ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Syracuse Crunch held the lead four times during the back-and-forth high-scoring contest tonight at the Blue Cross Arena. Each time, the Rochester Americans were able to climb back and eventually topped the Crunch, 6-5, in overtime.
By making it to the extra frame, the Crunch have now tallied points in a season-high five consecutive games as they move to 19-15-8-1 on the season and 2-0-2-1 in the 10-game series. The Americans advance to 21-19-2-1.
Crunch goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis stopped 21 of 27 shots, while his counterpart, Linus Ullmark, turned aside 20-of-25. Syracuse was unable to convert on two power play opportunities, but shut down 4-of-6 Rochester man-advantages.
It only took 42 seconds for the Crunch to open scoring. Anthony DeAngelo fired a shot from the right point that went wide and ricocheted behind the cage. Yanni Gourde grabbed control down low and circled the puck back up to the top for Matt Taormina. The defenseman’s quick wrister from the blue line snuck through light traffic and past Ullmark.
The Americans evened the score halfway through the frame. After drawing the play to the right wing side, Phil Varone sent a pass across the zone to Matt Donovan. His shot from the point hit the leg of a Crunch defender before bouncing in front of the cage and through the five-hole. Dan Catenacci recorded the secondary assist on the equalizer.
The Crunch struck early again in the second period to take back the lead. After a series of close range attempts, the puck kicked out to the slot for Mike Blunden to finally send home. Jeff Tambellini and Mike Angelidis earned points with the helpers.
For the second time, the Americans knotted the score. After Rochester forced a turnover, Justin Bailey and Tim Schaller started an odd-man rush. Bailey drew the lone defenseman to the right side before sending a feed for Schaller to redirect into the net at the 8:36 mark. Jerome Leduc earned an assist on the play.
Halfway through the frame, Syracuse tallied two goals in 19 seconds to build a two-goal lead. At the 10:01 mark, Blunden scored from in front of the crease off Tanner Richard’s feed from behind the goal line. Only a few seconds later, Gourde received a pass from Blunden and lit the lamp from the right circle.
It took Rochester less than a minute to steal one back. With pressure from the Crunch defense, Evan Rodrigues carried the puck down the left wing side. Varone found his centering pass and slid one past Gudlevskis.
In the opening minutes of the final frame, the Americans came back to tie the game for a third time. While on the man-advantage, Cal O’Reilly threw the puck up for Donovan to beat the goaltender top shelf from the blue line.
However, at the 4:09 mark, the Crunch went back on top. Dylan Blujus passed ahead to Daniel Walcott, who dumped the puck into the zone from center ice. Brian Hart tipped it at the blue line, causing the puck to take a big bounce in the slot and soar over Ullmark into the net.
With 4:23 remaining in the contest, Jerry D’Amigo brought the puck into the zone and fired from a sharp angle at the bottom of the right circle while on the power play to tie the contest yet again and eventually force overtime.
Rochester went on to take the victory at the 1:46 mark of the extra frame. Varone baited Gudlevskis out of the net and beat him with a close-range shot to down Syracuse, 6-5.
With Crunch game report
