Syracuse, New York

Friday, January 22, 2010 - Sunday, January 24, 2010

Our first away tournament of the season took us all the way to!....Syracuse... Yep, after travelling up and down the east coast last season, we were conserving money on gas big time this year.

For this tournament, we stayed at the Fairfield Inn on Route 31 in Liverpool. It was only a few miles, and a straight shot, to the rink in Cicero, and convenient for us to hop onto the highway to get back to downtown Syracuse, and the OnCenter.

Jill and Michael headed up on Friday morning for a game against the Rideau-St. Lawrence Kings. Michael and Chris McVannan split time in this game, and the Sens lost by the score of 10-2.

When I was finished with work on Friday afternoon, I headed north meeting Jill and Michael at the hotel. From there we went back downtown for the Syracuse Crunch game. This would only be the second time that Jill and I had been to the War Memorial in Syracuse, an old building with narrow concourses, much in need of replacement. We stayed till the end of the second period, and realizing we didn't really care about either team on the ice we called it a night and went back to the hotel.

Saturday morning found us returning to the War Memorial however, this time for the Jr. Sens game against the Burlington Bulldogs. Usually, the head coach had the goalies split the games, but this game was to be only Chris' game. That is, until he was assessed a game misconduct for leaving the crease and jumping an opposing player in the corner! Michael was called into action at that point (and for the next game as well, since Chris was suspended for a game). The Sens lost this game as well by the tally of 5-3.

A group of us went to Smokey Bones for lunch after the game. This was the same place we went to as a group at the end of the season last year, and ironically it was the same waitress! She even remembered some of us!

The second game of the day produced our only win of the tournament, with Mike between the pipes. The Jr. Senators defeated the Seaway Valley Rapids by the score of 4-2 in Cicero.

We trekked back to the hotel, once again, after the game was over and a majority of the team (with the exception of three players) showed up there as well. We put out a pretty good spread for dinner! The last ice event of the day was the 'skills competition', back at the Twin Rinks in Cicero. Mike took part in the three on one drill, performing well and only letting up a couple of goals.

The last game of the tournament on Sunday morning was played at the ONCenter. Our final opponent was the Ottawa Valley Silver Seven, who beat our Sens 8-1.

We boot scooted out of the rink after the game, driving Jill to Ithaca where she hopped a flight to Florida for a week of HC Pro Boot Camp and Kaplan University meetings and graduation. Mike and I came home after that.

Defenseman Nate Guenin notched his first goal of the season to open the scoring for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at the 6:16 mark of the first when Zach Sill found him streaking down the middle of the ice trailing the play. Guenin let go a wrist shot from center point that beat Kevin Lalande over his glove hand through a screen to give the Penguins a 1-0 edge.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton gave themselves a 2-0 lead before the first 20 minutes was over when Connor tallied the first of his three helpers when he found Smith wide open in front of the net and he one-timed a bid into the empty side past Lalande at the 18:07 mark.

Robert Bortuzzo’s second tally of the year made it a 3-0 Penguins lead when he scored just two minutes into the second stanza. Smith added his second of the game and opened up a 4-0 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton lead when he rifled a one-timer from the right face-off dot on a feed from Connor on the power play at the 11:16 mark.

The Crunch finally got on the board just under two minutes later with the Penguins on another man-advantage. The Baby Pens made an errant pass along the near side wall and Crunch captain Derek MacKenzie pounced on the loose puck, springing himself on a breakaway.

MacKenzie slowed down and methodically picked the top right corner over Brad Thiessen’s glove to cut it to 4-1.

The Crunch seemed to build on that and took the momentum into the third, scoring twice in the period’s first eight minutes to make it a one-goal game at 4-3.

Nick Holden recorded his third of the season with the Crunch on the power play when he stuffed home a rebound in front of the net at the 4:10 mark.

Jonathan Sigalet added his fifth of the year when he took a feed from MacKenzie across the blue line, skated in alone on Thiessen and tucked a backhand past him at the 7:56 mark.

Connor scored both of his goals less than five minutes apart late in the third, his second coming on an empty net with just 28 seconds left in regulation for the 6-3 final.

CRUNCHABLES: Derek MacKenzie’s shorthanded goal tonight was his ninth as a member of the Crunch, tying him for first on the club’s all-time list in that category with Brad Moran and Joe Motzko…The Crunch have lost all three meetings to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at the War Memorial at Oncenter this season…The Crunch have allowed 14 goals during their three-game losing streak…Wilkes-Barre/Scranton snapped a four-game losing streak with tonight’s win.

Trip Notes: