Crunch Down Rochester 3-2 for Fourth Straight Win
Published on March 12, 2011 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release
Syracuse, NY - Right wing Brian McGrattan scored twice in the first period and racked up a Crunch single-game franchise record 13 shots on goal, Patrick Maroon added three assists and J.P. Levasseur stopped 35 of 37 shots as the Syracuse Crunch won their season-high fourth straight game, defeating the Rochester Americans by a 3-2 score tonight in front of 5,619 fans at The Oncenter War Memorial Arena.
Rochester took control from the opening face-off and pressured the Crunch in their own zone on the first shift of the game, until Nick Bonino stole the puck along the boards and hit McGrattan with a stretch pass, sending the 235-pound winger lumbering down on a breakaway.
McGrattan showed off his soft hands, deking to his backhand and lifting a shot over the blocker of Marc Cheverie to give the Crunch a 1-0 lead just 28 seconds into the game.
Rochester answered just over 11 minutes later to tie the game at 1-1 after Mat Clark was whistled off for interference. Chris Taylor found Patrick Rissmiller with a feed from behind the net and Rissmiller's shot ticked off the stick of Maxime Macenauer and past Levasseur.
McGrattan was at it again and gave the Crunch their second lead of the game just 1:34 later after a great individual effort from Bonino. Bonino out-hustled an Amerk defenseman to get to the puck in the corner and slid the disk to Maroon behind the cage. Without hesitation, Maroon fed it right out in front to McGrattan, who beat Cheverie on a one-timer for his second goal of the game to put the Crunch back up, 2-1.
The score stayed that way until the 11:49 mark of the second stanza, when Hugh Jessiman came wide on a wraparound attempt and slid a shot through the pads of Levasseur to make it a 2-2 contest. Shots favored Rochester 28-22 after 40 minutes of play.
Things got chippy with a scrum in front of the Rochester net and Sean Zimmerman and Jordan Knackstedt were given two minutes each for roughing at 19:22, resulting in a four-on-four situation to start the third.
The Crunch controlled most of the third period and finally re-took the lead at the 11:46 mark when Maroon found Macenauer all alone in front of the net and Macenauer stuffed the puck past Cheverie on a second whack for the 3-2 lead.
Rochester was given a power play chance late to try to tie it when Josh Green was called for tripping and unsportsmanlike and was given a misconduct with 29 seconds left in regulation, but the Crunch PK held strong for the final seconds to seal the win.
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