SYRACUSE, N.Y.– Logan Brown recorded a hat trick as the Syracuse Crunch blew past the Springfield Thunderbirds, 9-4, tonight at the Upstate Medical University Arena.
The Crunch scored two goals in the first two minutes of play to kick off a scoring onslaught. Brown got Syracuse on the board and tallied two goals by the five-minute mark before completing the hat trick in the third period. Conor Sheary scored two goals in the decisive victory, while Scott Walford potted his first professional goal. Jack Finley, Daniel Walcott and Gabriel Szturc were the other Crunch goal scorers. In total, thirteen different Crunch players earned a point on the night with eight recording multi-point games.
Goaltender Matt Tomkins stopped 18-of-22 shots to earn the win in net for the Crunch. Thunderbirds netminder Colten Ellis turned aside 6-of-10 shots before being relieved by Vadim Zherenko in the first period. Zherenko went on to stop 11-of-16. The Syracuse power play converted on 1-of-3 opportunities. The penalty kill shut down Springfield’s lone man-advantage.
The win advances the Crunch to 26-19-8-4 on the season as they take the first game of the two-game season series against the Thunderbirds.
The teams combined for seven goals in the first period. Syracuse was first on the board just 1:14 into the game. Conor Geekie skated the puck into the zone during a 2-on-0 rush with Brown. After some back-and-forth passing, Ellis went down and Geekie slid a final cross-crease pass for Brown to send in over the netminder. A minute later, Sheary snuck in a backdoor feed from Finley to double the lead. At 5:44, Brown potted his second of the game. Ellis made the initial save on Declan Carlile’s left-side shot, but the Brown found the rebound and chipped it in as he cut towards the net.
Springfield finally responded at the 8:18 mark of the opening frame and stole one back. Samuel Johannesson fired a shot that hit the crossbar and dropped down for Matt Luff to poke across the goal line. Walford put the Crunch back up by three at the 13:35 mark when he sent in a long left-point shot. The Thunderbirds added two more before the end of the first period to make it a 4-3 game. Luff scored his second of the game at 15:35 with a wrister from the left circle then Hunter Skinner netted a shot from the right-side boards late in the frame.
The Crunch opened the second period with two goals just 19 seconds apart. At 2:37, Finley was down low to tip in a point shot from Geekie while on the power play. Seconds later, Walcott got the puck in the bottom of the left circle and fired it into top corner of the net. At 9:05, Syracuse added another to go up, 7-3. Carlile dropped a pass back for Szturc to rip a one-timer from the slot as he came into the zone behind the play. Matthew Peca halted the second-period scoring when he sent in a cross-zone feed for the Thunderbirds at the 10:45 mark.
Syracuse stayed red hot in the final frame and scored two more goals to lock in their victory. Seven minutes into the period, Dylan Duke chased the puck to the end boards and sent it back out towards the crease where it bounded off Sheary and in for his second of the night. Halfway through the period, Brown completed his hat trick. Geekie skated the puck down the right wing on an odd-man rush and sent a last-minute feed over for Brown to chip in.
The Crunch and Thunderbirds travel to Springfield for the back half of the weekend’s home-and-home series tomorrow.
