After enduring a frustrating string of seven straight games without a victory, the Syracuse Crunch tallied three power play goals Sunday to squeak by the Hamilton Bulldogs, 3-2, at the Onondaga County War Memorial.
It was an uplifting end to a tough weekend for Coach Mark Holick’s American Hockey League skaters who lost 5-1 to the Hershey Bears here Friday before dropping a game in Canada Saturday, 2-1 to the Toronto Marlies.
Friday’s tangle with the Bears was an absolute disaster.
The Crunch looked liked pee wees getting pushed around the rink by the bigger, faster and goal-focused Bears, the league’s two-time Calder Cup champions. In farness to the Crunch, some disorganization might’ve been expected since four players – David Laliberte, Patrick Maroon, Matt Kennedy and Nigel Williams – were new to the team.
Left winger Maroon scored the game’s first goal with a nifty putaway of Maxime Macenauer’s pinpoint pass, but it was all downhill from there.
Crunch rookie netminder Timo Peilmeier – who had been brilliant early in the season – stopped just 11 of 14 shots on goal before being lifted in favor of J.P. Levasseur. The veteran didn’t do much better as the Bears put two more goals past him in the third period.
When Friday’s game finally ended, the 5,419 fans in attendance booed the team off the ice.
On Saturday in Toronto, the Crunch regrouped to battled back from a one-goal deficit to tie the game 1-1 halfway through the third on a goal by defenseman Nathan Paetsch assisted by Matt Beleskey and Nigel Williams. But after an apparent go-ahead goal by Crunch forward Trevor Smith was waved off because the net had left its moorings, Toronto scored on a power play with just 50 seconds remaining.
Despite Saturday’s loss, Peilmeier returned to himself by stopping 36 of 38 shots, and he was even better here on Sunday, rejecting 43 of 45 shots by the Bulldogs.
Another Crunch newcomer, right wing Joffrey Lupul, scored the deciding goal at the 12:11 mark of the third period to give the Crunch a badly needed victory. Lupul was playing in just his second professional hockey game in nearly a year after being assigned by the Anaheim Ducks to Syracuse on a conditioning loan after recovering from a blood infection.
Matt Beleskey and Josh Green scored for the Crunch in the first and second periods respectively before Beleskey and Smith passed the puck to Lupul in the third for the game-winner.
The Crunch – now 7-10-1-3 after 20 games – embark on a four-game road trip starting with a match-up Friday, Dec. 3, against Rochester at the Blue Cross Arena. Syracuse returns home to the War Memorial at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10 vs. the cellar-dwelling Adirondack Phantoms. Ticket prices range between $13 and $22; 473-4444; syracusecrunch.com.
