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 Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Outshine Stars, 3-1

March 7, 2011 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Cedar Park, TX (March 7, 2011) - John Mitchell and Brian McGrattan both scored their second goal in as many games and Ray Emery stopped 27 of 28 shots he faced as the Syracuse Crunch defeated the Texas Stars by a 3-1 score in a matinee match-up this afternoon at the Cedar Park Center.

The win secured back-to-back road victories for the Crunch for the first time since January 1 and 2 as Syracuse finished its three-game Texas road swing with a 2-1-0-0 record. The Crunch return home to face the same Texas team on Friday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m. at The Oncenter War Memorial Arena.

Mitchell scored the game's first goal for the second straight contest, this time just 19 seconds after the opening face-off when he corralled the puck along the left wing boards and threw a sharp-angle shot at the net that got through Tyler Beskorowany to give Syracuse the early 1-0 advantage.

Nick Bonino took an interference penalty at the 1:53 mark, but that did not deter the Crunch from taking a 2-0 lead on a short-handed penalty shot goal from Matt Kennedy after he was hauled down while racing towards the cage.

Kennedy took his time, skated in and ripped a wrister past Beskorowany for his third goal of the season, all of which have come in the last eight games. The Crunch were outshot 8-5 by Texas in the first frame.

The Crunch went up 3-0 at the 7:22 mark of the second when McGrattan's shot squeaked by Beskorowany and over the goal line. That goal chased Beskorowany in favor of Richard Bachman after the former gave up three goals on six shots.

Texas finally got on the board just over four minutes later on the power play when Brad Lukowich's point shot slipped by a screened Ray Emery to cut the Crunch lead to 3-1.

That was as close as the Stars would come, as Emery shut the door in the third period and the Crunch penalty killers killed off six of seven Texas power plays on the afternoon to seal the win.

CRUNCHABLES: Kennedy's penalty shot goal was the first in the AHL since Brett MacLean's penalty shot tally on Ray Emery against the Crunch back on February 28.The penalty shot attempt was the Crunch's first since Nikita Filatov was denied by Marc Denis at Hamilton on February 22, 2009.The Crunch have scored the first goal in six of the last eight games.Josh Green saw his eight-game point streak (4g, 7a) snapped this afternoon.John Mitchell has six points (3g, 3a) in his last eight games after tallying six points (4g, 2a) in his first 39 contests.


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