AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Bitten by Bulldogs, 3-2

Published on February 26, 2011 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Syracuse, NY - Patrick Maroon and Kyle Palmieri each scored a goal to push their respective point streaks to four games, but the Crunch ultimately fell by a 3-2 count to the Hamilton Bulldogs tonight in front of 5,589 fans at The War Memorial at Oncenter.

Brendon Nash, Kyle Klubertanz and newly-acquired Nigel Dawes all scored for Hamilton and Robert Mayer stopped 29 of 30 shots in 40 minutes of relief work after replacing starter Curtis Sanford to start the second period.

Timo Pielmeier, who last appeared in a game for the Crunch on January 29, took the loss in goal, stopping 32 of 35 shots.

Hamilton broke the Crunch's streak of scoring first in three straight games when Nash corralled the puck off turnover in the Crunch defensive zone and whistled a shot from the top of the left circle past Pielmeier to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead 8:08 into the game.

The Crunch answered right back to tie the game 51 seconds later when the forward line of Nicolas Deschamps, Josh Green and Palmieri were rewarded for a hard-working shift. Deschamps got the puck to Green, who powered to the net, was forced wide and left the disk behind for Palmieri, who picked it up from behind the cage and stuffed it in on a wraparound attempt past Sanford to make it a 1-1 contest.

Hamilton re-took the lead just two minutes later on the power play after Matt Kennedy was given a two-minute minor for hooking.

Klubertanz took a feed from Dustin Boyd, worked his way in around the Crunch defense and picked the bottom right corner past the glove of Pielmeier to push it to 2-1 in favor of the visitors. The first period ended with Hamilton up by a goal and holding a 14-6 shots advantage over the Crunch.

The Crunch had a golden opportunity to draw even again early in the second period when Mathieu Carle was called for tripping at the 1:25 mark and Gabriel Dumont was whistled for hooking at the 2:25 mark to set up a 5-on-3 for 1:02.

Syracuse had some strong chances, but was stymied by Mayer who warmed up quickly after coming into the game cold.

Hamilton picked up their game after those back-to-back kills and capitalized when Dawes skated in down the right wing and let go a wrister from the top of the face-off circle that eluded Pielmeier to make it 3-1.

The Crunch pulled to within 3-2 with a power play goal of their own when Green set up Maroon with a perfect feed on the doorstep from the goal line extended and Maroon stuffed it past Mayer into the back of the net.

Syracuse looked for the equalizer late, but back-to-back penalties by David Laliberte and Nate Guenin with less than three minutes left in regulation thwarted the Crunch's chance at a comeback.

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American Hockey League Stories from February 26, 2011


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