MAMA SAID… 

VERSUS

“Mama Said there’d be days like this. There’d be days like this my mama said…”

You knew they were bound to lose at some point, but you didn’t think with the way they were playing that it would come off something like the stinker the Connecticut Whale put on the ice at the Onondaga War Memorial in Syracuse Sunday afternoon as the Crunch shutout the Whale 5-0.

Dan Sexton had two goals in the third period and assisted on another and Brett Festerling potted two of his own while Matt Beleskey had a goal and a helper to lead the Crunch to their second straight win and ended the Whales longest winning streak of the year at six games and stopped a ten game consecutive streak of at least a point per-game and was their first loss since being re-branded the Whale on November 27th. (8-0-0-1) .

The Whale just looked out of sorts from the opening face-off and seemed to be playing with no emotion and it showed.

Just 2:31 into the first period, Nicolas Deschamps had a great scoring chance that was turned aside by Chad Johnson (29 saves, 9-11-3). But even the Whale goaltender wasn’t himself as he played the puck in  the forbidden area just 11 seconds later drawing a Delay of Game penalty for the mental error.

The Whale were able to keep Syracuse from capitalizing on the man-advantage, but they just never seemed to get on track on either side of the puck.

In the first period they were awarded three power plays and did nothing to cause any real difficulty for Syracuse starter J.P. Levasseur (32 saves, 5-6-2) but they drew two themselves and surrendered good chances against.

At 16:58 Deschamps got a second chance to tally in front, but Johnson held him off the score sheet and later the Whale netminder made another terrific stop with just 1:30 to go flashing the glove enough at Josh Green on his shorthanded breakaway attempt that he caused the left winger to shoot high and miss the net.

Beleskey took his second penalty of the period with a Cross Check with just 12.9 to go. But that was negated by a Jyri Niemi Tripping call just 40 seconds into the second frame.

With the teams skating at four a side for 1:08, it didn’t take long for the Whale to give up all that the Crunch would need on the day to take home the victory.

Festerling was positioned on the right point in the Whale zone. He passed off to Deschamps on the left side. Deschamps fed Trevor Smith along the left half boards. Smith held and watched as Festerling snuck down behind Tim Kennedy and took the pass from Smith and came in alone on Johnson and went low and beat the Whale netminder for his second of the season.

After back-to-back penalties to Eric Lampe produced zero on the power play, at 15:27 a Niemi gambled in the offensive zone and lost. The play created an odd man rush back the other way. And while Wade Redden made a valiant effort to shut it down, Sexton made a great pass to Beleskey on the left side and the Crunch  left winger made a nice play to get his stuck on the puck and redirect it high over the glove of Johnson for the second tally of the period.

Whale coach Ken Gernander tried switching up his lines, but it didn’t do much good as the team still struggled to find any energy of cohesiveness offensively. All of the good things that the Whale had been doing to produce their winning streak were all but absent in this one.

In the third period, right off the initial faceoff, Festerling was able to beat Johnson for his second of the game when he took a pass from Nathan Paetsch and it was 3-0.

The Whale looked to be sleep walking and while on their 6th man-advantage a pass from Newbury to Weise was picked off at the blueline by Sexton and it was rushed up the ice. Weise did all he could to catch up with the Crunch’s right winger but could not get back in time. Sexton drew Johnson to his right and lifted a perfect shot with his backhand over the blocker and into the short side of the net for his first of two at 14:20.

The goal was the first scored shorthanded against or even for the Whale through 32 games this season.

4:12 later, Sexton would find the back of the net for his second goal. This one came off the rush when Beleskey made a great pass from the right wall back to the left to find the wide open Sexton who’s shot form the right side from a near impossible angle beat Johnson and went to the back of the net for his second of the period and sixth of the season.

The Whale have one more game before the Christmas break. After a day like this, Whale head coach Ken Gernander will rely on another old song for inspiration and hope that “Papa’s got a brand new bag…”

After calling the game, Bob Crawford hits the computer keys and files this recap at CTWhale.com. Lindsay Kramer has the Syracuse perspective at Syracuse.com.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

NOTES:

* Terrific mention for Dale Weise from the ever insane Don Cherry on HNIC.

* The Whale are 16th in attendance at 4,308 per game after 17 home contests. Last season the team averaged 4,188 good for 18th. In state rival Bridgeport last season was right on their heels with 4,092, this season they’re 20th with 3,905.

* The Whale had collected 20 of a possible 22 points in their last ten games with a record of 8-0-0-2 over the span.

* Sunday’s shutout was the third time the team has gone scoreless. The last was November 9th against Toronto in a 4-0 loss. The first was October 22nd when they lost 1-0 to Binghamton at home.

* Jeremy Williams leads the team with three game winning goals. Dale Weise, Mats Zuccarello and Kris Newbury each have two under their belts. Chad Kolarik, Oren Eizenman and ex-Whale captain Dane Byers each have one.

* The loss drops the Whale record on the road to .500 at 6-6-0-3.

* When outshot in a game as they were Sunday, the Whale are now 5-7-0-1.

* With his scratch today, defenseman Lee Baldwin has now sat out 11 straight games.

* Blanking on the day ended an eight game scoring streak for Kris Newbury who went 3-12-15 over the span.

* Newbury, Williams, Ryan McDonagh, Tomas Kundratek, Pavel Valentenko and Mats Zuccarello have played in every single game.

* Chad Johnson’s streak of regulation wins ends at 6. He also lost two shootouts over the span.

LINES:

Dupont – Newbury – Zuccarello
Grachev – Kennedy – Williams
Kolarik – Tessier – Weise
Soryal – Garlock – DiDiomete

Redden –  Niemi
McDonagh – Nightingale
Valentenko – Kundratek

Johnson
Talbot

(Assistant Captains Bold and Italicized)

SCRATCHES:

Stu Bickel – Healthy Scratch
Oren Eizenamn – Healthy Scratch

Lee Baldwin – Healthy Scratch

THREE STARS:

1. SYR – D. Sexton
2. SYR – B. Festerling
3. SYR – J. Levasseur

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Referee:
Marcus Vinnerborg (45)
Chris Cozzan (18)

Linesmen:
Derek Sylvester (76)
Brian Lemon (25)

NEXT GAME:

There won’t be a lot of time to think about this stinker for the Connecticut Whale. The team has Monday off, but then they continue their road trip in their last contest before the Holiday break when they visit Manchester on Tuesday night.  Bob Crawford and the pregame will be on the air a half-hour before game time.

To watch the game live, you can purchased it for $6.99 at AHL-live.

For Ticket information call (860) 548-2000.

Too far away or can’t make it? Listen live at WTIC.com or from your cell phone or computer visit www.twitter.com/howlingstoday for complete live in-game coverage.

SCORE-SHEET:

Connecticut Whale 0 at Syracuse Crunch 5 – Status: Final
Sunday, December 19, 2010 – Onondaga County War Memorial at Oncenter

Connecticut 0 0 0 – 0
Syracuse 0 2 3 – 5

1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Johnson Ct (delay of game), 2:42; Mitera Syr (tripping), 5:18; Valentenko Ct (hooking), 12:04; Beleskey Syr (slashing), 17:34; Beleskey Syr (cross-checking), 19:47.

2nd Period-1, Syracuse, Festerling 2 (Smith, Deschamps), 1:34. 2, Syracuse, Beleskey 6 (Sexton, Clark), 15:27. Penalties-Niemi Ct (tripping), 0:40; Lampe Syr (tripping), 8:41; Lampe Syr (high-sticking), 0:56; Newbury Ct (slashing), 19:32.

3rd Period-3, Syracuse, Festerling 3 (Paetsch, Green), 0:14 (PP). 4, Syracuse, Sexton 5   14:20 (SH). 5, Syracuse, Sexton 6 (Beleskey, Clark), 17:32. Penalties-Paetsch Syr (slashing), 13:20.

Shots on Goal-Connecticut 11-8-13-32. Syracuse 13-12-9-34.
Power Play Opportunities-Connecticut 0 / 6; Syracuse 1 / 4.
Goalies-Connecticut, Johnson 9-11-3 (34 shots-29 saves). Syracuse, Levasseur 4-6-2 (32 shots-32 saves).
A-0
Referees-Marcus Vinnerborg (45), Chris Cozzan (18).
Linesmen-Derek Sylvester (76), Brian Lemon (25).