Remi Elie scored twice as the Syracuse Crunch surpassed the Toronto Marlies, 4-2, Wednesday at Coca-Cola Coliseum.
Along with Elie, Andrej Sustr also recorded a two-point game with two helpers on the night. The win advances the Crunch to 8-10-2-1 on the season and 1-0-0-0 in the four-game season series against the Marlies.
Crunch goaltender Max Lagace stopped 26-of-28 shots, while Erik Källgren turned aside 28-of-32 in net for the Marlies. Syracuse went 1-for-2 on the power play and 3-for-5 on the penalty kill.
The Crunch opened scoring just 3:06 into the game. Elie was in front of the net to tip Ryan Jones’s shot from the blue line. At 10:55, the Crunch doubled their lead on another redirection. Shawn Element got a stick on Sustr’s right-point shot to send it past Källgren.
The Marlies stole one back with a power-play goal at the 12:32 mark of the first period when Bobby McMann tipped in Joey Anderson’s shot from the point.
Syracuse regained their two-goal lead on a delayed penalty 5:56 into the middle frame. Otto Somppi forced a turnover in the neutral zone, skated down the right side and centered a pass for Cole Koepke to score with a shot from between the circles.
Toronto potted their second power-play goal of the game at 14:57 to come back within one off a Pavel Gogolev wrister from the top of the right circle.
Nine minutes into the third period, Syracuse went back up by two again off Elie’s second goal of the game. He ripped a slap shot from the top of the left circle while on the man-advantage.
The Crunch maintained their lead through the end of the game and took the win in Toronto. Syracuse returns home to host the Belleville Senators this Friday.
Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to [email protected].