The first two frames followed the same pattern as last night’s contest, with the teams sitting deadlocked through one period until the Checkers broke through in the second. This time it was Brenden Kichton pinching in and firing a wrist shot to the far side for his second tally of the season.
That would stand as the lone goal until midway through the third, when Olivier Archambault broke through rookie netminder Callum Booth, who was making his first AHL start. The Crunch would surge from there, taking their first lead of the game with under five minutes to play, then tacking on an insurance marker less than a minute later. The Checkers would push back with an extra attacker late, but they couldn’t spark a rally, dropping their first game of the home stand to snap a five-game winning streak.
QUOTES
Coach Mike Vellucci on the goals against
The first goal was a deflection and a nice play by those guys, we made a bad line change on the second one and we didn’t have a good gap and it just snuck through Booth. On the third, we were pushing and they got a good chance on that one.
Vellucci on Callum Booth’s first AHL start
I thought he played well. We would have liked to get him the win because he had a lot of chances to score, but I thought he was solid and he made some big saves early on. It was a great opportunity to see where he is. He’ll go back to (ECHL) Florida now and have a great rest of the year.
Vellucci on Syracuse goalie Connor Ingram
We had our chances and their goalie played really well. I’ve got to give him a lot of credit. We had a four-on-one there and he stoned Krueger. He played really well and was the difference in the game.
Vellucci on going 5-1-0 on this home stand
It was a good home stand. I would have loved to get today, but it’s a learning experience. We got ourselves back into a playoff position and now we’ve got to get it done on the road.
Brenden Kichton on Syracuse’s late goals
I honestly felt like we just got tired. We’ve played a lot of games lately and obviously losing Didier early in that fight was tough on our D corps because he’s been very solid for us. We all had to step up and I thought we really did a really good job of that, but at the end of the third we started to get a little tired, our gaps got bad and they got some lucky goals. That kind of turned the game.
Kichton on defensemen scoring the team’s last three goals
The offense has to pick up from somewhere, and I think our D have done a really good job of picking and choosing our spots. Fortunately lately we’ve been able to contribute, and that’s going to have to continue if we want to win hockey games.
Kichton on the schedule
It’s a grind, but fortunately we’ve got a good week off here. I’m sure we’ll take some time, refocus, get our rest and come back ready to go on the road.