Phantoms defeat Syracuse
SYRACUSE — Two of the flashiest saves Adirondack Phantoms goalie Cal Heeter made Friday night were gamesaving glove stops on re ign ing American Hockey League MVP Cory Conacher.
When the game was on line, Conacher switched it up and went blocker side. Heeter saw it coming.
He kicked away Conacher’s shot in the seventh round of a shootout, capping off his 40-save effort to lead the Phantoms to a 4-3 win over the Syracuse Crunch at Onondaga County War Memorial.
It was arguably Heeter’s finest start in his young professional career. The league- leading Crunch outshot the Phantoms 3513 through the final two periods and overtime, but Heeter made several quality stops that allowed Adirondack, which squandered a 3- 0 first- period lead, to earn a standings point.
He added four saves in the shootout and Garrett Roe, Brayden Schenn, Jason Akeson and Danny Syvret beat Syracuse goalie Dustin Tokarski to
give the Phantoms backto- back victories for just the fourth time through 27 games. They improved to 12-14-1, while the Crunch fell to 17-6-1-3.
Syvret’s low shot in the top of the seventh frame stood as the game winner after Heeter turned aside Conacher with his right pad. Earlier in the night, it looked as if a shootout was not within the realm of possibility, as the Phantoms got off to a dominating start in the opening 20 minutes.
Harry Zolnierczyk and Akeson ( power play) scored in the first 2:30 of the game and Akeson added another goal before the end of the first period, as Adirondack got off to its most productive start of the season.
They had never scored three goals in a first period before and had led after the open ing frame only twice.
But the high- octane Syracuse offense struck for two goals on 21 shots in the second period to close the gap.
Richard Panik converted a pass from Ondrej Palat for a power play goal at 5: 48. Eight minutes later, Matt Taormina centered a puck to Alex Killorn, who banged it home to give him goals in five s tra igh t games.
The Crunch netted the equalizer early in the third period when Tyler Johnson buried a rebound on a five- on- three power play at the 8: 24 mark. Syracuse’s J. T. Brown hit the post in overtime, seconds after teammate P. C. Labrie’s shot trickled through Heeter’s legs, but just wide of the net.
Taormina, Palat and Panik scored shootout goals for Syracuse.
With the victory, the Phantoms snapped a fourgame road winless streak that dated back more than a month.
They hadn’t won a game away from the Civic Center since Nov. 14, when they defeated the Manchester Monarchs, though they had played 10 of their past 12 games at home.
They’ll have a chance to go for their third straight overall win when they visit the Bridgeport Sound Tigers at 7 p.m. Saturday in their last game before the AHL- mandated holiday break.