BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – The Syracuse Crunch let up the first goal in the opening period before going on a six-goal run to extinguish the Binghamton Senators, 6-1, tonight at the Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena.
Six separate players scored for the Crunch as they worked toward a five-goal victory. Matthew Peca opened scoring for the team in the second period, followed by John Kurtz and Michael Bournival. Erik Condra and Kevin Lynch kicked off the third before Libor Hajek netted his first professional goal with seconds remaining in the game. The win advances Syracuse to 34-23-6-5 on the season and 4-3-0-1 in the 10-game season series with Binghamton.
Netminder Mike McKenna turned aside 20-of-21 shots between the pipes for the Crunch. Chris Driedger stopped 27-of-33 for the Senators. Syracuse went 0-for-3 on the power play, while Binghamton was 1-for-3 on the man-advantage.
The Senators opened scoring on the power play at the 7:06 mark of the first period. After Chad Nehring won the faceoff in the right circle, he chipped it back to Colin White at the point. Jason Akeson one-timed a feed along the blue line to take a 1-0 lead.
The Crunch responded early in the second period and scored three goals to steal the lead. At the 1:02 mark, Matt Taormina received a pass from Ben Thomas and fired from the left point. His shot ricocheted off Peca and in to even the score. Just 20 seconds later, Kurtz chipped the puck in from a sharp angle at the goal line. Taormina picked up the assist on the go-ahead goal.
With 4:29 remaining in the middle frame, Bournival picked off a turnover, knocked the puck to the ice and turned to net it from the top of the right circle.
Syracuse added another three tallies in the third period to secure a 6-1 victory. Less than a minute into the stanza, Mathieu Brodeur ripped a shot from the blue line that was turned aside for Condra to come sliding in and send home from his knee. Slater Koekkoek earned a point on the goal.
Halfway through the third, Brodeur sent a pass from the left boards that Peca faked picking up before letting it slide through his legs and over for Lynch to score alone in the slot. Koekkoek made it a two-point night with the secondary helper.
With 43 seconds remaining in the contest, Tanner Richard set up Hajek to score with a slap shot from above the left circle.
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