3 | 0 |
Dustin Tokarski made 22 saves as the Syracuse Crunch defeated the Norfolk Admirals, 3-0, on Friday night.
It was the first game at Scope Arena for the Tampa Bay Lightning’s top development club since winning the Calder Cup while affiliated with Norfolk last season. The Lightning moved their affiliation to Syracuse while the Anaheim Ducks partnered with the Admirals prior to the start of the 2012-13 campaign.
Fifteen players in the Crunch lineup played in Norfolk last season, including goal-scorers Richard Panik, Tyler Johnson and Keith Aulie. It was also a return for last year’s AHL rookie of the year and MVP Cory Conacher, defenseman of the year Mark Barberio and coach of the year Jon Cooper.
Tokarski, who had a shutout bid spoiled with one second remaining in his previous start on Dec. 31, earned his second shutout of the season and the 13th of his AHL career to improve to 14-5-3.
The teams, who combined for 128 penalty minutes in the game, face off again on Saturday night at Scope.