0
0
Syracuse’s season ends with an offensive power outage.
ROC-4
SYR-0
Rochester Wins the Series 3-0
Brandon Halverson allowed three goals on 26 shots for the loss. Hard to blame Halverson when he only got two goals of support in the entire three game series. With Matt Tomkins’ contract now expiring, I wonder if the Lightning might try to move Ryan Fanti up to Syracuse full time in a pairing with Halverson next season.
First Period
15:51 ROC Jobst (1), (unassisted)
Second Period
NO SCORING
Third Period
1:45 ROC Clague (3), (Helenius, Kozak)
7:45 ROC Jobst (2), (Metsa, Kulich)
18:42 ROC Warren (2), (unassisted)(EN)
The Crunch just couldn’t solve Devon Levi in this series, and he posted a 30 save shutout tonight. The Crunch did get some developmental time for Conor Sheary and Max Crozier, who shuttled up to Syracuse for the game, but they were down veteran Conor Sheary. I would expect Geekie and Crozier to be in Tampa Bay next season. Sheary? He’s technically under contract for one more season, but I have to wonder what he’ll actually choose to do in the offseason.
I get that the sweep is probably a bitter pill for Syracuse fans that haven’t see its Tampa affiliate go on a deep playoff run in over a decade despite being a solid regular season team most of those years. It’s tough when you don’t have the high draft picks to go with the selection of veterans, which is the formula Rochester has. The Crunch have built a strong developmental system and culture, but they’re often in the habit of trying to race a Maserati with an F-150, metaphorically, by icing a smattering of mid and late round draft picks and undrafted free agents against other teams’ top-60 draft picks.
With that said, I think the Lightning organization will be pretty happy with Syracuse’s season despite its unceremonious ending. The team rallied under the gun in the final two months of the season to go from the outside edge of the playoff bubble to the third seed in the North Division. Every game was just about a must-win game and I suspect the pressure of that run was part of why they ran out of gas in this series. As I’ve written many times, though, that pressure makes diamonds and not only do I expect Crozier and Geekie to be in Tampa Bay next season but other prospects like Jack Finley and Dylan Duke might not be far behind. These players were forced to step forward this season for the Crunch and I anticipate the Lightning will be the ultimate beneficiaries of their trials by fire in the AHL.
Box score from TheAHL.com.
