The Toronto Marlies started the 2006-07 season on the right foot, pounding the Syracuse Crunch 6-0 Friday night in their season and home opener.

Erik Westrum, Brett Engelhardt, Jiri Tlusty, Kris Newbury, Owen Fussey and Domenic D'Amour scored for the Marlies before an announced crowd of 4,218 at Ricoh Coliseum. Goalie Jean-Francois Racine turned aside 20 Crunch shots for his first shutout as a Marlie.

Toronto opened the scoring at 8:20 of the first, when Westrum took a feed from Jeremy Williams in the corner, then fired a wrist shot past Crunch goalie Tomas Popperle. The Marlies extended their lead to 2-0 at the 12:56 mark of the period after Engelhardt beat Popperle with a wrist shot from the top of the circle.

Tlusty, Toronto's first choice (13th overall) in the 2006 draft, extended the lead to 3-0 on the power play at 5:14 of the second, scoring his first pro goal in his first pro game. Newbury scored another power play goal 30 seconds into the third period, and Fussey scored less than two minutes later to give the Marlies a commanding five-goal bulge.

D'Amour added Toronto's third power play goal of the night at 15:09 to round out the scoring.

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