2
0
Crunch let season finale slip late, but no harm no foul.
UTI-3
SYR-2
Brandon Halverson stopped all 10 shots he faced in the First Period before giving way at the intermission to ATO Ethan Langenegger who allowed three goals on 26 shots the rest of the way for the loss.
First Period
NO SCORING
Second Period
5:55 SYR Groshev (7),(Brown, Teasdale)(PP)
8:55 SYR Flinton (1), (Brown, Bisson)
16:58 UTI Lachance (1), (Reid, Dello)(PP)
Third Period
14:53 UTI Wheeler (1), (Vilen, Lachance)
17:15 UTI Parent (17), (Squires, Wheeler)
Cooper Flinton and Max Groshev were the game’s second and third stars.
As expected, with nothing on the line, it was a very prospect-heavy lineup tonight including Cooper Flinton’s first AHL goal. Ethan Gauthier also got his third AHL game under his belt. That wasn’t surprising. What was surprising was the return of injured twin towers Logan Brown and Jack Finley. Brown’s been out of the lineup for the last month and Finley’s been out a couple of weeks, but they figured heavily in tonight’s game and could be difference-makers in the upcoming open round series against Rochester. It’s a shame Logan Brown seems to be made of old timey float glass because with 29 points in 33 games he’s been a meaningful contributor for Syracuse when healthy and there were whispers the Lightning might have even been considering giving him a look at the NHL level down the stretch. With Finley and Brown, the Crunch can ice a heavy team that plays with stifling defensive structure and that’s usually not an easy out in any postseason format.
Tonight closes one of the weirdest and most interesting regular seasons in Crunch/Lightning history. That this team ended up in third in the North Division with a very respectable +28 goal differential was not an unexpected outcome. This team had a good roster, on paper, so things ended up the way that might reasonably be expected at the beginning of the year. Just totally not the way anybody would’ve expected it. The injury issues they worked through. The way they had to integrate NHL veteran Conor Sheary into the group. Hell, Max Groshev entered the season looking like he was going to have a breakout season as a winger in rookie camp and ends the year scoring a goal in his 10th game as a LHD in tonight’s finale. Along the way the team struggled to find its footing for the first two-thirds of the campaign before playing inspired hockey the last two months of the year to rise from sixth place and out of the playoffs to skipping the play-in round altogether as the third seed. There’s still a lot of story left to be written for this year, but the organization already has to be pleased with the way the youth has risen to the occasion. Pressure makes diamonds, and there are at least two or three that have likely come out of this process for Syracuse this regular season.
Box score from TheAHL.com.
