Syracuse Crunch

Syracuse's playoff hopes continue to dim.

SYR-2
HER-3

Cedrick Desjardins allowed 3 goals on 26 shots for the loss. At least 1 of those goals was one he might like to have back. Now's a tough time not to get your best goaltending.

First Period
HER Brouillette, (6) (Stoa, Strachan), 16:43
SYR Paquette, (12) (Panik, Witkowski), 17:22

Second Period
SYR Richard, (1) (Paquette), 6:13 (PP)
HER Latta, (5) (Schilling, Oleksy), 17:09

Third Period
HER Latta, (6) , 12:28

Richard Panik made his season debut for Syracuse and was fairly dangerous throughout. Unfortunately, he also got his clock cleaned on a hit crossing the opposing blueline in the Second Period, which led to the game devolving into a pretty nasty brawl-fest. One silver lining is that Tanner Richard scored his first pro goal in the process.

Unfortunately, for the moment, Syracuse has fallen 9 points out of 8th in the Eastern Conference. Things do not look good right now, and they could not afford to give 4 points to Hershey like they have the past 2 nights. The Bears are currently in 9th in the conference 8 points ahead of the Crunch and are one of the teams Syracuse needs to climb over.

Bridgeport is next up tomorrow.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

By Jeremy Houghtaling

After a 4-1 loss to the Hershey Bears, Syracuse Crunch coach Rob Zettler was searching for answers.

The Crunch defense had lapses that hung goalie Kristers Gudlevskis out to dry and the offense -- despite having a 30-25 advantage in shots -- struggled to find traction against the Bears at the Onondaga County War Memorial Friday.

"Maybe it was four or five days between games, I don't know what it was," Zettler said. "We seemed flat. Maybe it was practices. I don't know, I have to look at it and I need to do a better job of getting these guys prepared."

No comeback for the Crunch tonight.

HER-4
SYR-1

Kristers Gudlevskis allowed 3 goals on 24 shots for the loss.

First Period
HER Wellman, (11) (Strachan, Segal), 6:53

Second Period
HER Wellman, (12) (Deschamps, Kolomatis), 7:44
HER Watkins, (4) (LeBlanc, Kolomatis), 13:26

Third Period
SYR DiSalvatore, (3) (Connolly, Korobov), 9:38
HER Watkins, (5) (Byers, Potulny), 17:27 (EN)

Jon DiSalvatore was the game's third star.

Syracuse has fallen, at this moment, 7 points out of 8th in the Eastern Conference. They face Hershey again tomorrow.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

By Jeremy Houghtaling

The way Jon DiSalvatore looks at it, he doesn’t have much time to waste.

The 32-year-old forward, after being the odd-man out due to a restriction on import players with Munich of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga in Germany, wasn’t getting the ice time he had hoped for in his first European season.

DiSalvatore didn’t want to wait around, so he chose to return to North America.

"I just felt like the way things were being run out there, it felt like it was becoming a wasted year, a wasted opportunity," said DiSalvatore, a veteran of 10 American Hockey League seasons. "I don't feel like at this point in my career I have any years to waste."

By Jeremy Houghtaling

Brett Connolly scored three times, but the Syracuse Crunch fell to the Binghamton Senators, 6-3, at the Onondaga County War Memorial Saturday.

Connolly is the third Crunch player to record a hat trick this season. Although he didn't record any points in his previous three games, Connolly had an eight-game point streak from Dec. 20 to Jan. 8.

"It's obviously a lot better when you have a good game and you win," Connolly said. "We need wins right now, and they're hard to come by in this league."