AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Downed by Penguins

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


Syracuse, NY (February 20, 2009) - Three unanswered goals and a three-point night from Connor James did in the Syracuse Crunch on a snowy Central New York night tonight, 3-1, at the War Memorial at Oncenter in front of 5,290 fans.

After getting off to a slow start on Wednesday in Toronto, the Crunch wanted avoid that fate again and came out firing on all cylinders, throwing 10 shots on goal in the first 11 minutes of the first period.

That flurry of activity led to the Crunch netting the game's first goal just six seconds into their first power play opportunity with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's Jon D'Aversa in the box for slashing.

Aaron Rome's pass to Mike Blunden in the right circle hit off Blunden's skate and deflected over to Nikita Filatov on the left side of the net. Filatov collected the puck on his backhand and swept a shot underneath John Curry to give the Crunch a 1-0 lead at the 11:47 mark.

The teams traded power play goals when Wilkes-Barre/Scranton got on the board by cashing in on a Trevor Frischmon hooking infraction at the 17:07 mark.

Alex Goligoski made a slick pass over to Mark Letestu who one-timed a shot from the right circle over the shoulder of Crunch starter Sebastian Dahm to tie the game at 1-1.

The Crunch outshot the Penguins 14-8 in the first period.

The score stayed deadlocked at 1-1 until Wilkes-Barre/Scranton took its first lead of the game with another power play goal, this time at the 13:50 mark of the second stanza.

Letestu got the puck to Connor James at the bottom of the right circle. James centered a pass that went off of Luca Caputi's skate, but ricocheted right back up to his stick blade. Caputi deposited the puck past a helpless Dahm to give the Penguins a 2-1 edge.

The Penguins tallied their third straight goal at the 12:39 mark of the third, when, during a 4-on-4 situation, James glided in down the right wing boards and threw a sharp angle shot at the cage.

James' shot somehow squeezed through Dahm's pads and gave Wilkes-Barre/Scranton the 3-1 lead, which is how the game ended.

Dahm finished with 31 saves while Curry stopped 27 of 28 Crunch bids.

CRUNCHABLES: Nikita Filatov returned to the lineup tonight after missing four games with an illness...Stefan Legein returned to the lineup after missing 14 games with a broken hand...The Crunch have trailed going into the third period in 30 of their 56 games this year.

Check out the Syracuse Crunch Statistics



American Hockey League Stories from February 20, 2009


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