Mads Sogaard opened his Syracuse Crunch tenure with a shutout, and Nick Abruzzese supplied all the offense in a 2-0 win over the Laval Rocket on Friday night at Place Bell.
Abruzzese scored twice, giving Syracuse the only goals it needed while Sogaard stopped all 27 shots he saw in his Crunch debut. On the other end, Jacob Fowler turned aside 29 of 31 for Laval as the Crunch won their season opener and moved to 1-0-0-0.
The first breakthrough came at 14:13 of the opening period, and it started with a little rookie hustle. Sam O'Reilly, in his first pro game, forced a turnover in the corner, moved the puck behind the net and up the boards to Abruzzese on the left side.
The play stayed alive after the puck came loose, and O'Reilly slid back between the circles to feed Abruzzese cutting toward the net for the finish. It was O'Reilly’s first professional point.
Syracuse added its insurance in the third period on a 5-on-3 power play at 7:04. Abruzzese set up in the bottom of the right circle, fired a one-timer that was blocked, collected the rebound and got denied again before finally punching it through on his third try.
The Crunch power play finished 1-for-6, while the penalty kill handled both Laval chances. Dylan Duke and Jakob Pelletier picked up assists on the second goal.
Abruzzese finished with his first multi-point game since March 20 against Rochester, and the outing also marked his AHL debut. Syracuse now turns right back around for another meeting with the Rocket tomorrow afternoon.
The Crunch have now gone 5-0-0-1 in their last six season openers.
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