From Syracuse.com today:
Turns out that Syracuse Crunch netminder Riku Helenius beat more than just the Binghamton Senators on Saturday.
He also overcame an injury in that game as well.
Syracuse coach Rob Zettler said Helenius suffered an upper body injury against the Senators. He pushed through it in the game and practiced Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but the ailment grew worse and Thursday he did not skate. Helenius will be rested for about two weeks, Zettler said.
“He’s been sore. We decided to shut him down for a little bit,” Zettler said. “It’s early in the season. It’s probably something, if it was the playoffs, he could battle through it.”
Helenius is 2-1 with a 2.35 goals-against average and a .903 save percentage this season.
Rookie Kristers Gudlevskis has been recalled from Florida of the ECHL to back-up Cedrick Desjardins, who will take the net at Utica on Friday.
If you’re looking for the upside in this, it has to be that Crunch fans will probably see Gudlevskis play sometime within those two weeks. The Crunch play every Friday, Saturday and Wednesday over that timespan, so it probably can be assumed that Desjardins will not play every single one of those games. Gudlevskis spent some time in Syracuse during the Crunch’s second weekend of the season after Desjardins was recalled to Tampa in light of injury to Ben Bishop, but Kristers did not play during his cup of coffee wit h the Crunch.
However, with that upside comes a downside: Helenius was really just starting to get his footing back after being absent for the end of last season and all of the playoffs, so it’s rough that he’s derailed right now with this. Helenius went home at the end of last season to be with his family and his sick mother, who passed away while Helenius was there. The goalie came back to Syracuse while the playoffs were going on but did not dress. Helenius is on a one-way this season, so the pressure to put up good numbers and have a good audition year, whether for Tampa or, more likely, for another organization, is pretty high.
