With their backs against the wall and their season on the line, the Syracuse Crunch pulled out a 3-2 victory over Grand Rapids on Friday night, spoiling the party for a sold-out crowd at Van Andel Arena.
The Griffins still lead the Calder Cup Finals three games to one, and get another crack at wrapping up their first championship in Game 5 on Saturday night (7 ET, AHL Live).
Richard Panik‘s goal with 3:08 left in the second period held up as the game-winner for the Crunch, who avoided being swept out of the Finals after winning 11 of 12 games through the first three rounds.
After surviving an early Syracuse power play, Grand Rapids broke in front on a goal by Joakim Andersson 3:37 into the contest.
The lead lasted just 87 seconds, however, as Brett Connolly answered at 5:04, beating Petr Mrazek on a breakaway for his fifth goal of the playoffs.
But the Griffins retook the lead at 11:04 when Jan Mursak knocked in a rebound of Jeff Hoggan‘s shot. The assist was Hoggan’s fifth point in the last three games.
The Crunch killed off overlapping penalties midway through the opening period, including 59 seconds of 5-on-3 time, to hold the Griffins lead at 2-1 through 20 minutes.
Syracuse’s penalty killers kept the Crunch in the game with two more successful kills in the second period, thenOndrej Palat fired a rocket from the left-wing circle past Mrazek at 14:01 to tie the game at 2-2.
On the next shift, Cedrick Desjardins robbed Andersson from point-blank range to keep the score tied, and at 16:52 the Crunch grabbed their first lead of the night as Panik redirected a point shot from Mark Barberio past Mrazek.
Syracuse got a golden opportunity to extend the lead when Griffins forward Gustav Nyquist was assessed a spearing major and game misconduct with 21.5 seconds left in the second period, but the Crunch could not extend their lead.
A Grand Rapids power play with 4:33 to play in regulation gave the Griffins another chance to pull even, but Desjardins and the Crunch held their ground.
The Griffins thought they had tied the game with 17.4 seconds left, but a video review confirmed that the puck did not cross the goal line.
Read the rest at TheAHL.com.
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