Home Featured RECAP | Crunch – IceCaps: St. John’s Strikes First

RECAP | Crunch – IceCaps: St. John’s Strikes First

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RECAP | Crunch – IceCaps: St. John’s Strikes First
(Photo by Douglas Browne | © Rocket Sports Media) Mandatory Credit Required
Calder Cup Playoffs | First Round
Game 1 | Friday April 21, 2017 | IceCaps lead series 1-0
Mile One Centre, St. John’s, NL

ICECAPS
St. John’s

2-1

CRUNCH
Syracuse

(Photo by Douglas Browne | © Rocket Sports Media) Mandatory Credit Required

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Hudon – Terry – Scherbak
Matteau – de la Rose – Friberg
Veilleux – Audette – Farnham
MacMillan – Petti – Camara[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Redmond – Brouillette
Hanley – Lernout
Lowe – Didier[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:

Lindgren
Danis

Scratches: Ryan Johnston, Tom Parisi, David Broll, Guillaume Asselin, Markus Eisenschmid, Jeremy Gregoire, Victor Mete, Noah Juulsen, Daniel Carr (undisclosed)

Injured Reserve: Martin Reway

Game Report

The IceCaps got the post-season underway Friday night against the Syracuse Crunch. St. John’s came out strong in the opening frame. They thought they had opened the scoring just minutes into the game with a Charles Hudon one-time blast, but it was waved off due to incidental contact with the goaltender. But St. John’s did not stop working, they made Syracuse uncomfortable early by getting physical.

While the IceCaps were shorthanded three times in the frame, they only needed one opportunity with the man advantage to crack Mike McKenna. Nikita Scherbak, who set up Hudon earlier for the goal that was waved off, wired one past McKenna to make it 1-0 ‘Caps. That was the score after 20 minutes of play.

The second period brought more of the same for St. John’s. They played with a lot of energy, pressuring Syracuse hard on the forecheck. It paid off as just under three minutes into the period, Hudon centered a cross ice pass to Chris Terry to double the IceCaps lead. Both sides exchanged power play opportunities and Charlie Lindgren made some nice saves to keep Syracuse off the board. At the end of 40 minutes, St. John’s held a 2-0 lead.

The IceCaps began the third leading 2-0 and they looked to be in good position. But after a Jacob de la Rose slashing penalty, Syracuse finally solved Lindgren to make it 2-1 with 9:39 remaining in regulation. It was Tye McGinn beating Lindgren and bringing the Crunch back within one. They kept it coming and put some pressure on the IceCaps late with the extra attacker, but Lindgren was equal to the task and St. John’s held on to win 2-1.

The IceCaps struck first in the best-of-five series, leading 1-0. They have a chance to take both of their two home games on Saturday night, before heading to Syracuse for three games.

(Game Report written by Joseph Whalen, Staff Writer for AHL Report)

▲     Nikita Scherbak, Charles Hudon, Chris Terry, Charlie Lindgren

 Statistics 
ICECAPS   CRUNCH
21 Shots 29
1 for 4 Power Play 1 for 5
12 Penalty Minutes 10
 Scoring
 FINAL 1 2 3 OT SO T
 IceCaps (1-0) 1 1 0 2
 Crunch (0-1) 0 0 1 1
Scorers Goalies
  • STJ: Scherbak (1), Terry (1)
  • SYR: McGinn (1)
  • STJ: Lindgren (W) 1-0
  • SYR: McKenna (L) 0-1
 AHL Three Stars
 

  1. Charlie Lindgren  STJ
  2. Charles Hudon  STJ
  3. Mike McKenna  SYR

 Video highlights
 Post-game interview

Post-game interview with Sylvain Lefebvre

Post-game interview with Charles Hudon

Post-game interview with Zach Redmond

Quotes courtesy of AHL Report

 Social Media: Follow @TheAHLReport on Twitter

Follow @theAHLReport on Twitter

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