By Michael Wax
After taking last week off due to the Christmas holiday, The Crunch Report is back in business and reviewing games from this past week. The Crunch had a lackluster week heading into the new year, defeating the Rochester Americans 3-1 on Wed, Dec. 27, before losing back-to-back games to the Laval Rocket on December 29 and 30th, 3-2 and 4-1, respectively.
Syracuse sits at 16-11-2-2, seven points behind the Cleveland Monsters for first in the North Division.
Here are three things we noticed over this week's games from the Crunch:
Tough to Gage
Gage Goncalves has had an unbelievable week for the Crunch. The third-year AHLer put up two goals and an assist for a point per game, showcasing various ways to get his offense going.
Goncalves' first goal of the week came on a preposterous move against the Americans on Wednesday, patiently waiting before finding space behind the net to get the Crunch a second goal in 23 seconds during one of their more spectacular feats this year.
Goncalves factored into both goals during the loss on Friday, putting up an excellent centering feed for a Gabriel Fortier redirection to get the game-opening goal on the power play.
With 32 seconds left, Goncalves jammed home a loose rebound to give the Crunch hope before falling short.
Quick Timing
One of the biggest reasons the Crunch won in their early game of the week was their ability to score in quick succession. With three goals in 37 seconds, the Crunch built enough of a lead to hold off any comeback from Rochester. At 6:36 of the second period, Max Groshev started a two-on-one rush for the Crunch and fed it across for Shawn Element to tap in and get the game-opening goal.
Just 23 seconds later, as mentioned in the section above, Gage Goncalves showed off a highlight real move to beat Amerks goalie and one-time Tampa Bay Lightning member Dustin Tokarski.
Fourteen seconds after that, Gabe Fortier forced the turnover in the offensive zone and found Sean Element for his second goal in just 37 seconds, a one-timer from the right circle.
Hockey can quickly turn on a dime, and the Crunch were the beneficiaries of that in their loan win this week.
Elemental
Shawn Element is one of those players who is very streaky. In this three-game set, he had one of his season's better point production campaigns.
We've already talked about his two goals against Rochester, but the Friday game against Laval saw him get into a fight against Arber Xhekaj. Element isn't afraid to drop the gloves sometimes, making him very versatile.
Element would pick up the game's lone goal on Saturday, taking a shot between the circles that found its way past Rocket's goaltender Jakub Dobes.
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