In honor of 1/19/01

The most amazing game...

The Syracuse Crunch vs. The Hershey Bears

@ the Onondaga County War Memorial

The first period started out with a goal for the Bears 41 seconds into the game.  It appeared to be the start of a LONG night.  The ref, Chris Lee, decided he was going to call every little infraction; which was going to make it a very LONG evening...  On an early power play (shortly after a penalty kill) Mathieu Darche tied it up for the Crunch.  The first period ended with a mere eight penalties having been called.  Emotions were high.

The second period began the way the first had ended- physically.  However, our dear ref had decided to let the teams play...um, okay, whatever...for example- Reggie Savage was being held to the Hershey bench BY THE PLAYERS ON THE BENCH and NO CALL! Well, team "police man", Jody Shelley is sent on for a shift 7 minutes in, and takes care of Steve Parsons. The fight was not one of Shelley's cleaner decisions, but he held on for the win.  The two got 5 minutes in the box.  Play continues...On another Crunch power play @ 18:32 Jeff Williams fires a shot past goalie Philippe Sauve.  Crunch go up 2-1 in this very tight game.  With just about a minute left, there is a face-off near the benches.  The teams are lined up for the draw, but exercising the home team's right to the last line change, Agnew sends out Jody Shelley to take Sean Selmser's position.  Selmser and Bears d-man Garry Gulash were set to go, but Selmser was desperately need ON the ice, not IN the box.  Shelley hops on to the ice and motions Selmser to the bench, a grinning Shelley takes his spot next to Gulash.  The puck drops, and so do the gloves. Shelley pummels Gulash in one of his easier fights.  The refs separate the two, and Shelley does his trademark move after a fight...and he heads directly to the locker room, victorious.  The crowd is buzzing, the teams set up for the next face-off...And continuing what Selmser and Gulash had started and Shelley had carried on; Crunch d-man Jeff Ware and Bears' left winger Steve Parsons drop the gloves...Then Selmser lines up with Joel Prpic, Crunch's Jeremy Reich and Bears' Yevgeny Lazarev trade blows, as does the others on the ice (Sryubko & Davidson for the Crunch); Including the goalies get in on it.  J.F. Labbe and Philippe Sauve went at it.  Labbe "fixed him" pretty well.  Total chaos, the refs didn't know where to turn, and not ONE person was sitting in the arena (rather, people were standing on their seats).  Shelley walked out to the team entrance to watch then ensuing action and cheer on his mates. It was loud.  It was wild.  When Labbe got Sauve to the ice, the refs picked Labbe off Sauve, Labbe raised his hands and wiped his hands clean (similar to Shelley's trademark).  Amazing.  The players were FINALLY ushered off the ice to the locker room.  The ice was littered with helmets, gloves, stickes, and pads.  Ten minutes plus to decipher the penalty calls.  Most fans were still on their feet.  Selmser, Reich (broken nose), Labbe got miscounducts for the Crunch and Prpic, Lazarev, and Savue got misconducts for the Bears.  Labbe and Sauve also got penalties for leaving the crease! Ware and Parsons got 5 for fighting.

The third period was tough, but not in the way the first period was tough.  This was a tight game, both teams hungry for a win.  It was passionate and each team played hard.  Five minutes in, Williams gets his second goal of the night and puts the Crunch up 3-1 on, yes, the power play.  This period was more intense then painfully physical.  The Bears pulled Cassivi and succeeded in converting with the extra skater- 3-2 Crunch lead with about a minute to go.  The final minute took an eternity to play.  Time dwindled away...

CRUNCH WIN!  3-2!!!!

read the article from the Syracuse Harold Journal below:

By Lindsay Kramer

For much of the past two days, Syracuse Crunch coach Gary Agnew implored his spirit-less players to hit somebody, anybody.

Thursday, a day after a 2-1 loss to Albany, Agnew turned his players loose on each other in a vicious, full-contact practice. Friday, the Crunch found the Hershey Bears a more satisfying target.

Crunch forward Jeff Williams clipped the Bears for two power-play goals and Syracuse took out its frustrations in a second-period line brawl that was one of the wildest in team history as the Crunch snapped a five-game losing streak with a 3-2 decision in front of a season-high crowd of 6,013 at the Onondaga County War Memorial.

It was evident from the start that Syracuse was a team ripe for mayhem and Mid-Atlantic Division rival Hershey, on a 10-game road losing streak, also carried a poison ivy personality. Each team recorded 84 penalty minutes; the Crunch got the TKO with the win.

"We knew we had a game plan to play physical and stand up for each other, too," Crunch enforcer Jody Shelley said. "It's good for the fans, too. You come to a game, see a few fights, a brawl, a win. What more can you ask for as a fan?"

Shelley ignited the second-period melee with a solo undercard at the 18:59 mark. Syracuse forward Sean Selmser and Hershey defenseman Garry Gulash had been jawing, and Selmser was game to go. But Crunch coach Gary Agnew didn't want Selmser in the penalty box as a result of fighting Gulash, so he sent out the team's policeman, Shelley.

Immediately off an ensuing faceoff Shelley tore after Gulash and disposed of him without much effort. Shelley then made an exaggerated show of wiping his hands and, while skating off the ice, pumped his fist directly at Bears goalie Phil Sauve.

Hershey coach Mike Foligno accused Agnew of sending Shelley onto the ice to fight.

"You're asking for trouble, and that's what happened," Foligno said. Foligno said if that's how Agnew wants to coach, the matter would be "addressed." The teams meet again Sunday CRUNCH, FROM PAGE C-1

in Hershey.

Agnew denied giving any specific instructions to Shelley, but pointed out that Shelley's role is pretty specific.

"Jody is never told to go out and fight," Agnew said. "Jody is told to calm things down. If a guy continues to act up, Jody knows what his job is. He (Foligno) can whine about whatever he wants to whine about."

With the game's tone inflammed to the proper boil, the lid blew off 20 seconds later. Syracuse defenseman Jeff Ware and Hershey left wing Steve Parsons dropped the gloves, and within seconds, everyone else on the ice squared off in various degrees of animosity. Selmser traded blows with Hershey's Joel Prpic, and the Crunch's Jeremy Reich and the Bears' Yevgeny Lazarev tried rearranging each other's dental work.

Meanwhile, Sauve skated out to the blue line and challenged Labbe.

"I didn't think there was going to be a five (man fight)," Ware said. "I looked around, guys were throwing haymakers and Labbe was giving it to their goalie. I couldn't believe it."

Sauve would have done better to enjoy the action from a ringside seat. Labbe treated Sauve's face like a pinata.

"He came to fight me, so I fixed him," Labbe said. "I've had a few fights before. Once in awhile, it's fun."

Selmser, Reich, Labbe, Prpic, Lazarev and Sauve were booted for partaking in altercations after the initial Ware-Parsons fight.

Before the avalanche of punches late in the period, Williams struck a blow of a different sort with 1:28 remaining by scoring a goal from the right circle that broke a 1-1 tie. Williams buried the game-winner at the 5:04 mark of the third, again from the right circle. Marc Lamothe came on in relief of Labbe and earned the victory.

It was also Empire Vision Poster night!

Left side:  Radim Bicanek, Greg Gardner, Jeff Williams, Mathieu Darche, Chris Nielsen, Jeff Ware

Middle:  Jeff Ware, Matt Davidson, Jeremy Reich, Mike Gaul, Robert Ek, Bill Bowler, Gary Agnew (Head Coach), Ross Yates (Assistant Coach), Sean Selmser

Right Side:  Blake Bellefeuille, Martin Spanhel, Reggie Savage, Dan Watson, Scott Hollis, Jody Shelley, Marc Lamothe, Brad Moran, Deron Quint, Jonas Junkka