Syracuse (Syracuse Crunch) – Dan Sexton scored the lone Syracuse goal as the Crunch fell to the St. John’s IceCaps 5-1 tonight at the Mile One Centre in St. John’s, Newfoundland in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
St. John’s went two-for-four on the power play, which carried them to a 2-1 lead in this Eastern Conference quarterfinal series. Game 4 will be played Friday, April 27 at the Mile One Centre.
The IceCaps took a 1-0 lead off a power-play goal from Patrice Cormier at the 11:10 mark of the first period. Cormier potted his second goal of the series while the IceCaps had a five-on-three advantage.
Crunch right wing Sexton evened the game less than two minutes later when he intercepted an IceCaps pass and walked in all alone against IceCaps goalie Eddie Pasquale. Sexton’s shot beat Pasquale high on his blocker side at the 12:57 mark of the first period. Pasquale finished the game with 40 saves.
The IceCaps took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission after Derek Meech flipped a shot past Iiro Tarkki during four-on-four action, while Mat Clark and John Albert were serving rouging penalties, with 2:39 remaining in the opening frame. At the end of 20 minutes, the IceCaps had a 17-16 shot advantage over the Crunch.
The IceCaps added to their lead with a power-play goal from Brock Trotter at the 7:54 mark of the middle frame. With Patrick Maroon serving a two minute hooking penalty, Trotter scored on a rebound from the left side to make it 3-1. Shots during the second period were even at 12.
St. John’s extended their lead to 4-1 at the 4:51 mark of the final frame. Raymond Sawada connected with Albert, who slid the puck past Tarkki on a two-on-one rush. Ben Maxwell added a goal at the 16:35 mark of the period resulting in the final score of 5-1.
