Crunch "Spooked" by Amerks in Friday Night Loss

Cody Kunyk and the Crunch dropped their third straight in a 3-0 loss to the Rochester Americans on Halloween night at War Memorial Arena in downtown Syracuse.

Story and Photo by Michael Castellano

A potential three-game losing streak wasn't enough to spook the Syracuse Crunch into beating the Rochester Americans on Halloween night in downtown Syracuse. The Crunch, playing their first game since an October 26th 5-1 loss to Springfield, was silent offensively, getting shutout 3-0 by the Amerks before a crowd of 3,887 fans at the OnCenter War Memorial.

The Crunch (3-4-1-0), has scored only three goals in its first four losses this season but did manage 38 shots on goal against Rochester goalie Andrey Makarov. The Amerks (6-2-0-0) meanwhile have won five of six and have outscored their opponents 17-6 in those five wins.

The Americans got on the scoreboard  at the 2:58 mark of the first period on a goal by right winger Joel Armia. It was his fourth on the season and second in the last two games. 

The Crunch had plenty of scoring opportunities early on with four Rochester penalties totaling 11 minutes of power play time in the first period, but couldn't get anything past Amerks goalie Andrey Makarov.

"I thought we had a lot of chances, I thought we had a lot of traffic, we just didn't score," Crunch head coach Rob Zettler said. "I thought their goalie played really well."

With the Crunch one man down late in the first the Amerks took advantage. Defenseman Jerome Leduc scored a power play goal in the last minute of the opening period to give Rochester a 2-0 lead heading into the first intermission.

That was the last goal until the 7:42 mark of the third period when the Amerks Phil Varone scored his fourth goal of the season in not so typical fashion. 

"We poked the puck," Crunch right winger Mike Blunden said. "It went up off our own guys' [Syracuse goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy] shoulder and in the net."

It was that kind of night for the Crunch which has failed to take advantage of power-play chances early in the season. The Crunch ranks 28th in the league in power play offense and has converted on just 2 of 33 chances.

"We generated some chances, but at the end of the day that's not good enough," said Jonathan Marchessault, who leads the Crunch with seven points on the year. "We have to bury those opportunities on the power-play and get those points."

Friday night's shutout loss was the first time this season the Crunch failed to score. The team ranks last in the Eastern Conference's Northeast Division with just 16 goals on the season.

The Crunch will be right back on the ice Saturday night, facing off against the Binghamton Senators (3-4-2-0) at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton. The puck drops at 7:05p.m.