AHL Syracuse Crunch

Christmas Not So Kind to Crunch

Published on December 26, 2008 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Binghamton, NY (December 26, 2008) - The Syracuse Crunch fell to the Binghamton Senators in overtime tonight, 3-2, in front of 4,613 fans at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena. The overtime loss extended the Crunch's season-high winless streak to 10 games.

With six days to think about a season-high nine-game winless streak, the Crunch hoped for a boost after coming back from its holiday break.

The Crunch got a different kind of break eight and a half minutes into the game on the power play, when Clay Wilson saucered the puck over to Aaron Rome at the right point who cranked a shot towards the net that banked off the shin guard of Tom Sestito and behind Binghamton starter Brian Elliott for the 1-0 Crunch lead.

Binghamton got one back on a 5-on-3 advantage four minutes later. Matt Carkner's point shot was blocked by the skate blade of Wilson, but came right to the waiting stick of Ryan Shannon at the bottom of the left circle who fired the puck over the shoulder of Dan LaCosta to tie the game at 1-1.

Syracuse re-took the lead at the 14:55 mark when Craig MacDonald worked the puck to Maksim Mayorov in the right corner and Mayorov centered a perfect feed to Grant Clitsome who was streaking down the middle. Clitsome fired a wrister that beat Elliott and gave the Crunch a 2-1 advantage.

Binghamton had a great shorthanded opportunity about halfway through the second period when Denis Hamel stole the puck from Andrey Plekhanov, skated in but was denied by LaCosta as he kept the puck from going over the goal line while falling backward.

But, just two minutes later Hamel got another opportunity on the power play when he corralled the disk in the right corner, curled toward the net, cut to the middle and ripped a slapshot inside the left post to make it 2-2.

Shots favored Binghamton by a 25-20 margin after 40 minutes of play.

A scoreless third period left the teams deadlocked at 2-2 after 60 minutes as the Crunch and Senators played to overtime for the third straight game and fourth extra-session game in six contests between the two clubs this season.

Just 39 seconds into overtime, Craig MacDonald took a hooking penalty, the Crunch's ninth minor infraction of the evening, setting up the eventual game-winning goal for Binghamton, as Hamel tipped in Carkner's point shot for his second of the game and second game-winning goal against the Crunch in the last week.

LaCosta and Elliott both finished with 32 saves.

CRUNCHABLES: The Crunch scored the first goal tonight for the first time in seven games...Tom Sestito's power play goal broke an 0-for-25 drought for the Crunch with the man-advantage and was the club's first power play goal in five games...Grant Clitsome's first period goal was his first as a professional and first as a member of the Crunch.

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American Hockey League Stories from December 26, 2008


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