Syracuse Crunch

By Jeremy Houghtaling

While Syracuse failed to convert on six power play chances, the Hamilton Bulldogs cashed in three times to hand the Crunch its fourth-straight loss, 3-0, at the Onondaga County War Memorial Saturday.

Former Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Dustin Tokarski stopped all 43 Crunch shots for his first shutout of the season with Hamilton.

"He played really well," said Syracuse defenseman Matt Taormina of Tokarski. "He did see a lot of shots, but we didn't really get in front to screen him."

Rough result in Montreal.

SYR-1
HAM-4

Cedrick Desjardins allowed 3 goals on 26 shots for the loss.

First Period
HAM Blunden, (4) (Dumont, Tinordi), 15:55

Second Period
HAM Ellis, (1) (St. Pierre, Nystrom), 11:00
HAM Dumont, (1) (Blunden), 13:06

Third Period
SYR Cote, (2) (Richard, Paradis), 15:13
HAM Blunden, (5) (Ellis), 19:00 (EN)

Tonight was a special game with the Bulldogs playing in front of the big league crowd in Montreal. Between that an Dustin Tokarski's obvious motivation playing against his old organization, Hamilton had some extra juice for this one.

These two clubs square off again tomorrow night, and Syracuse should have Brett Connolly in the lineup.

Update:
Following the game Crunch GM Julien BriseBois confirmed Vladislav Namestnikov broke his hand in tonight's game.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

By Jeremy Houghtaling

With a glut of players occupying the organizational blueline, the Tampa Bay Lightning came up with a new plan for Drew Olson and Carl Nielsen.

Despite spending more than a decade as defensemen, the pair was signed and turned into forwards. A dozen games into their rookie seasons, Olson and Nielsen are getting acclimated with the position change with the Syracuse Crunch.

“At first it was a little different, I wasn’t really sure what to expect or what to think about it,” Nielsen said. “But the more I play it, the more comfortable I feel and actually enjoy playing on the front end -- getting in front of the net and going into the corners as opposed to playing defensively.”

By Jeremy Houghtaling

In his first taste of professional hockey last season, Tanner Richard learned the importance of being versatile.

The Syracuse Crunch forward started his first game on the fourth line, but was promoted to the top line after a mid-game injury. The lines shuffled a few more times, and after reinforcements were sent for the team’s Calder Cup run, the 20-year-old fresh out of junior was back to a grinding line to finish out his eight-game stint.

Although he was a playmaking first-line center with the Ontario Hockey League’s Guelph Storm, Richard has become acclimated with his role changing on a game-to-game or shift-to-shift basis.

By Jeremy Houghtaling

Cedrick Desjardins stopped 32 shots during regulation and overtime, as well as three out of four shootout attempts, but the Syracuse Crunch fell to the Albany Devils, 2-1, at the Onondaga County War Memorial Saturday.

"Cedrick was the reason we got one point tonight," said Syracuse coach Rob Zettler. "We gave up a number of Grade A chances, including breakaways and point blank shots that we normally don't give up...He came up huge for us."

"We battled hard, gave everything we've got," Desjardins said. "But we fell a little short."