SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Syracuse Crunch scored five unanswered goals to rally back and take down the Laval Rocket, 6-4, tonight at the War Memorial Arena.
The win puts the Crunch on a seven-game points streak and four-game winning streak. Syracuse now sits at 8-5-1-0 on the season.
Connor Ingram earned his third consecutive win in net for the Crunch turning aside 24-of-28 shots. Michael McNiven stopped 16-of-21 between the pipes for the Rocket. The Syracuse power play maintained their momentum going 4-for-7, while the penalty kill stopped 5-of-7.
Laval was first on the board with a power-play goal 6:30 into the first period. After receiving the puck from Jake Evans in the bottom of the right circle, Michael Chaput threw a centering feed that deflected off a defender and in. Brett Kulak earned the secondary assist. The Crunch evened the score at the 11:28 mark during 5-on-3 play. After quick passes between Alex Barré-Boulet and Carter Verhaeghe, Taylor Raddysh finished it off on the back door.
With 3:17 remaining in the first, the Rocket went back on top. Chaput grabbed a drop pass from Evans as he cut across the slot and fired. His first shot was stopped, but he jammed in his own rebound. Adam Plant earned a point on the play.
Laval went up by two with another power-play marker 7:16 into the middle stanza. Daniel Audette fed Ryan Sproul for a slap shot from the right circle.
The Crunch got one back at the 13:36 mark and went on a five-game scoring streak to take control of the game. Verhaeghe kicked it off when he picked the corner from the bottom of the left circle on the man-advantage. Assists went to Andy Andreoff and Cory Conacher. Four minutes later, Barré-Boulet tipped in Andreoff’s right wing shot as he cut across the slot. Cameron Gaunce recorded the secondary assist.
Eight minutes into the third period, the Crunch took their first lead of the game on the power play. Gaunce ripped a shot bar down from the blueline with the help of Conacher and Barré-Boulet. At 16:19, Cal Foote potted his first of the season with a one-timer from the top of the left circle. Nolan Valleau and Alex Volkov tallied the assists on the eventual game-winning power-play goal. Volkov then went on to hit the empty net with two minutes left to play.
With just 43 seconds remaining in the game, Michael Pezzetta cleaned up a rebound from Sproul’s high-slot shot, but it was not enough to trigger a late comeback and the Crunch defeated Laval in their first meeting this season.
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