IceCaps 'not ready to go home’

That the St. John’s IceCaps could rebound from Saturday night’s disheartening double overtime loss to the Syracuse Crunch, at Mile One Centre, a result that tied their opening-round American Hockey League playoff series at 1-1. That the IceCaps can take the best-of-five affair that will finish this coming week in Syracuse. That Saturday’s game wasn’t the last hurrah for the AHL in St. John’s and that the IceCaps will play again at Mile One.
“I am very confident in our group in there,” said captain Max Friberg, nodding towards the St. John’s dressing room as he spoke to the media after Saturday’s 4-3 loss.
“I know at puck-drop Wednesday, we’ll be ready to go.”
Head coach Sylvain Lefebvre was subdued, but still full of confidence.
“It does hurt,” he admitted after the game, which ended on Crunch forward Tye McGinn’s goal midway through the second extra frame
“At the same time, we’re not going home yet. We’re not ready to go home yet.”
Whether the team’s actions will back up the leaders’ words, we’ll find out beginning Wednesday night in upstate New York.
It would be impossible to expect the IceCaps will suffer some complete and collective amnesia and forget how they went down to defeat Saturday — and we’re not talking about McGinn’s winning marker. At issue would be the two goals they surrendered in the last few minutes of the third period to squander what had been a hard-won and much-deserved 3-1 lead.
And it would be best not to forget those goals completely, because if the IceCaps are to take this series, they will almost a certainly find themselves in similar circumstances again. In fact, they had already been through it Friday in hanging on for a 2-1 win in the series-opener at Mile One.
St. John’s captain Max Friberg knows Saturday’s rematch turned out to be an important — albeit hard-to-digest — lesson. His line was on the ice each time when Syracuse scored goals 97 seconds apart in the last four and a half minutes.
The first was a bad bouncer, a Matt Taormina shot that looked to have hit St. John’s defenceman Zach Redmond before slipping by IceCaps rookie goalie Charlie Lindgren. The second came on a blast from Cory Conacher as the Crunch took advantage of St. John’s defenders caught running around.
Both tallies came with Mike McKenna on the bench for an extra attacker, the first after Crunch head coach Benoit Groulx pulled his veteran goaltender for an extra attacker with just under five minutes remaining in the third (and just after Stefan Matteau missed a long-distance empty-netter that would have sealed it for St. John’s). The second was scored during a delayed penalty call against the scrambling IceCaps.
There was something else in common, according to Lefebvre.
“We made a couple of mistakes and they made us pay for it,” he said.
It was also obvious motivation for the Crunch, who came out strong to start overtime. But Lindgren continued to prove to be playoff capable and kept his team in it until they appeared to have scored the winner when Yannick Veilleux tapped a puck past McKenna. However, although Veilleux and the IceCaps celebrated like it was a clear-cut winner, the goal judge’s red light never came on and the referees never indicated there had been a score.
After a video review, the ruling was no-go. Lefebvre later said the IceCaps were told the puck never fully crossed the goal line.
If the IceCaps were disheartened by the decision, it wasn’t evident, at least not for very long.  In fact, they picked up the pace even more, but not enough to produce a winner in the first OT or in the extra, extra session even they continued to press home.
What’s more, it appeared the breaks were going their way. Taormina got a shot past Lindgren only to have the goal disallowed when it was ruled Syracuse forward Gabriel Dumont, who held Friberg’s job as St. John’s captain last season, had made incidental contact with Lindgren. Then, the Crunch’s Bryan Froese was sent off for delay of game after flicking the puck over the glass in the defensive zone.
But Syracuse knocked down the resulting power play.
Less than a half minute after its expiration, McGinn lost his stick behind the St. Johns’ goal and looked to be out of the play, so much so that he was left unchecked. But he recovered the stick, then found himself all alone to the side of the IceCaps’ goal and on the receiving end of a feed from Taormina. He made no mistake, sliding the puck past a helpless Lindgren on Syracuse’s 50th shot of the night.
McGinn’s marker may have been a body blow, but Friberg is convinced it won’t turn out to be some delayed knockout punch. He feels that even though overtime didn’t produce the desired result, it did provide some positives.
“It (would have been) easy to lay down and die after a late (third-period) comeback from them,” he said. “I think we should be proud of the way we came back.”
After Game 2 Wednesday, the teams will meet again Friday in Syracuse, N.Y., with any necessary Game 5 next Saturday in the Crunch’s home rink.
“We knew (going into the series) that we (would have to go) to Syracuse and that the series wouldn’t be easy. That didn’t change,” said Lefebvre.
The coach conceded Saturday’s contest was more a game the IceCaps lost more than the Crunch won — “We’re up 3-1 in the third and we have to close the deal” — but said he was proud of how his team competed.
“It was a hell of a hockey game, but it’s what makes the playoff interesting, the ups and downs in emotions,” he said.
The last positive words go to the captain, who agreed the Crunch were improved from Friday’s Game 1.
“But we stepped up our game, too … maybe not as noticeable as them, but they weren’t better than we were,” Friberg added with a touch of defiance.
“It was an even game. That’s why we had to play five periods.”