The Syracuse Crunch’s season came to an end with a 5-2 loss in Game 6 of the Calder Cup Finals tonight at the War Memorial Arena.
The 2012-13 season was the most successful in Syracuse Crunch history, this was the Crunch’s first Calder Cup Finals appearance.
Richard Panik opened the scoring with 2:45 to play in the first frame to give the Crunch a 1-0 lead. Griffins netminder Petr Mrazek made an initial save on a Matt Taormina shot, but Panik was able to capitalize on the rebound. Ondrej Palat picked up the secondary assist on the play.
The Griffins tied the game early in the second frame with a goal from Mitch Callahan. Triston Grant fed Callahan from behind the net and Callahan chipped the puck over Crunch goaltender Cedrick Desjardins’ shoulder.
With Radko Gudas serving a holding penalty the Griffins took the lead with a power-play goal from Tomas Tatar. Desjardins was out of position from an earlier save, leaving a wide open net for Tatar to give the Griffins a 2-1 lead.
Crunch defenseman Andrej Sustr evened the score with a shot from the blue line 5:14 into the final frame. Vlad Namestnikov won a battle behind the net and found Sustr at the blue line. Philip-Michael Devos also assisted on the goal.
Brennan Evans scored what would be the Calder Cup-winning goal halfway through the third period. Evans shot from the left point found its way through traffic to the back of Desjardins’ net with 10:06 remaining.
The Griffins secured their first Calder Cup Championship with a pair of empty-net goals late in the third period. Tatar scored his second of the night at the 19:11 mark and Joakim Andersson added a second empty-netter for final score of 5-2.
Read the rest at SyracuseCrunch.com.
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