Syracuse Crunch Triumphs Over Binghamton Devils Once Again

Binghamton Devils’ Head Coach Mark Dennehy preached before the game about getting off to a strong start, something that has been recently lacking. The players responded and did exactly that in jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first half of the opening period. But it was short-lived as the Syracuse Crunch tied it with two quick goals that eventually carried them to a 6-3 victory on Wednesday in Binghamton.

It was the sixth straight win for the Crunch (18-8-2-0) over the Devils this season as they have Binghamton’s number.

Photo provided by Alicia Strauch

After goals from defenseman John Ramage (5) and Blake Pietila (10), Syracuse scored their first 21 seconds later by Cal Foote (3) and Carter Verhaeghe (11) tied it less than four minutes later with the lift of the puck over Devils’ starter Cam Johnson to end the first period.

In the middle twenty minutes, Syracuse carried momentum leading to the next two goals with a slapper off the faceoff by Alex Barre-Boulet (14) from near the blueline. That was followed 13 seconds later with a one-timer by Cal Foote (4) in the slot area and just like that it was 4-2 Syracuse.

After a timeout, Binghamton (14-17-3-0) would cut the deficit by a single goal late in the period as Brandon Gignac scored his sixth on a turn around the cage shot that eluded Syracuse netminder Eddie Pasquale with 20 seconds left. That ended four unanswered by Syracuse and gave hope for a Devils’ comeback in the third.

Unfortunately, that would be the last goal recorded by the Devils as the Crunch scored the next two in the final period from Dominik Masin (1) and Boris Katchouk (4) to give Syracuse their third straight win and seventh of the last ten as they close in on Rochester for the North Division lead.

Shots ended up 33-28 Devils as they failed to win their third straight. The two rivals have four games remaining on the season with each other.

Line-Up, Game #34

Forwards: Pietila - McLeod - Bastian, Gignac - Rooney - Schmelzer, Saracino - Sharangovich - Speers, Baddock - Ward - Gabriel

Defensemen: Kapla - Ramage, White - Gryba, Hammond - Jacobs

In Goal: Cam Johnson, Alex Sakellaropoulos

Scratches: Brian Strait, Eddie Lack, Colby Sissons, Eric Tangradi, Marian Studenic and Nick Lappin.

Post Game Notes

• Studenic, Lappin, and Tangradi out but all are skating. John Quenneville was recalled earlier in the day by NJ. F Nick Saracino (Whl) and G Alex Sakellaropoulos (Adr) were both signed to PTO’s before the game.
• Michael McLeod added an assist in the 1st period with a nice drop pass that set-up Pietila’s 1-timer from the slot. McLeod has 2g, 8a in his last 11 games while Pietila matched Nick Lappin for the team lead in goals with 10 each.
• Longtime Albany Devils’ defenseman Dan Kelly (#55) was one of the referees tonight, as he played for 6 seasons in the Capital District area of NYS.
• Syracuse is loaded with talent and can turn it on at will at any given point, just no match when it comes to the BDevils in comparison. Plus it didn’t help any with the injury bug the team is currently having.

Three Stars

#1. Cal Foote (2g), #2. Gabriel Dumont (2a), #3. Alex Barre-Boulet (1g, 1a)

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Binghamton Devils back to Utica once again on Thursday to take on the Comets.