For the first time in the 2017 Calder Cup Finals, the Grand Rapids Griffins have suffered the taste of defeat.
The Syracuse Crunch got on the board in the series with a 5-3 victory at Onondaga County War Memorial Arena, and now trail 2-1 overall.
FIRST PERIOD
Syracuse got the scoring started seven minutes into the game when Byron Froese buried a rebound behind Jared Coreau. Grand Rapids tied the game back up at one merely 2:17 later, as Tyler Bertuzzi chipped home a rebound after Martin Frk‘s shot hit the post. It was Bertuzzi’s eighth goal of the playoffs. Crunch forward Joel Vermin then scored two goals within 57 seconds, the first at 15:31. His second came on the power play, and marked the first two goal lead for either team in the series. Syracuse led 3-1 after one period of play.
SECOND PERIOD
The Crunch had a golden opportunity to take a three goal lead just under seven minutes into the period, when Coreau stopped Crunch forward Anthony Cirelli‘s breakaway attempt. Griffins forward Dominic Turgeon finished a rush following the stop, cutting the deficit to just one with his first goal of the playoffs. Syracuse responded by scoring two more quick goals, one from Tye McGinn at 13:22, and another from Cory Conacher at 15:18. Conacher’s goal came on the power play, and expanded the lead to 5-2. Kyle Criscuolo scored his sixth of the playoffs at 16:38 for Grand Rapids during a four-on-four situation. The score favored Syracuse at the end of the period, 5-3.
THIRD PERIOD
The final stanza of the game saw no scoring. Syracuse secured the 5-3 victory.
For the game, the Griffins outshot Syracuse by a 35-32 margin. Syracuse went 2-6 on the power play, while Grand Rapids was 0-4. Possibly a sign of concern for Grand Rapids is the fact that Jared Coreau has allowed five goals in consecutive games. Despite not converting with the man advantage in the game, Grand Rapids has gone 4-15 with the man advantage in the series, while Syracuse has gone 3-14. With the victory, Syracuse has ensured that the series will go at least five games.
UP NEXT
Game four of the Calder Cup Finals is scheduled for Friday evening at 7pm EST in Syracuse. As always, you can listen to the game on WOOD Radio 1300AM.
