SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Syracuse Crunch rattled off five consecutive goals to rally past the Rochester Americans, 5-2, tonight at the Blue Cross Arena.
The win snaps a two-game skid and advances the team to 29-17-3-2 on the season and 6-0-1-1 in the 12-game season series against the Amerks.
Goaltender Matt Tomkins earned the win stopping 17-of-19 shots in net for the Crunch. Devon Levi turned aside 27-of-31 between the pipes for the Amerks. Syracuse special teams had a perfect night going 1-for-1 on the power play and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill.
The Amerks were first on the board halfway through the opening frame when the team capitalized on a turnover. Jiri Kulich poked the puck off a Crunch stick near the blueline and sent it ahead to Isak Rosen for a short breakaway.
Rochester doubled their lead 2:16 into the second period. Michael Mersch skated the puck down the right wing on an odd-man rush and passed over to Brett Murray. Murray immediately sent a return feed for Mersch to chip into the net. The Crunch stole one back five minutes later. Gage Goncalves chased the puck down into the left circle and backhanded a centering feed for Alex Barre-Boulet to send in with a one-timer from the slot. Syracuse evened the score at 15:07 when Jack Finley redirected Barre-Boulet’s shot from the right circle while on the power play.
Syracuse added three more goals in the third period to steal the game. The first came at the 8:33 mark. Cole Koepke fired a shot that went wide right, off the end boards and out to Chris Harpur in the left circle. He quickly threw it towards the slot for Gabriel Dumont to steer in. Less than three minutes later, Shawn Element forced a turnover, sped down the ice and beat Levi shorthanded. Gabriel Fortier rounded out the scoring when he hit the empty net in the final minutes.
The Crunch host the Toronto Marlies this Friday to start a home-and-home weekend series.
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