Syracuse Crunch Dominate Utica Comets 4-1, Fanti Stops 27 of 28

Syracuse was credited with a 4-1 victory over the Utica Comets on March 8, 2026, a result the Crunch posted on their site with a 3/8/2026 6:02:00 PM timestamp and an explicit line that Ryan Fanti stopped 27 of 28 shots. The win, per Syracuse’s recap and the initial report, was described as “a win built on four goals and a strong showing from goalkeeper Ryan Fanti.”

Those team-facing summaries line up for the headline numbers—Syracuse 4, Utica 1—but the two clubs’ recaps diverge sharply on how the game unfolded. Utica’s game narrative depicts a Comets onslaught in the first 21 minutes, listing four goals by Ethan Edwards, Nathan Legare, Kyle Criscuolo and Angus Crookshank with exact times and season tallies: Edwards at 3:40 of the first, his fifth of the year; Legare at 9:27, his sixth; Criscuolo with a tip 3.5 seconds before the first-period horn, his sixth; and Crookshank shorthanded at 1:59 of the second, his 10th. Utica’s recap begins, “The Comets had the start they were looking for, going on the power play just 1:26 into the game when Crunch defenseman Tommy Miller was called for high-sticking,” and later notes, “It was Crookshank’s 10th of the year and ended the night for Ryan Fanti who was replaced in net by Brandon Halverson.”

Syracuse’s materials emphasize the 4-1 final and list several players in the “Players Mentioned” block including Dylan Duke, Brendan Furry, Nick Abruzzese, Jakob Pelletier and Mitchell Chaffee. The only Syracuse goal explicitly identified in the available fragments is Dylan Duke’s deflection at 7:07 of the second period, when Duke “deflected a shot from Ethan Samson past Jakub Malek on his team-leading 20th goal of the year,” a play Utica’s recap records as Syracuse’s lone marker in that sequence.

The matchup was physical: Utica’s recap describes “a very chippy first period with two fights and several post-whistle scrums,” specifying Brian Halonen dropping the gloves with Crunch defenseman Wyatt Newpower and Dmitry Osipov squaring off with Tommy Miller, who “was injured and helped off the ice after taking several heavy punches from Osipov.” The Comets’ special teams and scrums are central to Utica’s account of taking a decisive early lead.

There are clear contradictions that require an official box score to reconcile: Syracuse’s recap and the initial report credit Fanti with a 27-for-28 night and a completed game; Utica’s play-by-play says Fanti was pulled after Crookshank’s second-period shorthanded goal and replaced by Brandon Halverson. Venue detail also needs confirmation, as the initial summary references an arena name that conflicts with standard home sites cited in other materials.

For context on Fanti’s recent form, archived game notes show he made 33 saves in a 4-0 win over Utica on November 1, 2025, and had been riding strong numbers earlier in the season. For this March 8 matchup, however, official AHL box-score figures for final score, shots on goal, goalie minutes and the full scoring log should be consulted to settle the discrepancies between the two club recaps and to finalize which Crunch skaters supplied the other three goals in the 4-1 result.