CANTLON: SYRACUSE CRUNCHES PACK
BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings SYRACUSE, NY - A three-goal third period sparked by a goal and two assists from Otto Sompii led the Syracuse Crunch over the Hartford Wolf Pack 4-2 on Wednesday night. The Wolf Pack (27-19-5-2) have lost three in a row and have a .575 winning percentage which puts them just ahead of the fifth-place Hershey Bears (.570). Syracuse (26-21-6-2) has a .546 winning percentage just behind the Belleville Senators who are in fourth place at .549 in the North Division for their last playoff spot. The Wolf Pack head across the border to Canada to play the Laval Rocket on Friday and then on to Belleville on Saturday. GAMEPLAY The Crunch struck first with two goals in the first five minutes while holding Hartford without a shot on the net. Sompii went out on a two-on-one by Simon Ryfors and as Matt Robertson sprawled out on the ice, slid past him with a toe drag before Sompii went upstairs on Adam Huska for his fifth at 2:04. Just a couple of minutes later, ex-Pack Darren Raddysh migrated from his right point to the left wing where Ryfors was controlling the puck off a feed from Sompii. Ryfors dropped it off and Raddysh did the rest. Raddysh made a little dipsy-doodle move in the left-wing circle on Nils Lundkvist and put his sixth goal of the season going bar down, increasing the Crunch lead by two goals at 4:19. Raddysh scored for the second straight game and the sixth time in the last fifteen games. MORE GOALS At 14:44 Gabriel Fortier took the puck from Sompii behind the net and snapped his eleventh goal of the season dashing hopes of a comeback. The Pack closed out the scoring. Jeff Taylor was high along the right-wing boards. He found Zac Jones alone at the back door and deposited his sixth with exactly two minutes to go. The Pack finally showed some life albeit too late on the next shift pulled Huska for the extra attacker and only Anthony Greco got a shot with 48 seconds to go that didn’t go in ending his eight game scoring streak. In the first period, Syracuse scored in the last minute of play registering its lone power-play goal by Alex Barré-Boulet after second-year pro, Cole Koepke, skated in short-handed past Tarmo Reunanen who pulled him down. An unforced turnover by Nils Lundkvist went to Boulet who went behind the Wolf Pack net. He was looking to chip a backhanded pass out front to Raddysh, who was a wide-open. Barré-Boulet’s attempt went off the back of the net and right back to him. Huska reacted to the move, but Barré-Boulet swept in and stuffed in his ninth goal of the season in the open right side. Huska reacted thinking Barré-Boulet was coming out on the left side. WOLF PACK TIE THE GAME The Wolf Pack tied the game at one each five minutes into the second. Hunter Skinner came down the right-wing boards. He fought off a slash by Charles Hudon and dished off the puck to Justin Richards. On his 24th birthday, Richards moved into open ice in the slot about fifteen feet out before rifling his sixth goal of the season upstairs over the left shoulder of Syracuse netminder Max Lagace. Syracuse dictated play the rest of the period as the Pack to five shots on goal while they took twelve shots on Huska. NOTES Rangers sent down Morgan Barron late in the day and he wasn’t available to play. He wasn’t getting any game time. Calle Järnkrok, the cousin of ex-New Haven Nighthawk Mikael Lindholm is traded from Seattle to Calgary to play with his cousin Elias. Ty Smilanic of Quinnipiac University (ECACHL) had his rights traded from Florida to Montreal for Ben Chiarot. Ex-Pack Ryan Dmowski (Old Lyme/the Gunn School) goes from South Carolina (ECHL) to Idaho (ECHL) after spending two months in Hershey. Chase Zieky (Avon/Avon Old Farms) departs Idaho for Greenville (ECHL) as does goalie Matt Tugnutt (Sacred Heart University) Ex-Pack Peter Holland 31, retires from hockey. Syracuse didn’t dress ex-Packs P.C. Labrie and Brandon Crawley, but did dress ex-Pack Daniel Walcott along with Day and Raddysh. LINES Fritz-Gettinger-Rueschoff Ronning-Khordorenko-Greco Richards-Lorito-Greco Whalen-O’Leary-Taylor Jones-Lundkvist Robertson-Skinner Bitetto-Tinordi Reunanen Huska Kinkaid HARTFORD WOLF PACK HOME Read the full article