Power-play tallies lift Whale past Crunch 3-1; puts Connecticut back on top of the Northeast Division
In search of their third straight victory, the Connecticut Whale hosted the Syracuse Crunch tonight, at the XL Center in Hartford. More special-team’s success and timely goals by some surprising players lifted the Whale to a big win.
The opening period of the game did not garner much offense, with shots-on-goal going to Syracuse 7-4. Goals were scored, however; and opening the scoring was Whale forward Mats Zuccarello at 7:31. The 2012 AHL All-Star deflected a Tim Erixon point-shot past Crunch’ goaltender Jeff Deslauriers, providing the Whale with a 1-0 lead. The power-play marker was Zuccarello’s 10th tally of the season, and assists were credited to Erixon and Brendan Bell.
Syracuse would eventually tie the game before the first period ended, when forward J.F. Jacques rushed the Whale net and flipped a shot over goaltender Chad Johnson for the score. Jacques opening period game-tier was his 14th goal of the season, and the lone assist was given to newcomer Devante Smith-Pelly–who was playing in his first American Hockey League game on a two-week conditioning assignment—at 14:49.
It took a little while for the action to pick-up in this contest, but after killing off their second penalty of the game at 12:56 of the second period, the Whale began to play a more aggressive game and eventually received another power-play chance.
At the 16:26 mark, Whale forward Andre Deveaux was clipped, and cut, by a high-stick, earning a four-minute power-play opportunity for the Whale.
Connecticut took advantage of its chance, and defenseman Blake Parlett fired a shot past Deslauriers at the 18:14 mark to give the Whale a 2-1 lead. The power-play tally was Parlett’s fourth goal of the year, and it was assisted by Jeff Woywitka and Casey Wellman.
In the final second of the period, Deveaux and Crunch’ Mark Fraser dropped the gloves for a spirited battle. The Whale led in shots for the period, 12-5.
After killing-off an early Kelsey Tessier penalty to begin the third period, the Whale added to their one goal lead on a tally by rookie forward Scott Tanski. At 7:52 of the period, Tanski jammed a rebound into Syracuse’s net to give the Whale a 3-1 lead. It was Tanski’s fifth goal of the season, with assists going to Woywitka and Jordan Owens.
Each team traded penalties in the final minutes of the game, but in the end the Whale came out on top, 3-1.
The three stars of the game were all from the Whale bench, with the No.1 star going to Johnson for his 23-save effort between the pipes. He helped the Whale kill all four penalties-against, and made some big saves when the game was close. Johnson’s record improves to 13-9-5 on the season.
Woywitka was the games second star with two assists, one shot-on-goal and a plus-1 rating. Parlett was the games third star, having scored the game-winning goal on the power-play, and totaling two shots and a plus-1 rating.
Other notable performances from the game include a six-shot, one assist night from Wellman. The 24-year-old center played in his second game with the Whale since being acquired through trade by the New York Rangers and now has two helpers in two contests.
Though he finished the game without a point, rookie forward Jonathan Audy-Marchessault recorded three shots in the game, which was tied for second highest on the team, tied with Bell.
One final note: the Whale has reclaimed possession of first-place in the Northeast Division, and third-place in the Eastern Conference with the win. Their season record is 22-16-4-5 (53 points).
Connecticut will take two days off before embarking on a busy three-game road-trip this weekend, with games in Springfield (Friday at 7pm ET), Manchester (Saturday at 7pm ET) and Bridgeport (Sunday at 3pm ET).
Final score: Whale 3, Crunch 1
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