Marchessault Scores two, Wilcox Nets First pro win as Syracuse Crunch Top Lehigh Valley 2-1
[Special to Facewash Magazine by Jay Flemma]SYRACUSE, NY – Sharp-shooting forward Jonathan Marchessault scored two first period goals, and netminder Adam Wilcox notched his first professional win as the Syracuse Crunch (5-4-0-1=11 pts.) topped the Lehigh Valley Phantoms 2-1 at the War Memorial Arena last night. The win puts the Crunch, AHL affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning, in 4th place in the Eastern Conference North Division, percentage points ahead of the Utica Comets, who visit next Saturday. The loss dropped Lehigh Valley (4-7-0-0=8 pts.) to seventh place in the Eastern Conference Atlantic Division.
The Crunch dominated play most of the game, dictating tempo against the Phantoms, the Philadelphia Flyers affiliate, and relentlessly mixing pure speed and tape-to-tape accurate passing to keep Lehigh Valley reacting and on defense most of the night. Whether it was winning the one-on-one battles for loose pucks, cycling around for a great look, forcing turnovers with fierce fore-checking, or playing suffocating defense to smother the few Phantoms rallies, the Crunch looked sharper than the previous night when they dropped a 4-3 decision to the zone-trapping Albany Devils.
Marchessault opened the scoring at 10:02 of the first with a bizarre goal that clattered off Phantoms goalie Anthony’s Stolarz’s glove and mask before settling in the left side of the net.
“Marchy made a great breakout. Tanner dropped it to him, and Marchy took the shot,” recalled line mate Yanni Gourde with a wide grin. “I was driving to the net, and I saw it hit the goalie’s face.”
Just over four minutes later, at 14:42 of the first, Marchessault tallied the game winner. Tanner Richard won a puck battle down low and cycled the puck to Gourde, who drew defenders, then slipped a pretty pass back door to a wide open Marchessault. The two goals were the Quebec City native’s sixth and seventh of the young season.
“Our cycle and our puck management were really good, especially in the first period,” Marchessault stated, nodding to his line mates for the assists. “Our line got a lot of good chances in the O zone.”
“We create a lot of speed with Marchy on that line,” Goulde added. “We’re not big guys, but we get there first, and when we do we have success. We just have to keep working and skating hard.”
The rest of the night was the Adam Wilcox show. He made 25 saves, the lone blemish coming on a Phantoms power play goal at 19:42 of the second after questionable four minute high sticking penalty called on Cameron Darcy. Replays clearly showed Phantoms forward Chris Conner doing it to himself when he lifted Darcy’s stick into his own lip.
Wilcox was perfect the rest of the night, and the best of his many excellent saves came on a hair-raising, cold-blooded stoning of Phantom speedster Petr Straka on a breakaway after a turnover.
“I thought he was gonna go 5-hole for a second, so I was ready to go down in a butterfly,” a beaming Wilcox explained later. “But then I saw him go to the backhand, and I tried to get my glove over the puck and get my body wide and watch the angle and give him nothing to shoot at.”
Wilcox was textbook – there was no room to shoot the puck anywhere but right into him, and when the puck appeared in his glove like a rabbit in a conjuring trick, the 5,000+ fans erupted joyously.
That’s how you win your first pro game – you stop a puck that was supposed to be destined for the back of the net.
“Throughout my career – 20 years plus – this was the toughest one to get,” he confided gratefully. Still, Wilcox was more than happy to spread around the praise to his teammates as well. “The team gave it all tonight; they did a great job throughout the game, all three periods. I saw everything well – there wasn’t too much traffic. And it wasn’t that they weren’t going hard to the net. I thought our guys did a great job of boxing out. They made it easier for me.
The win was a marked improvement over a turnover-filled, penalty marred 4-3 loss to the Albany Devils the night before. Passes were tape-to-tape precise, turnovers were kept to a minimum, and they took only three penalties against the Phantoms.
“We executed better, we passed on the tape, and we cycled the puck well,” Goulde concluded. When we do that we get the offense going and get more scoring chances.”
[Editor’s Note: Welcome back, hockey season, and welcome back, hockey fans. This year we’ll be spreading it around to several different NHL and AHL arenas, but also getting plenty of North Division action in as well. See you live from Northern California later this week.]
