Syracuse, NY, February 4, 2015 – The Syracuse Crunch scored three third-period goals Wednesday night at the War Memorial Arena, to wipe out a 2-0 deficit and defeat the Hartford Wolf Pack, 3-2.
Syracuse outshot the Wolf Pack 25-2 in the third, helped by four power plays, including a pair of five-on-threes. Charlie Dodero’s first career AHL goal with 4:05 left was the winner, after Jake Dotchin and Dalton Smith scored power-play tallies to bring Syracuse into a tie.
Ryan Haggerty and Marek Hrivik scored second-period goals for the Wolf Pack, who fell to 26-14-3-2 (57 pts.) and dropped to six points behind the first-place Crunch in the Northeast Division, and Yann Danis made 42 saves. Yanni Gourde assisted on all three Syracuse goals, Vladislav Namestnikov had a pair of helpers, and Kristers Gudlevskis made 15 stops.
The Syracuse comeback began after an apparent goal by the Wolf Pack’s Chad Nehring was disallowed at 8:33 of the third. Referees Dave Lewis and Evgeny Romasko ruled that Nehring had interfered with Gudlevskis, while driving to the net and jamming the puck past the Syracuse goaltender.
In addition to the goal being waved off, Nehring was assessed a penalty, and Joey Crabb was sent off for tripping 36 seconds later. On the ensuing two-man advantage, Dotchin cut the Wolf Pack’s lead to 2-1, one-timing in a Namestnikov pass at 10:18.
The Wolf Pack killed another short two-man advantage later in the period, but with Oscar Lindberg still serving a tripping penalty, Smith knocked in the rebound of a Slater Koekkoek shot at 14:39 to tie the score.
Just 1:16 later, at 15:55, Dodero was credited with his first goal in the AHL, in only his eighth career AHL game, when his shot from the right point hit Lindberg’s stick and deflected past Danis low to the glove side.
After a scoreless first period, Haggerty opened the scoring at 2:50 of the second, with the eighth goal of his rookie season. After Ryan Bourque stopped a Joey Mormina pass, Gudlevskis turned Chris Mueller’s shot away, but Haggerty flicked in the rebound from the right side, as he was being spilled to the ice.
The Wolf Pack power play then doubled the lead at 10:49, with Dotchin in the penalty box for tripping.
Hrivik scored for a fourth straight game, a Wolf Pack season high, finishing a fine three-way passing play. Mueller dug the puck out behind the net, and Danny Kristo worked it to the right-wing corner to Conor Allen, who found Hrivik driving down the middle. Gudlevskis had no chance on Hrivik’s quick shot to the stick side.