SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Syracuse Crunch were topped by the Cleveland Monsters, 4-2, tonight at the Upstate Medical University Arena.
The loss moves the Crunch to 1-3-1-2 on the season and 0-1-0-2 in the four-game season series against the Monsters.
Crunch goaltender Hugo Alnefelt stopped 32-of-36 shots in net. Joonas Korpisalo earned the win turning aside 38-of-40 between the pipes for the Monsters.
Both Syracuse and Cleveland went 1-for-4 on the power play.
The Monsters opened scoring 1:01 into the game. Trey Fix-Wolansky won the face off in the right circle and sent the puck back to Samuel Knazko. The defenseman passed a feed along the blue line for Marcus Bjork to score with a long one-timer. They doubled their lead on the man-advantage with 1:26 remaining in the first period. Alnefelt made the initial save on Brendan Gaunce’s left circle shot, but Kirill Marchenko chipped in the rebound.
Cleveland went up by three just 55 seconds into the middle frame when Carson Meyer redirected a cross-slot feed into the net during an odd-man rush with Fix-Wolansky.
Syracuse stole one back on the power play 2:26 into the third period. Korpisalo blocked Alex Barre-Boulet’s one-timer from the right circle, but the rebound came out into the slot for Simon Ryfors to backhand in. The Monsters added another halfway through the final frame and went back up by three when Gaunce snuck a wrister in from the high slot.
The Crunch came back within two for a second time when Darren Raddysh one-timed a feed from Barre-Boulet late in the game, but the Crunch ran out of time for a comeback and fell to the Monsters.
The Crunch travel to face the Rochester Americans on Wednesday.
Single game tickets and ticket packages for the 2022-23 season are on sale now and can be purchased in person at the Crunch office located inside the Upstate Medical University Arena at Onondaga County War Memorial at 800 S. State St. in Syracuse, by calling the office at 315-473-4444 or online through Ticketmaster. For the latest Crunch news, visit www.syracusecrunch.com or follow the club on Facebook (www.facebook.com/syracusecrunch), Twitter (@SyracuseCrunch) and Instagram (@syracusecrunch).
Crunchables: Gemel Smith has a point in all seven games this season.
