AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Dunk Providence, 7-4

February 14, 2010 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Providence, RI - Alexandre Picard scored his third career hat trick, Mike Blunden contributed a goal and two assists, Jonathan Sigalet stung his former team with a goal and an assist and Derek MacKenzie capped the contest with his 10th shorthanded goal as a member of the Crunch, becoming the franchise's all-time leader in that category, helping the Crunch to a 7-4 win over the Providence Bruins tonight at the Dunkin' Donuts Center.

Defenseman Mike Ratchuk opened the game's scoring, putting the Crunch up 1-0 on the power play just 4:44 into the game when his blast from center point beat Dany Sabourin for the goal.

Picard scored the first of his three goals just five minutes later, again on the power play, when his stuff-in attempt at the left side of the crease squeezed through Sabourin to make it 2-0.

Providence's Zach Hamill scored the first of his two goals on the night just under three minutes later to cap the first period scoring, as the Crunch held a 2-1 advantage through the first 20 minutes.

The P-Bruins tied the contest five and a half minutes into the second period when Jamie Arniel put his 11th of the season past Dan LaCosta to knot the game at 2-2.

The Crunch went on to notch the game's next three goals, with two of those tallies coming before the second stanza was through.

Blunden scored shorthanded when he took a pass down the left wing from Dylan Reese, skated in and snapped a wrister that Sabourin caught a piece of, but trickled over the goal line to give the Crunch a 3-2 advantage.

Just 1:22 later, Sigalet took a pass from David Liffiton, wound up and fired a slapper from the left point past the outstretched left pad of Sabourin to extend the Crunch's lead to 4-2.

Picard's second of the game came off a nice feed from Blunden just 1:18 into the third frame, putting the Crunch up by a 5-2 score.

Providence made it a game when Mikko Lehtonen scored on the power play at the 2:48 mark and Hamill notched his second of the contest just four minutes later to close the gap to 5-4 with still over 13 minutes to play in regulation.

The Crunch buckled down and Picard registered his third goal of the night with Syracuse's third man-advantage goal of the game at the 13:46 mark on a pretty play by Brendan Bell.

Bell slid in down the left side and made a nice move, deking his way past a Providence defender. Bell then fed a perfect saucer pass to Picard skating hard towards the net, which he re-directed to the top right corner of the cage for the 6-4 lead.

MacKenzie added the empty-netter with 1:38 remaining, giving the Crunch a season-high seven goals.

CRUNCHABLES: The Crunch scored a season-high seven goals tonight after tallying just once in their last two gamesPicard tied Kent McDonnell for sixth on the all-time list in games played tonight (227)Picard's two power play goals was the first time one player has scored twice in a game with the man advantage for the Crunch all seasonDan LaCosta made his first start tonight since January 23 vs. Worcester, a span of eight gamesLaCosta picked up his first win since January 15 @ SpringfieldSyracuse matched a season-high with three power play goalsThe Crunch have scored two power play goals or more in four of the last six games and are 10-for-25 (40.0%), over that span.

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American Hockey League Stories from February 14, 2010


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