHL.com.
