SYRACUSE, N.Y. – After giving up the first goal, the Syracuse Crunch rattled off four straight on their way to a 5-2 victory over the Rochester Americans tonight at Blue Cross Arena.
Gemel Smith put up two goals, while Alex Barre-Boulet had a three-point effort with a goal and two assists. The win advances the Crunch to 22-21-3-3 on the season and moves them to 2-3-2-0 in the 12-game season series against the Amerks.
Goaltender Spencer Martin recorded the win with 22 saves in net for the Crunch. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 25-of-29 between the pipes for the Amerks. Syracuse went 1-for-3 on both the power play and penalty kill.
The Amerks opened scoring with a power-play goal late in the first period. Casey Mittelstadt tipped Sean Malone’s left-wing shot as he cut down the slot.
The Crunch tied the game with a power-play goal of their own 7:23 into the middle frame. Barre-Boulet skated the puck into the zone, paused and passed down to Smith along the goal line. He flipped it to his backhand and shoveled the puck past Luukkonen. Cal Foote recorded the secondary helper.
At 14:48, Syracuse took the lead. Mathieu Joseph got a stick on Foote’s right-point shot to redirect it off the post and in. Barre-Boulet made it a multi-point night with an assist on the go-ahead tally.
The Crunch added two more in the third period before the Amerks responded. At 6:07, Ross Colton poked the puck ahead for Barre-Boulet at the blue line. He toe dragged around a defender in the left circle and sniped a shot into the far corner. Five minutes later, Danick Martel got out ahead and netted one on the breakaway. Assists went to Boris Katchouk and Logan Roe.
Rochester stole one back with another power-play goal at 12:37. Jean-Sebastien Dea was in the top of the left circle to one-time a cross-zone feed from Mittelstadt.
With 4:21 remaining, Smith tallied his second of the night into an empty net to lock in a 5-2 victory.
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