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AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Fall in High-Scoring Affair in Toronto

February 18, 2009 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Toronto, ON (February 18, 2009) - The Syracuse Crunch were defeated by the Toronto Marlies at the Ricoh Coliseum in a high-scoring affair tonight, 8-5. The Marlies' Jiri Tlusty racked up five goals and was named the game's first star in front of 1,914 fans.

In a crucial North Division match-up, the Crunch looked to get to within two points of fourth place but fell behind early, as Toronto jumped out to a 3-0 lead inside the first nine minutes of the first frame.

Tlusty notched his 14th and 15th goals of the season in the first five minutes, 41 seconds to give Toronto a 2-0 lead.

Tlusty found the five-hole on Dan LaCosta with a wrist shot from the slot on his first goal. Just three and a half minutes later, Tlusty took a feed from Tim Stapleton and one-timed it past LaCosta.

Ryan Hamilton added his ninth goal of the season at the 8:47 mark to make it 3-0.

Crunch head coach Ross Yates did not like the way his team was playing and used his timeout after falling behind by three goals in the first half of the first period.

This seemed to spark the Crunch as Syracuse got on the board 47 seconds later.

Kevin Harvey broke in on a 2-on-1 with Jon Mirasty and elected to shoot. Harvey's shot zipped over Adam Munro's left shoulder and underneath the crossbar to make it 3-1. The game stayed that way through the rest of the frame.

Craig MacDonald made sure that the Crunch carried over its momentum from that late third period goal and got the Syracuse to within one when he took a drop pass from Maksim Mayorov, deked to his backhand and roofed the puck to the top of the cage to make it 3-2.

Toronto's Alex Foster answered just 25 seconds later when his shot eluded LaCosta to put the Marlies back up by two and give them the 4-2 advantage.

The Crunch, however, came back and pulled to within one goal again when Dan Smith jumped up from the point and found a loose puck in the slot. Smith's shot found its way through a screen to make it 4-3 and scored the game's third goal in a one minute, ten second span.

In keeping with the wide-open, high flying period of hockey, Toronto secured its third two-goal lead of the game when Tlusty tallied his third goal of the contest at the 5:40 mark to make it 5-3. That goal chased LaCosta as he was replaced by Sebastian Dahm.

Again, the Crunch rallied to get to within one at 5-4, when on Syracuse's second power play opportunity of the game, a loose puck popped out to Mike York at the top of the left circle and he blasted it through Munro at the 8:08 mark.

The offense continued right into the third period and the Crunch tied the game just under three minutes in.

Kyle Wharton found the puck along the left wing boards and threw a seemingly harmless wrist shot towards the net. The puck went through a screen and beat Munro high to the glove side to make it 5-5.

Toronto answered back quickly, taking their second lead of the game when Josh Engel's wrister from center point beat Dahm to give the Marlies the 6-5 edge.

Tlusty notched his fourth goal of the game and made it 7-5 with two minutes to go in regulation when he broke in down the right side and his off-wing shot from the circle beat Dahm over the shoulder.

Tlusty iced the game when he took a pass from Ryan Hamilton and found the empty net for his fifth goal of the contest to give Toronto the 8-5 win.

CRUNCHABLES: The second period saw a combined five goals in a five minute, 20 second span...The Crunch and Marlies have combined for 22 goals the last two times they have played each other...Mike York's goal tonight was his first in 17 games...The Crunch dropped their first game of the season when scoring four or more goals...Syracuse let up a season-high eight goals tonight.

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