Crunch whistle past Monsters

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. ­­– The Syracuse Crunch rolled past the Cleveland Monsters, 6-3, tonight at the Upstate Medical University Arena.

Alex Barre-Boulet put up two goals and three assists for a five-point night, while Peter Abbandonato earned his first two-goal game. The win advances the Crunch to 25-22-3-5 on the season as they sweep the Monsters, 4-0, in the season series.

Goaltender Scott Wedgewood turned aside 21-of-24 shots in net for the Crunch. Veini Vehvilainen stopped 14-of-19 between the pipes for the Monsters. Syracuse went 2-for-5 on the power play and a perfect 5-for-5 on the penalty kill.

The Crunch opened scoring 14:07 into the first period. Barre-Boulet fired a shot from a sharp angle along the goal line that got past Vehvilainen before redirecting off Mathieu Joseph and in. Ross Colton tallied a point on the goal.

The Monsters evened the score 3:02 into the middle frame when Markus Hannikainen sped down the left wing, cut in front of the goal and backhanded a shot back over Wedgewood.

Barre-Boulet put Syracuse back on top three minutes later off a one-timer from the right circle while on the power play. Mathieu Joseph and Anthony Greco recorded the assists.

The Crunch continued to build a lead in the second period as Abbandonato potted back-to-back goals. At 8:32, he grabbed a loose puck in the bottom of the right circle and wristed it home. Daniel Walcott and Barre-Boulet assisted on the marker. Six minutes later, he came down the right wing and backhanded a shot from the faceoff dot for his second of the night. Alex Volkov and Barre-Boulet collected points on the goal.

Syracuse and Cleveland exchanged goals in the third period beginning at the 4:11 mark when Ryan MacInnis sent a feed out from the end boards for Branden Troock to one-time from the right circle. Two minutes later, Volkov found Boris Katchouk on the backdoor for another power-play goal. Taylor Raddysh picked up a point for the secondary helper.

Halfway through the final frame, the Monsters came back within two again. Hannikainen came around the back of the net and sent home a rebound chance during a battle out front for his second of the game. Barre-Boulet then hit the empty net in the final minute of the game to secure the 6-3 win.