Crunch Go Down 2-0 In Calder Cup Finals After Griffins Beat Them 6-5 In Double-OT

Ben Street‘s second goal of the night came at 7:02 of the second overtime to give the Grand Rapids Griffins a 6-5 win over the Syracuse Crunch Saturday at Van Andel Arena.

The Griffins now have a 2-0 series lead in the Calder Cup Final in the best-of-seven series.

Street added an assist for a three-point night, Martin Frk added a goal and two assists and Jared Coreau (13-2) made 21 of his 50 saves during sudden-death as Grand Rapids remained perfect at home this postseason.

The Griffins opened the Game 2 scoring at 5:27 of the first period with a power-play goal as Frk picked the top corner with a laser from the right-wing faceoff dot, his fourth goal of the playoffs.

Syracuse answered at 10:37 as Yanni Gourde netted his sixth goal of the postseason, skating down the right wing and chipping the puck past Coreau.

Street put the Griffins back up at 12:29 with his fifth goal of the playoffs, burying a rebound into an open cage after Mike McKenna‘s initial save off an Eric Tangradi shot.

Grand Rapids carried the 2-1 lead into the second period but the Crunch tied it up again at the 4:30 mark when Joel Vermin got around a defender and went backhand-to-forehand before slipping a shot past Coreau for his second goal of the series and seventh of the playoffs.

Just 71 seconds later, the Crunch took their first lead of Game 2 as captain Erik Condra drove to the net and put in the rebound of Matthew Peca‘s shot at 5:41.

The Griffins made it 3-3 with another power-play goal at 12:53. Frk sprung Mitch Callahan into the offensive zone with a long outlet pass, and Evgeny Svechnikov knocked in a rebound for his fifth goal of the playoffs.

Game 1 hero Tomas Nosek gave Grand Rapids a 4-3 lead just 24 seconds into the third, deflecting a shot by Street past McKenna for his 10th goal of the playoffs.

But Syracuse scored its first power-play goal in seven tries this series to tie it at 4-4 with 12:13 remaining, as Cory Conacher one-timed a feed from Gourde for his 10th postseason goal, re-tying Nosek for the league lead.

Tyler Bertuzzi gave Grand Rapids its fourth one-goal lead of the night with 6:24 to go, finishing a barrage of Griffins shots with a rocket from the left-wing dot, his seventh goal of the playoffs.

Byron Froese missed a chance to tie the game on a penalty shot with 5:07 to go, but the Crunch got the equalizer 22 seconds after when Michael Bournival scored his seventh of the playoffs.

Syracuse had several great chances in overtime, including a power play that spanned the two extra periods but leaves West Michigan without a win.

McKenna (11-7) made 45 saves on the night.

NOTES: Shots on goal were 55-51 in favor of Syracuse… This was the first double-overtime game in the Calder Cup Finals since 2005, when Patrick Sharp gave Philadelphia a 2-1 win over Chicago in Game 2 of that series… Attendance was 10,834, the Griffins’ first sellout of the postseason… Grand Rapids’ three power-play goals tied a franchise record for a single playoff game… The Griffins improved to 9-0 when scoring the game’s first goal, and 9-0 at home… The Crunch, 2-7 on the road in the playoffs, will take their own nine-game home winning streak into Game 3 on Wednesday. – (TheAHL.com)

Boxscore

Grand Rapids 6 – Syracuse 5 Double-OT

Scoring	1	2	3	OT	2OT	Total	PP
Syracuse Crunch	1	2	2	0	0	5	1 / 6
Grand Rapids Griffins	2	1	2	0	1	6	3 / 5

 

Shots	1	2	3	OT	2OT	Total
Syracuse Crunch	12	7	15	16	5	55
Grand Rapids Griffins	12	15	8	11	5	51

 

Syracuse Crunch

#		Skater		Pos	G	A	PIM	Shots	+/-
4		Dotchin, Jake		D	0	1	0	1	2
5		Masin, Dominik		D	0	0	2	5	1
9		Cirelli, Anthony		C	0	0	0	4	0
11	C	Condra, Erik		RW	1	1	0	2	1
15		Lynch, Kevin		C	0	0	0	5	0
16		McGinn, Tye		LW	0	0	2	0	0
20	A	Taormina, Matt		D	0	0	0	3	0
21		Froese, Byron		C	0	0	0	2	0
22		Peca, Matthew		C	0	1	0	2	1
25		Brodeur, Mathieu		D	0	0	0	4	-1
26		Thomas, Ben		D	0	0	0	3	-1
37		Gourde, Yanni		LW	1	1	0	2	0
40		Dumont, Gabriel		C	0	0	2	2	0
65	A	Koekkoek, Slater		D	0	0	0	4	1
73		Erne, Adam		LW	0	1	0	2	0
78		Bournival, Michael		LW	1	1	2	6	1
89		Conacher, Cory		RW	1	0	2	4	0
92		Vermin, Joel		RW	1	0	0	4	0
#		Goalie	GA	Mins	SA	SVS	G	A	PIM
50		Gudlevskis, Kristers	0		0	0	0	0	0
56		McKenna, Mike	6	87:02	51	45	0	0	0

Head Coach: Benoit Groulx

Assistant Coach: Jeff Halpern

Assistant Coach: Trent Cull

Grand Rapids Griffins

#		Skater		Pos	G	A	PIM	Shots	+/-
2		Hicketts, Joe		D	0	1	0	4	1
4	C	Paetsch, Nathan		D	0	1	0	1	0
5		Russo, Robbie		D	0	0	0	0	-1
10		Street, Ben		C	2	1	2	8	2
15		Callahan, Mitch		RW	0	1	0	4	1
18	A	Lashoff, Brian		D	0	0	2	0	0
19		Nosek, Tomas		C	1	1	2	3	-3
20		Renouf, Dan		D	0	0	0	3	-1
23		Turgeon, Dominic		C	0	0	0	1	0
26		Tangradi, Eric		LW	0	2	0	6	2
27		Frk, Martin		RW	1	2	2	4	-2
28		Lorito, Matt		LW	0	0	0	3	0
39		Bertuzzi, Tyler		LW	1	0	2	2	-3
45		Campbell, Colin		RW	0	0	0	1	0
51		Criscuolo, Kyle		C	0	0	0	2	0
52		McIlrath, Dylan		D	0	0	2	2	-1
55	A	Ford, Matthew		RW	0	1	0	3	0
77		Svechnikov, Evgeny		RW	1	0	0	4	0
#		Goalie	GA	Mins	SA	SVS	G	A	PIM
31		Coreau, Jared	5	87:00	55	50	0	0	0
40		Pasquale, Eddie	0		0	0	0	0	0

Head Coach: Todd Nelson

Assistant Coach: Mike Knuble

Assistant Coach: Ben Simon

Scoring

1st
5:27	GR	Martin Frk (4) ASST: Matthew Ford (4), Tomas Nosek (8) (PP)
10:37	SYR	Yanni Gourde (6) ASST: None
12:29	GR	Ben Street (5) ASST: Eric Tangradi (14)
2nd
4:30	SYR	Joel Vermin (7) ASST: None
5:41	SYR	Erik Condra (5) ASST: Matthew Peca (9), Michael Bournival (4)
12:53	GR	Evgeny Svechnikov (5) ASST: Mitch Callahan (9), Martin Frk (7)(PP)
3rd
0:24	GR	Tomas Nosek (10) ASST: Ben Street (12), Martin Frk (8) (PP)
7:47	SYR	Cory Conacher (10) ASST: Yanni Gourde (14), Adam Erne (5)(PP)
13:36	GR	Tyler Bertuzzi (7) ASST: Nathan Paetsch (4), Joe Hicketts (6)
15:15	SYR	Michael Bournival (7) ASST: Jake Dotchin (6), Erik Condra (11)
OT
No Scoring
2nd OT
7:02	GR	Ben Street (6) ASST: Eric Tangradi (15)

Penalties

1st
03:06	GR	Brian Lashoff, Hooking, 2 min PP
03:48	SYR	Cory Conacher, Hooking, 2 min PP
14:03	GR	Dylan McIlrath, Roughing, 2 min PP
17:17	SYR	Michael Bournival, Hooking, 2 min PP
17:24	GR	Martin Frk, Checking to the head, 2 min PP
2nd
00:04	GR	Tomas Nosek, Elbowing, 2 min PP
06:08	SYR	Tye McGinn, Tripping, 2 min PP
11:29	SYR	Dominik Masin, Tripping, 2 min PP
19:36	SYR	Gabriel Dumont, Hooking, 2 min PP
3rd
06:28	GR	Tyler Bertuzzi, Cross-checking, 2 min PP
OT
18:21	GR	Ben Street, Delay of game, 2 min PP
2nd OT
No Penalties

Syracuse Crunch Penalty Shots

#	Shooter	#	Goaltender	Period	Time	Goal?
21	Byron Froese	31	Jared Coreau	3rd	14:53	No

Grand Rapids Griffins Penalty Shots

#	Shooter	#	Goaltender	Period	Time	Goal?

Three Stars

1st	2nd	3rd
Ben Street Grand Rapids Griffins G: 2 A: 1	Martin Frk Grand Rapids Griffins G: 1 A: 2	Cory Conacher Syracuse Crunch G: 1 A: 0

 

	PP	PIM	PTS
Syracuse Crunch	1 / 6	10 min / 5 inf	5 G + 6 A = 11 PTS
Grand Rapids Griffins	3 / 5	12 min / 6 inf	6 G + 10 A = 16 PTS

 

Arena	OFFICIALS
Van Andel Arena Attendance: 10834 Start: 7:11 pm End: 11:17 pm Length: 4:06	Referee: Terry Koharski (10) Referee: Jake Brenk (42) Linesman: Kory Nagy (97) Linesman: Ryan Daisy (81)

Follow me on Twitter @LightningShout and please “like” LightningShout on Facebook. You can email us at [email protected].