AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Drop Third Straight

January 22, 2010 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Syracuse, NY - A five-point night for Chris Connor and three points each from Wyatt Smith and Luca Caputi catapulted the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to a 6-3 win over the Syracuse Crunch tonight at the War Memorial at Oncenter in front of 5,376 fans. This was the first game back for both teams since the AHL All-Star break.

Defenseman Nate Guenin notched his first goal of the season to open the scoring for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at the 6:16 mark of the first when Zach Sill found him streaking down the middle of the ice trailing the play. Guenin let go a wrist shot from center point that beat Kevin Lalande over his glove hand through a screen to give the Penguins a 1-0 edge.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton gave themselves a 2-0 lead before the first 20 minutes was over when Connor tallied the first of his three helpers when he found Smith wide open in front of the net and he one-timed a bid into the empty side past Lalande at the 18:07 mark.

Robert Bortuzzo's second tally of the year made it a 3-0 Penguins lead when he scored just two minutes into the second stanza. Smith added his second of the game and opened up a 4-0 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton lead when he rifled a one-timer from the right face-off dot on a feed from Connor on the power play at the 11:16 mark.

The Crunch finally got on the board just under two minutes later with the Penguins on another man-advantage. The Baby Pens made an errant pass along the near side wall and Crunch captain Derek MacKenzie pounced on the loose puck, springing himself on a breakaway.

MacKenzie slowed down and methodically picked the top right corner over Brad Thiessen's glove to cut it to 4-1.

The Crunch seemed to build on that and took the momentum into the third, scoring twice in the period's first eight minutes to make it a one-goal game at 4-3.

Nick Holden recorded his third of the season with the Crunch on the power play when he stuffed home a rebound in front of the net at the 4:10 mark.

Jonathan Sigalet added his fifth of the year when he took a feed from MacKenzie across the blue line, skated in alone on Thiessen and tucked a backhand past him at the 7:56 mark.

Connor scored both of his goals less than five minutes apart late in the third, his second coming on an empty net with just 28 seconds left in regulation for the 6-3 final.

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American Hockey League Stories from January 22, 2010


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