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AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Derailed in Rochester

November 20, 2009 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Rochester, NY (November 20, 2009) - The Syracuse Crunch were defeated by the Rochester Americans by a 5-2 score tonight at the Blue Cross Arena.

Rochester tallied the game's first goal, scoring just six seconds into its first power play of the game with the Crunch's David Liffiton in the box for hooking.

Keaton Ellerby took a feed from Matt Duffy at the right point, skated in a few strides and sailed a wrister past a screened Dan LaCosta at the 7:18 mark of the first.

That goal could have deflated the Crunch, but they seemed to pick up their play after that and tied the game at 1-1 just five minutes later with a man-advantage tally of their own.

Maksim Mayorov worked the puck down low to Alexandre Picard, who used his 206-pound frame to work his way to the side of the net.

Seeing that there wasn't a quality shooting option, Picard found an open Dan Fritsche on the left side and he one-timed the disk past Alexander Salak for his fourth goal of the year.

Rochester re-gained the lead, however, with two and a half minutes remaining in the period when Shawn Matthias barreled his way to the front of the net, kept the puck on his stick and flipped it past LaCosta for the 2-1 advantage.

Rochester out-shot the Crunch 14-8 in the first frame.

Andrew Sweetland gave Rochester its first two-goal lead of the game at the 8:38 mark of the second stanza when he gathered a pass from Matthias, deked his way around a defender and tucked the puck in past the outstretched glove of LaCosta to make it 3-1.

Rochester struck quickly to take a three-goal edge just 32 seconds into the third frame. Ellerby got the puck in the slot and lost his balance, but got the shot away as he was falling and beat LaCosta for the goal to put the Americans up 4-1.

The Crunch had a quick answer and cut it back to a two-goal game with the club's fourth shorthanded goal of the year just under two minutes later.

Fritsche broke up a point-to-point pass and turned the other way quickly, coming down on a 2-on-1 with Trevor Frischmon.

Frischmon took the tape-to-tape feed and squeezed a shot through the legs of Salak to make it a 4-2 game.

A golden opportunity came the Crunch's way when a scrum at the 8:14 mark resulted in a four-minute power play, but they could not convert.

Ellerby notched his third of the game with just 35 seconds left to ice a 5-2 win for Rochester.

CRUNCHABLES: Alexandre Picard extended his scoring streak to three games with an assist tonight and now has at least one point in five of his last six games (3g, 2a)...Dan LaCosta played in his 90th game as a member of the Crunch tonight and is two games away from tying J.F. Labbe for fourth on the all-time games played list for goaltenders...The Crunch have been out-shot in 16 of 18 games this season...Four of the final five games against these two teams will be played at the War Memorial at Oncenter.

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American Hockey League Stories from November 20, 2009


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