AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Devoured by Dogs

Published on January 17, 2009 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Syracuse, NY - The Syracuse Crunch fell behind early and could not mount a comeback as they fell by a 6-2 count to the Hamilton Bulldogs at the War Memorial at Oncenter tonight, in front of 5,165 fans.

Looking to build on last night's come-from-behind win at home, the Crunch wanted to get out to a quick start, but it was Hamilton who struck first with the man-advantage at the 7:44 mark of the opening period.

Yannick Weber's point shot was deflected on the way to the net and came right to the stick of Ben Maxwell on the left side. Maxwell slid the puck into the open side past Sebastian Dahm to make it 1-0 just 11 seconds into the power play.

The Bulldogs jumped out to a 2-0 lead at the 11:03 mark when Yanick Lehoux was sprung on a partial breakaway by Brock Trotter. Lehoux came in down the right side and let a shot go as Aaron Rome caught up to him to cut down his shooting angle. Lehoux's shot chipped off of Rome's stick and knuckled over the shoulder of Dahm to give Hamilton the two-goal advantage.

The second frame opened up and saw five goals between both teams.

Hamilton took a 3-0 lead when Ryan Russell tallied his ninth of the year when his redirection trickled past Dahm at the 10:09 mark.

The Crunch got one back and made it 3-1 just 2:08 later when newcomer Mike Blunden took a pass from Derek MacKenzie and snapped a wrister on net streaking down the right side. Blunden followed his shot and drove hard to the net where he saw a loose puck that Loic Lacasse could not corral and poked it into the back of the net.

The Crunch's momentum, however, did not last long when Hamilton regained its two-goal lead at the 14:31 mark when Maxwell found the disk in the slot after it had deflected and popped up in the air. He sent it past the left pad of Dahm for his second of the gaem to make it 4-1. Dahm was replaced by Ryan Munce afer that marker.

Again, Syracuse struck back quickly to make it a 4-2 contest at the 15:07 mark. Mike York's centering feed deflected into mid-air but made it over to Steve Kelly.

Kelly, showing good hand-eye coordination, batted the puck out of the air and through the legs of Lacasse to put the Crunch back to within two scores.

The scoring in the second frame was not done yet, as Hamilton's Yanick Lehoux tallied his second goal of the game when he redirected a centering feed past Munce with under three seconds left in the stanza to make it 5-2.

Mathieu Aubin scored 6:38 into the third period to make it 6-2.

Things turned chippy the rest of the way, as the Crunch accumulated a season-high 92 minutes in penalties.

Lacasse turned away 22 of 24 Crunch shots en route to the win.

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American Hockey League Stories from January 17, 2009


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