As the team staggers toward mid-season, the Syracuse Crunch sustained two tough losses last weekend at the War Memorial.
On Friday, Dec. 10, the Crunch allowed the cellar-dwelling Adirondack Phantoms to skate circles around them for three long periods. The Phantoms – a team that had won but three of the 26 American Hockey League games it had played this season – tallied three power-play goals along the way to a 5-2 victory.
Along the way, the Crunch mishandled pucks, passed carelessly and allowed a goal after being called for sending too many players onto the ice. Instead of standing strong in its own barn, the Crunch wavered and wobbled through the game like amateurs. They were buoyed briefly by Nicholas Deschamps’ eighth goal of the season and Josh Green’s fifth.
After Friday’s slipshod effort was over, first-year Coach Mark Holick conducted a closed-door team meeting.
Whatever was said in the locker room was enough to fire up the players to fight to within one goal against the Bridgeport Sound on Saturday, Dec. 11. But after countless second-period lapses in its defensive zone, the Crunch had dug itself into too deep a hole. Syracuse goals netted by Matt Beleskey, Mat Clark and John Mitchell went to waste in the 4-3 decision.
The Crunch outshot their opponents Saturday for just the fifth time this season.
Crunch goaltenders J.P. Levasseur on Friday and Timo Pielmeier on Saturday each turned in admirable outings, stopping 30 of 34 and 27 of 31 shots, respectively. But the two games weren’t lost in the crease. They were lost by sloppy position play and pointless penalties.
Syracuse – with a record of 9-14-1-3 – has now dropped 11 of its past 14 games and stands in seventh place just above last-place Adirondack in the AHL East Division.
Of the Crunch’s first 27 games this season, 19 have been decided by a difference of only one goal, and of those 19 close calls, just seven were won by the Crunch.
After a game in Binghamton on Friday, Dec. 17, Holick’s skaters return home to the War Memorial at 7:30 Saturday, Dec. 18, to face off against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, and will host the Hartford Wolfpack at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 19. Ticket prices range between $13 and $22; 473-4444; syracusecrunch.com.
