Crunch Downed by Aeros
December 6, 2008 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release
Houston, TX - Forty-three shots were not enough, as the Syracuse Crunch fell by a 4-3 margin to the Houston Aeros at the Toyota Center tonight in front of 5,685 fans. The loss was the Crunch's fourth straight on the road and third straight overall.
The Crunch came out hungry to turn around its recent road fortunes and outshot Houston by a 16-9 margin in the first period.
Newcomer Kevin Harvey broke an 88 minute, 29 second scoreless draught for the Crunch when, at the 17:28 mark of the first, he took a pass on the right side, skated up the boards, cut to the middle and fired a wrister over the blocker of Houston starter Barry Brust to give Syracuse a 1-0 lead.
A minute and a half later, Brust came out to play the puck and ran into Craig MacDonald behind the net. A pileup ensued and Alexandre Picard was given a10-minute misconduct on the play.
Because of the scrum and a Trevor Frischmon tripping penalty in the final minute of the first frame, Houston started the second stanza with a 5-on3 advantage, but could not convert due to some strong Syracuse penalty killing.
The Crunch had some extended power play time of its own when Houston's Travis Mojzis was called for holding at 3:42 and Brandon Rogers was whistled off with a double-minor when he high sticked John Vigilante at the 5:28 mark.
After some excellent goaltending by Brust and with just 10 seconds remaining in the power play from Rogers' double minor, Mike York swooped in from the right corner after receiving a dish from Nikita Fialtov and slipped a shot through the legs of Brust to give Syracuse a 2-0 lead.
Just 34 seconds later, Houston caught the Crunch in a line change and broke in on a 2-on-1. Corey Locke faked a pass, then faked out Dan LaCosta and slipped a shot past him to make it 2-1.
The Aeros kept their momentum going and were helped out when the Crunch's Derek MacKenzie took a hooking penalty and York was sent off for slashing at 11:13 and 11:27, respectively, which set up a 5-on-3 advantage.
Travis Mojzis' point shot found its way through LaCosta just 36 seconds into the two-man advantage to tie the game at 2-2.
Another penalty cost the Crunch when Aaron Rome was called for cross-checking at the 13:38 mark of the second.
Again, Houston capitalized when Maxim Noreau took a pass at the point, skated into the slot and snapped a shot past a screened LaCosta to give the Aeros a 3-2 lead and its third goal in a 5:17 span.
Houston made it a 4-2 game seven minutes into the third when the Crunch got trapped up ice and Locke broke in down the left side on a semi-breakaway and beat LaCosta low to the glove side.
With about 10 minutes remaining, LaCosta twisted his body awkwardly trying to make a save and left the game, being replaced by Sebastian Dahm.
The Crunch pulled to within one goal with Dahm pulled for the extra-attacker when Filatov took a feed from MacKenzie in front and buried it past Brust with 19 seconds remaining, but it wasn't enough.
Brust ended up with 40 saves on the evening.
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American Hockey League Stories from December 6, 2008
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