Playoff hockey returned to the War Memorial Arena on Wednesday night when the Syracuse Crunch hosted the St. John’s IceCaps in game three of the opening round of the Calder Cup playoffs. The atmosphere in the stands was electric and the energy on the ice embodied post-season hockey perfectly.
The IceCaps came out buzzing early in the first period but Crunch starting goaltender Mike McKenna was sharp and kept them off the board. Instead, it would be Syracuse finding the back of the net at 11:30 of the first courtesy of Joel Vermin. Henri Ikonen sent a pass towards the bottom of the left-wing circle where rookie forward Brett Howden redirected the puck between his legs and to a cutting Vermin to take the 1-to-0 lead.