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Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Get Rocked in Cleveland

February 25, 2009 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Cleveland, OH (February 25, 2009) - It was a very forgettable night for the Syracuse Crunch, as former right wing Philippe Dupuis burned his old team with a three-point night and the Lake Erie Monsters defeated the Crunch by a 6-0 margin in front of 2.957 fans at Quicken Loans arena.

The Crunch wanted to build off its 3-1 win in Hamilton on Sunday, but Lake Erie got on the board first when the Crunch took two early penalties to give the Monsters a 5-on-3 advantage.

Dan Smith was called for interference and Grant Clitsome was escorted off for hooking at the 56-second and 1:35 marks, respectively, setting up Lake Erie's two-man advantage.

Just 20 seconds into the 5-on-3, Darcy Campbell fed Matt Hendricks at the right face-off dot. With Dan LaCosta out to challenge Campbell at the point, Hendricks snapped the puck into a wide open net to give the Monsters a 1-0 lead.

The Crunch had two golden opportunities to tie the game, but both Craig MacDonald and Alexandre Picard were denied on breakaways by Jason Bacashihua in the first frame.

The Monsters extended their lead to 2-0 with 31 seconds remaining in the period when the Crunch got caught too far up the ice which led to a 3-on-1 down low for Lake Erie.

Mark McCutcheon made a slick pass over to an open Codey Burki, who beat LaCosta high to the stick side on the play.

The Crunch matched a season-low for shots in a period in the second frame, getting out-shot by an 8-3 margin.

The score remained 2-0 until Lake Erie again tallied a late goal, when they scored with just 32 seconds remaining in the stanza.

Chris Mueller fed a pass over to McCutcheon in the right circle and his wrister beat LaCosta as he was sliding across the crease to give the Monsters a 3-0 edge.

The third period was not any kinder to the Crunch, as Dupuis went to work four and a half minutes into the period, netting his first goal of the game.

Dupuis corralled the puck in the offensive zone and split the Crunch defense. Although he had his stick lifted from behind, he had time to re-gain control of the puck and skate in alone on LaCosta.

Dupuis made a fake to his forehand and slipped the disk past the outstretched left pad of LaCosta to stretch Lake Erie's lead to 4-0.

There was no letting up in Lake Erie's game, as they made it a 5-0 game just under five minutes later at the 9:21 mark.

Dupuis broke in on a 2-on-1 and waited until the last possible second to pass the puck. He finally did and found Mike Bartlett going to the net, who deposited the puck into the open side.

Dupuis capped off his night by scoring his second of the game at the 14:06 mark when he again took advantage of a Crunch mistake, found some open ice, skated in and beat LaCosta with a backhand to make it 6-0. The goal was a short-handed marker.

CRUNCHABLES: Tom Sestito returned to the lineup tonight after missing 12 games with a shoulder injury...The Crunch were shut out for the sixth time this season and for the third time by Lake Erie...The Crunch have now been held to one goal or less 17 times this season.

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