AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Bitten by Bulldogs in Hamilton

Published on January 2, 2009 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Syracuse, NY (January 2, 2009) - After jumping out to a commanding 3-0 lead, the Syracuse Crunch gave up four unanswered goals in the second period and fell to the Hamilton Bulldogs tonight, 4-3 at Copps Coliseum in front of 4,041 fans.

After a forgettable month of December, the Crunch came out looking for a fresh start in their first game of 2009 and got exactly that.

Just 45 seconds into the game, Aaron Rome took a cross-ice pass from Mike York and wristed the Crunch's first shot on goal of the evening past Hamilton rookie goaltender Loic Lacasse, who was making his first AHL start, to make in 1-0.

Only 1:09 later, the Crunch once again found the back of the net when Steve Kelly buried a rebound off a shot from the right point past Lacasse to give Syracuse a 2-0 advantage.

The Crunch extended its lead to 3-0 at the 18:57 mark with Hamilton's Dan Jancevski in the box for cross-checking. John Vigilante found the rebound of a Rome point shot as he was camped out at the side of the net and roofed it to the top corner.

Dan LaCosta held down the fort in goal in the first period, turning away all 10 Hamilton bids he faced.

Hamilton got one back at the 11:46 mark of the second when Yannick Lehoux found a wide open Thomas Beauregard all alone in front on the power play, who stuffed a one-time try thought the five-hole of LaCosta to make it 3-1.

The momentum turned fully in Hamilton's favor after that marker and Mike Glumac's point shot on another Bulldogs' power play opportunity just 42 seconds later cut the Crunch's lead to 3-2.

A timeout after Hamilton's second goal and a Kevin Harvey fight shortly after that still could not provide the spark the Crunch was looking for to get back into the game, as Hamilton tied the game at 3-3 just a minute later when a sloppy line change cost the Crunch a three-on-one break against them and Ryan White deposited a cross-ice feed from Shawn Belle past a helpless LaCosta.

The second period nightmare continued for the Crunch when Hamilton notched their fourth goal and third power play goal in a seven minute, 10 second span when Beauregard broke free with two Crunch defenders on him and slipped the puck through LaCosta's pads to give the Bulldogs a 4-3 lead with 1:05 remaining in the stanza.

The scoring frenzy settled down in the third period and the Crunch pulled LaCosta for the extra-attacker while on the power play with just 28 seconds remaining for a six-on-four advantage, but could not capitalize.

LaCosta finished with 35 saves while his counterpart Lacasse stopped 21 shots en route to his first AHL victory.

CRUNCHABLES: Tonight the Crunch played the first game of a season-high six-game road trip...The Crunch set a season-high by giving up four goals in the second period tonight...The Crunch has given up at least three goals in a single period eight times this year and in three consecutive games...The Crunch's penalty killing unit is just 18 for its last 28 (64.29%)...Dan LaCosta has not picked up a win since a 5-1 victory over Toronto on November 28...The Crunch have given up at least three power play goals in three of the last four games...John Vigilante has three goals in his last three games...Steve Kelly returned to the lineup tonight after missing the last four games with an injury...Kelly's goal tonight was his second of the year and first in 15 games.

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American Hockey League Stories from January 2, 2009


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