AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Capture the Spirit of the Thing

Published on October 11, 2008 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Syracuse, NY - It couldn't have been a better night for the Syracuse Crunch, as they dismantled their archrival counterparts from Rochester and celebrated a fitting tribute to a Hollywood legend with a 6-1 victory in their fifteenth home-opener in team history in front of 6,142 raucous fans at the War Memorial at Oncenter.

And...by the way, the Crunch also tied an AHL record by winning their seventeenth consecutive regular season game dating back to last season. Syracuse has not lost a regular season game in seven months and three days, since a March 8, 2008 contest against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

The Amerks got on the board first just 4:46 into the first, when Karl Stewart's wrist shot from the right circle hit off of Crunch starter Dan LaCosta's arm and into the back of the cage for the 1-0 lead.

The Crunch's offensive onslaught and first of six unanswered goals came when Russian rookie Maksim Mayorov took a feed at center ice from Tom Sestito at the 10:29 mark, danced into the offensive zone around the Amerks defender and picked the top corner over the shoulder of Rochester starter Tyler Plante.

Fellow Russian rookie Nikita Filatov followed suit just two minutes later when he deflected an Andrey Plekhanov point shot past Plante.

Tom Sestito tallied his first of the season at the 15:59 mark when a point shot from Aaron Rome hit Plante and popped up in the air. Sestito batted it out of mid-air and behind Plante for the 3-1 lead. Rochester replaced Plante with Chris Beckford-Tseu after that goal.

Adam Pineault scored an unassisted power play goal on a wraparound attempt 1:30 later that snuck through the pads of Beckford-Tseu to make it 4-1 after one period of play.

The Crunch would finish up their scoring in the second period with goals from veterans Steve Kelly and Derek MacKenzie.

LaCosta turned aside 14 of 15 shots to record his second win of the season.

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American Hockey League Stories from October 11, 2008


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