SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Syracuse Crunch were crushed by the Toronto Marlies, 7-1, and fell into a three-game hole in the North Division Finals tonight at the War Memorial Arena.
Erik Cernak scored the team’s only goal late in the second period, but the Crunch couldn’t muster additional offense to overcome the Marlies.
Connor Ingram stopped 23-of-30 shots in net for the Crunch. Calvin Pickard turned aside 18-of-19 between the pipes for the Marlies. Syracuse went 0-for-4 on the power play, but a perfect 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
Toronto built a two-goal lead in the first five minutes of the opening period. At 3:23, Ben Smith sent the puck up the boards for Justin Holl to fire from the blue line. Ingram made the pad save, but left the rebound for Chris Mueller to clean up. A minute later, Carl Grundstrom scored on a tic-tac-toe play with Andreas Johnsson and Miro Aaltonen.
The Marlies added two more in the second stanza before Crunch finally responded. Grundstrom picked up the puck in the defensive zone and made a long stretch pass down ice to Johnsson. The forward carried the puck in on a 2-on-1 with Aaltonen, who found the back of the net. With 5:55 left in the second period, Pierre Engvall threw a shot on goal. Frederik Gauthier attempted to jam it in, but the puck was deflected. Colin Greening eventually shoved in the rebound.
Syracuse got on the board with 2:37 remaining in the middle frame. After winning a battle at the boards, Kevin Lynch passed it back for Carter Verhaeghe. He connected with Cernak who was alone in the slot.
Toronto added three more in the final period. At 8:23, Vincent LoVerde cleared the puck from the zone. Trevor Moore picked it up at the blue line and scored on a mini breakaway. Pickard recorded the secondary helper.
Seven minutes later, Lilegren intercepted a pass and sent it to Johnsson to score on another breakaway. Moore then potted his second of the night with 1:40 remaining in the game. Mueller sent a centering feed from the right wing for the winger to tuck in from the slot.
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