Syracuse Crunch

By Jeremy Houghtaling

Dana Tyrell believes it was a bit of hockey karma.

His team trailing 3-2 with less than two minutes remaining in regulation, the Syracuse Crunch forward caught a break. The puck bounced behind the net, and despite many of the Toronto Marlies looking for the puck in the corner, Tyrell found it on his stick.

"I think it went up my pants. To be honest, I'm not really sure what happened," Tyrell said. "I was forechecking the puck down - hunting it down - and it bounced up somewhere. I think it got caught up in my gear somewhere. As I was coming around the net, it dropped down in front of me and I had an open net.

"If we work hard as a team, we're going to get bounces like that," he added.

Tyrell's goal sent the game to overtime and the Crunch completed the comeback in the shootout, topping the Marlies 4-3 at the Onondaga County War Memorial Wednesday night. Syracuse has shrugged its slump that lasted from late January into early February, winning its last five games.

5 in a row.

TOR-3
SYR-4 (SO)

Riku Helenius allowed 3 goals on 31 shots before stopping 3 of 5 in the penalty shot session for the win. Riku is now on a personal 4 game winning streak.

First Period
TOR Colborne, (8) (Zigomanis, Hamilton), 19:59 (PP)

Second Period
SYR Angelidis, (9) (Palat, Hutchings), 2:46
TOR Colborne, (9) (Abbott, Mottau), 5:43
SYR Palat, (7) (Barberio, Helenius), 6:51 (PP)

Third Period
TOR Hamilton, (21) (Yeo, Colborne), 6:50
SYR Tyrell, (4) (Korobov), 18:26

Overtime
NO SCORING

Shootout
TOR- Colborne, Connolly
SYR- Palat, Connolly, Gudas

Dana Tyrell and Ondrej Palat were named the game's first and third stars. Palat has 1 goal and 6 points in his last 3 games, all multi-point efforts.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

By Pete Choquette

It's been a long, strange trip for Bolt Prospects to arrive at this year's Midterm Prospect Rankings. Between the end of the NHL lockout and an abbreviated training camp, call-ups, graduations, and trades, there's been a lot of movement in the rankings. One lesson learned from the first half of this season: no more standing still for Lightning prospects. Even first and second round picks can't afford to stagnate in their development with so much quality depth within the organization. More than that, the youth movement is already beginning in Tampa Bay with three prospects currently up with the Lightning and recently graduated Keith Aulie also with the NHL club.

The return of The Entertainer.

SYR-5
ALB-3

Cedrick "The Entertainer" Desjardins made his Crunch debut stopping 23 of 26 for the win. Riku Helenius, who was named the AHL Player of the Week, got the night off.

First Period
SYR Tyrell, (3) (Hutchings, Angelidis), 9:40
SYR Johnson, (24) (Palat, Cote), 10:14
ALB Sislo, (3) (Zalewski, Urbom), 14:32 (PP)

Second Period
NO SCORING

Third Period
SYR Johnson, (25) (Wyman), 3:45
ALB Zalewski, (9) (DeSimone, Urbom), 7:26
SYR Johnson, (26) (Palat, Korobov), 14:27 (PP)
ALB Josefson, (9) (Gelinas, Anderson), 18:28
SYR Connolly, (22) , 19:57 (EN)

Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat (pictured) were the game's first and third stars. Palat's 29 assists are tied for 6th most in the league while Johnson is now tied for the lead in goals.

So, after a month of struggling to regain their equilibrium, lookee at the standings and Syracuse is right back on top of the Eastern Conference standings, moving 1 point ahead of Bingo and Springfield. Jon Cooper = Jedi. Syracuse draws the Toronto Marlies on Wednesday.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

Riku is hulking up.

SYR-3
WBS-0

Riku Helenius (pictured) stopped all 23 shots he faced for his 2nd shutout in the past 3 games and his 4th shutout of the season. He's allowed just 1 goal over the span of those 3 games. We've seen this before with Helenius, when he had a string of shutouts early in the season for JYP en route to backstopping them to a SM-liiga title. His save percentage is still just .891 for the season, and the Lightning just acquired Cedrick Desjardins for a reason, but when Riku starts getting on a roll like this, he can be unbelievable.

First Period
NO SCORING

Second Period
NO SCORING

Third Period
SYR Wilson, (2) (Labrie), 2:02
SYR Connolly, (21) (Palat, Johnson), 3:25
SYR Wilson, (3) (Johnson, Palat), 11:44

Helenius, Kyle Wilson, and Brett Connolly were the game's three stars.

Syracuse draws Albany tomorrow night as they try to run down Springfield and Binghamton for the conference lead.

Box score from TheAHL.com.