Syracuse Crunch

Late game meltdown.

SYR-3
HER-5

Cedrick Desjardins allowed 5 goals on just 19 shots. Ouch.

First Period
HER DiSalvatore, (15) (Taffe, Almeida), 6:53
SYR Wilson, (5) (Jacques, Namestnikov), 8:47
SYR Johnson, (29) (Panik, Barberio), 19:25

Second Period
SYR Oberg, (1) (Panik, Taormina), 1:43
HER Taffe, (14) (Oleksy, Carman), 10:42
HER Taffe, (15) (Carman, Schilling), 16:33

Third Period
HER Schilling, (6) (Taffe, DiSalvatore), 11:16
HER Wellman, (11) (Oleksy, McNeill), 14:47

Ondrej Palat did not dress for the Crunch, fueling speculation he may be on his way up to the show.

Syracuse outshot Hershey 33-19, but still got belted on the scoreboard. Rotton bad weekend for Syracuse. They face Toronto on Wednesday.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

By Jeremy Houghtaling

The Syracuse Crunch could have blamed it on bad luck.

In a game filled with shots ringing off the posts and pucks sliding through the Rochester Americans' crease, the Crunch could have made plenty of excuses after the 2-1 overtime loss Saturday night at the Onondaga County War Memorial.

"There's a few posts and a few shots that popped up on us or whatever, but the bottom line is we didn't bear down when we had the chance," said Crunch forward Tyler Johnson. "They did."

All of a sudden, Syracuse is struggling to win close games too.

ROC-2
SYR-1 (OT)

Riku Helenius allowed 2 goals on 26 shots for the overtime loss.

First Period
RCH Mancari, (17) (McCormick, Rissmiller), 10:25 (PP)

Second Period
NO SCORING

Third Period
SYR Palat, (11) (Barberio, Gudas), 1:28 (PP)

Overtime
RCH McNabb, (5) (Mancari, Adam), 4:50 (PP)

Ondrej Palat was the game's second star. Palat has 5 goals and 13 points in his last 8 games. I believe that technically qualifies as "on fire". With Benoit Pouliot possibly hurt in today's game against Boston, I wonder if Palat might be worthy of some consideration for a cup of coffee.

Syracuse finishes their weekend tomorrow against Hershey.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

By Jeremy Houghtaling

Despite controlling the play for the first 40 minutes, the Syracuse Crunch entered the third period in a scoreless tie.

The Crunch led the Albany Devils in shots, 26-11, and rang several shots off the pipes behind netminder Jeff Frazee, but were unable to land the proverbial knockout blow.

Albany countered with a pair of goals one minute apart in the third to upend Syracuse, 3-1, at the Onondaga County War Memorial Friday night. The loss snaps an eight-game winning streak for the Crunch, who still pace the Eastern Conference with 74 points.

"I thought we played well enough to win, but we had a few mistakes that cost us," said Syracuse forward Brett Connolly. "That was the difference in the game."

Jeff Frazee steals one for Albany.

ALB-3
SYR-1

Cedrick Desjardins allowed 2 goals on 25 shots for the loss.

First Period
NO SCORING

Second Period
NO SCORING

Third Period
ALB McKelvie, (3) (Urbom, Wiseman), 9:04
ALB Zajac, (6) (Janssen, Hoeffel), 10:06
SYR Connolly, (23) (Johnson), 17:45
ALB Zajac, (7) (Janssen), 19:14 (EN)

Brett Connolly was named the game's second star. He was also named the AHL Player of the Month for February today.

Syracuse actually outshot Albany by a whopping 38-26 margin, but with Frazee holding it close, Albany got it with two quick goals in the middle of the Third Period.

Syracuse draws Rochester tomorrow.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

Note: Richard Panik was re-assigned to the Crunch by the Lightning earlier in the day. He is expected to join Syracuse for their game against Rochester on Saturday.