SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Syracuse Crunch rallied past the Rochester Americans, 4-3, in overtime tonight at Upstate Medical University Arena tonight.
The win advances the Crunch to 25-21-6-2 on the season and 7-3-1-0 in the 12-game season series against the Amerks.
Crunch goaltender Max Lagace stopped 22-of-25 shots in victory. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen turned aside 40-of-44 between the pipes for the Amerks. Syracuse went 1-for-4 on the power play and 2-of-3 on the penalty kill.
The Amerks opened scoring with a power-play goal 11:09 into the first period. Oskari Laaksonen netted a long right-point shot while Lagace was screened. Linus Weissbach doubled the Amerks lead at 18:56 when he sent in a one-timer from between the circles.
The Crunch finally solved Luukkonen and rallied for three consecutive goals in the third period. Just 15 seconds into the frame, Ryan Jones ripped a slap shot from the top of the left circle to pull the team back within one. At 7:24, Gage Goncalves skated down the left wing and switched to his backhand to chip the puck in on a breakaway to even the score. Syracuse took over the lead at 10:28 when Cole Koepke went bar down from the top of the left circle.
At the 11:07 mark, Brett Murray dropped a pass back for JJ Peterka to score from the left faceoff dot to force overtime.
Syracuse took the win 59 seconds into the overtime frame when Alex Barre-Boulet centered the puck for Darren Raddysh to chip in.
The Crunch are back in action on Wednesday when they host the Hartford Wolf Pack.