The supposed plan was to start Alexander Salak in the game but I don’t think that was ever going to happen.  Even if Tyler Plante did not get called up I think someone else would have been brought in to start in net for the Amerks.  With nothing on the line and the Crunch with a strong dislike for both goalies it was obvious that something would have happened.

Jon Mirasty spent time during the warmups chirping at Salak but Salak didn’t give him the time of day.  Maybe if those players spent less time worried about trying to intimidate their opponents during warmups they’d be in the playoffs instead of scheduling locker cleanout day.

Alex Petizian Save on Chad Kolarik

Alex Petizian was the unfortunate goaltender to get the call and make this is his first professional game.  The game will either scar him for life or give him some tough skin having to play behind an invisible defense and against a team determined to win.  Four goals were scored against him but he also made a number of great saves (including the one pictured).

At the other end of the ice Kevin Lalande won the game for the Crunch with 37 saves on the night.  Rochester had a number of great scoring chances but Lalande stopped just about all of them.

After the game I talked to Jamie Johnson and said to him ‘with that game behind you’ he quickly replied, “Thank God.”

“It was one of those games you just want done with and one of those games that you don’t want to play before  the playoffs but we did,” Johnson said.  “Keeps us in shape I guess.”

Late in the third period the Amerks seemed to kick things up a notch trying to get a third goal and make it a game but it just was not meant to be.  If the Amerks had a stronger defense and one of their two starting goalies it probably would have been a much different game.  In the end the game meant nothing to Rochester.

Graham Mink scored his 20th goal of the season and David Brine scored his 14th.  At one point it appeared as if the Amerks scored but one of the Crunch players pushed the net off just in time.

There were the fights as expected – view those here.  There was a number of great Crunch fans but of course many more who felt the need to open their mouths.

Everything changes from here going forward for the Amerks.  Abbotsford won their game on Saturday night so they’re in third place and will be the Amerks first round opponent starting on Thursday.

——–

Box score from the game:

Rochester Americans 2 At Syracuse Crunch 5 – Status: Final
Apr 10, 2010 – Onondaga County War Memorial at Oncenter

Rochester 0 0 2 – 2
Syracuse 2 1 2 – 5

1st Period-1, Syracuse, Frischmon 7 (Sestito, Harvey), 1:29. 2, Syracuse, Mayorov 16 (Murovich, LaVallee-Smotherman), 11:46. Penalties-Bonneau Rch (fighting), 5:38; Mirasty Syr (fighting), 5:38; Liffiton Syr (hooking), 8:22.

2nd Period-3, Syracuse, Mayorov 17 (LaVallee-Smotherman, Holden), 16:03. Penalties-Lord Rch (fighting), 6:56; Harvey Syr (fighting), 6:56; Kana Syr (roughing), 16:34; Hudson Rch (fighting), 19:52; Mirasty Syr (instigating, fighting, misconduct – instigating, game misconduct – persisting a fight), 19:52.

3rd Period-4, Syracuse, Ratchuk 3 (Mayorov, LaVallee-Smotherman), 2:32. 5, Rochester, Mink 20 (Repik, Taylor), 8:12. 6, Rochester, Brine 14 (Duco, Syvret), 15:08. 7, Syracuse, Holden 6 (Moore, Liffiton), 19:24 (en). Penalties-Lord Rch (interference, fighting), 11:35; Harvey Syr (fighting), 11:35; Mink Rch (hooking), 16:44.

Shots on Goal-Rochester 10-9-20-39. Syracuse 10-10-11-31.
Power Play Opportunities-Rochester 0 of 4; Syracuse 0 of 2.
Goalies-Rochester, Petizian 0-1-0 (30 shots-26 saves). Syracuse, Lalande 25-24-2 (39 shots-37 saves).
A-6,317
Referees-Terry Koharski (10).
Linesmen-Jeff Walker (28), Brian Lemon (25).

Crunch Finally Defeat the Amerks, In Game Number 80 is a post from: Let's Go Amerks!. For discussion visit the forums at LetsGoAmerks.com/Forums.

Chris Taylor saved the game scoring the game winning goal in overtime to extend the Amerks winning streak to nine games.  The win tied the record from the 1999-2000 season, the last time the Amerks won nine games.

Alexander Salak showed tonight that he is human after all allowing three goals on 29 shots.  He played a great game, the Crunch just found a way to finally beat him.

Mike Duco scored his first goal of the season at 9:15 of the first period.  Jason Garrison fired a hard shot from the blue line and Duco was in front of the net to get the rebound and back hand it past Crunch goaltender Kevin LaLande.

The second goal was scored when LaLande had gone behind the net to play the puck when Duco came from one side and York on the other trapping him behind the net.  Duco was able to take the puck and tried to wrap around it into the net, bounced off the post and York was there to put it in.

Graham Minks goal to give the Amerks a 3-0 lead assisted by Evgeny Dadonov was highlight material.  Dadonov was leading the play with the puck going straight at Grant Clitsome.  Dadonov took his stick off the puck to use his own stick to push Clitsomes’ up into the air, took Clitsome out of the play and left the puck for Mink who was somehow able to find an opening on the far side to beat LaLande stick side.

Jimmy Bonneau and Jon Mirasty fought each other for the sixth time this year (5 regular season + 1 preseason).  Bonneau shows a lot more confidence now throwing punches at Mirasty.  Video to be posted on Saturday.

The third period is when the game turned ugly, just as expected.  When I say ugly I mean the Syracuse Crunch starting to play some dirty hockey to turn the game in their favor.  It worked.

The game changing play was this vicsious elbow that Kevin Harvey landed on Luke Beaverson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we2SnRRO-28

“We lost focus after the non call on Beaverson,” Benoit Groulx said after the game.  “We seemed to lose our focus for quite a bit.”

The referee claimed to have not seen the play.  If he didn’t see the play, where was he looking?

You can clearly see Harvey’s elbow up in the air as he follows through with the hit.

The Amerks will follow up with the league further.  Groulx said, “It’s a sequence we’re going to send to the league.”

It’s interesting to read Harvey’s take on the hit (from Lyndsey Kramer):

That’s where Harvey came in. He set up the Crunch’s first goal by forcing a turnover along the left boards of the Rochester end by hammering Amerks defenseman Luke Beaverson. Replays seemed to indicate Harvey smashed his left elbow into
Beaverson’s head, and Beaverson crumpled to the ice, but Harvey was unapologetic.

“This team is our rival,” Harvey said. “I’m going to finish my check every time.”

After the hit Harvey was able to recover the puck and score a goal.

Trevor Frischmon scored the second goal of the game for the Crunch at 12:58 of the third by taking the puck into the Amerks zone, skating past and around Clay Wilson and found a way to put the puck in the five hole past Salak.

Just as we thought the Amerks would be able to hold on Jason Garrison made the worst play of the season.  With about 16 seconds left in the game and the Amerks up 3-2 instead of clearing the puck off the boards he tried to keep the puck and it backfired on him.

Tom Sestito was all over him and was able to steal the puck and pass it over to Nick Holden who tied the game with 13.2 seconds left on the clock in regulation.

Garrison easily admitted his mistake after the game saying it was a mental mistake.  A mistake he’ll never make again.

Chris Taylor said after the game the third period was very much a case of them playing not to lose instead of playing to win.

The game will be a lesson learned for the team.  It’s a lesson better learned this early in the season instead of down the stretch.

“To me they (Syracuse Crunch) deserve a lot of credit for that point, they never quit,” Benoit Groulx.

Chris Taylor scored the winning goal at 3:54 in overtime.  Graham Mink did a great job tying up some Crunch players in front of the net which allowed Taylor to move in and have a clear shot on net.

Benoit Groulx summed up the game saying, “It was a big win because it would have been a big loss.”

Luke Beaverson will be out indefinitly with a shoulder injury.  With Taffe, Repik, McArdle, and Oreskovich currently called up this will leave the Amerks short a forward.  It’ll be interesting to see on Saturday if they suit up Aston as a forward, sign someone to PTO, or play short handed.

There’s a lot more that could be talked about with this game, but that’s for after the weekend if needed.  The Amerks are back on the ice Saturday night at 7:05pm to take on the Toronto Marlies in Rochester.

—————
Syracuse Crunch 3 At Rochester Americans 4 (OT) – Status: Final OT
Nov 6, 2009 – Blue Cross Arena

Syracuse 0 0 3 0 – 3
Rochester 1 2 0 1 – 4

1st Period-1, Rochester, Duco 1 (Garrison, Ellerby), 9:15. Penalties-Frischmon Syr (hooking), 2:56; Salak Rch (tripping), 3:34; McBride Syr (hooking), 6:55; Roy Syr (boarding), 7:14; Matthias Rch (holding), 11:53; LaVallee-Smotherman Syr (slashing), 19:57.

2nd Period-2, Rochester, York 4 (Duco), 1:46 (pp). 3, Rochester, Mink 4 (Dadonov, Taylor), 17:02. Penalties-Taylor Rch (tripping), 2:09; Ellerby Rch (closing hand on puck), 6:15; Ferguson Syr (tripping), 10:02; Mirasty Syr (fighting), 13:09; Bonneau Rch (fighting), 13:09; Sigalet Syr (hooking), 13:30; LaVallee-Smotherman Syr (fighting), 17:33; Beaverson Rch (fighting), 17:33.

3rd Period-4, Syracuse, Harvey 1 (Reese), 5:26. 5, Syracuse, Frischmon 1 (Ferguson, Regner), 12:58. 6, Syracuse, Holden 1 (Fritsche, Sestito), 19:46 (sh). Penalties-Pelletier Syr (fighting), 4:20; Duco Rch (fighting), 4:20; Miller Syr (goaltender interference), 11:19; Salak Rch (slashing), 11:19; Roy Syr (hooking), 18:25.

OT Period-7, Rochester, Taylor 3 (Wilson, Mink), 3:54 (pp). Penalties-Holden Syr (holding), 2:09.

Shots on Goal-Syracuse 11-6-9-3-29. Rochester 14-8-9-5-36.
Power Play Opportunities-Syracuse 0 of 4; Rochester 2 of 8.
Goalies-Syracuse, Lalande 1-3-0 (36 shots-32 saves). Rochester, Salak 7-0-0 (29 shots-26 saves).
A-6,035
Referees-Nygel Pelletier (41).
Linesmen-Brian Lemon (25), John Murphy (71).

Chris Taylor Strikes Again, Amerks Win in OT is a post from: Let's Go Amerks!. For discussion visit the forums at LetsGoAmerks.com/Forums.

Unlike previous contests between the two teams in Syracuse the Amerks put in a solid effort on the ice.

The Crunch scored first when Maksim Mayorov found the back of the net for his 16th goal of the season.  Craig MacDonald tallied his 24th assist of the year when he fed the pass up to a streaking Mayorov along the boards.  Mayorov was going one on one with Mike Caruso across the blue line, slid the puck around Caruso to the center of the ice, cut left with the puck and beat David Shantz glove side.

The Crunch forwards have learned how to skate around the Amerks defense untouched.  Hopefully that’s something that can be stopped by next weekend.

David Shantz made a spectacular save towards the end of the first period on a shot from Alexandre Picard.  The puck was in the face off circle when Picard took control of it, pulled a spin-o-rama move around Ellerby and put a quick shot on Shantz.

Randall Gelech tied the game at 8:50 of the second period, assists went to Shawn Matthias and Stefan Meyer.  Meyer had the puck and shot it wide on net and the puck went behind the Crunch net.  Shawn Matthias was in front of the net and as he went chasing after the puck around the net the Crunch goaltender Kevin LaLande tried to reach with his stick to slow it down.

That’s when the play backfired.

Instead of getting his stick on the puck he was tripped up and fell to the ice.  Matthias was able to quickly capitalize on the mistake by wrapping around the net, toss the puck at LaLande who made the initial save by Gelech was there to put the loose quick across the goal line.

Kevin LaLande of the Crunch falls to the ice prior to Gelech scoring the Amerks first goal

The Crunch went ahead 2-1 at 1:50 of the third period off a power play goal from Alexandre Picard.  Picard was skating towards the back of the Amerks net when he pushed a pass out to Derek MacKenzie on the point who put a slap shot on Shantz.  As MacKenzie was getting ready to let the shot go Picard was skating around and back to the front of the net.  He got to the right place as the right time as Shantz wasn’t able to cover up the rebound and Picard stuffed it between his pads.

Janis Sprukts got the Amerks back into the game about three minutes later to tie the game at two.  Gelech sent a pass to Caruso at the point, took the shot, and the rebound landed on the stick of Sprukts who put it into the net with a backhand.

Unfortunately the Crunch scored the game winning goal on a 5 on 3 advantage at 7:44 of the third period.  Kenndal McArdle and Michal Repik were both in the penalty box for hooking.

Drew Larman, Keaton Ellerby, and Mike Caruso were the three Amerks on the ice trying to kill the penalty but some quick passes by the Crunch were too much for them to handle.  Derek MacKenzie fed a pass from one end of the trapezoid behind the net to Mike York at the opposite side.  York then fed a quick pass to Michael Blunden who had a clear shot on Shantz and was able to pick off the glove side corner.

The hooking penalty on Michal Repik was questionable, it appeared as if two players had just run into each other and Repik got called.

The Amerks continued to put pressure but the Crunch defense was able to hold off the Amerks for the win.  They had a few great chances with under 30 seconds left to play but somehow a Crunch player was able to keep the puck from going anywhere.

“We played our hearts out tonight, both teams were equal, physical game, we had a lot of shots, they had a lot of shots, they had a 5 on 3 and were able to capitalize,” Stefan Meyer said after the game.

The Amerks are back at home on Sunday night at 6:05pm against the Grand Rapids Griffins.

Strong Effort by Amerks not Enough to defeat Crunch is a post from: Let's Go Amerks!. For discussion visit the forums at LetsGoAmerks.com/Forums.