AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Fall in High-Scoring Affair

Published on November 30, 2009 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Syracuse, NY (November 29, 2009) - The Syracuse Crunch lost just their second home game in regulation in 10 home contests, falling to the Rochester Americans by a 7-4 count this afternoon at the War Memorial at Oncenter.

Rochester tallied the game's first goal when Evgeny Dadonov broke into the offensive zone and beat Kevin Lalande at the 12:43 mark to give the Americans the 1-0 lead.

Rochester scored again to open up a 2-0 lead when Jamie Johnson took a pass from Michael Caruso and let go a one-timer that beat Lalande over the shoulder.

The Americans took a 3-0 lead inside the game's first 17 minutes when Graham Mink swatted in a backhand past Lalande on the power play with just over three minutes left to go in the first period.

Rochester out-chanced and out-shot the Crunch by a 14-9 margin in the frame.

It didn't take very long for the Americans to inflate their lead to 4-0 just 2:17 into the second.

As Rochester was breaking into the offensive zone, Andrew Sweetland's cross-ice pass went off a Crunch defenseman's stick and right to the blade of David Brine, who skated in a few more strides and ripped a wrister to the top left corner.

Lalande was pulled in favor of Dan LaCosta after Rochester's fourth tally.

The Crunch finally got on the board just through the midway point of the period when Bates Battaglia re-directed a Jonathan Sigalet shot past Alexander Salak.

Play continued as the goal was not thought to have originally counted even though the goal light went on. After a stoppage of play, referee Jean Hebert checked with the goal judge. After a lengthy discussion, Syracuse was awarded the tally to cut its deficit to 4-1.

The Crunch seemed to gain momentum off of that goal and scored again just over four minutes later when big Tom Sestito crashed the net and dug out a rebound from a sharp-angle shot from Simon Ferguson. Sestito's backhand trickled over the line to make it 4-2.

The score stayed that way until Michal Repik's goal just 1:28 into the third period gave Rochester back its three-goal advantage at 5-2.

Syracuse never lost hope and pulled to within two goals once again when Dan Fritsche's shot from the slot eluded Salak to cut it to 5-3 just under two minutes later.

It looked like the Crunch might have tied the game when Battaglia deflected a Mathieu Roy shot about halfway through the third that appeared to have hit the back bar and popped in and out of the net quickly, but the goal light never came on and play continued.

The Crunch continued on and got the game to within one with eight and a half minutes to play when Jonathan Sigalet's wrister from the point found eyes and fooled Salak to make it 5-4.

Johnson tallied his second of the game and ninth of the season to make it 6-4 with five minutes to play and Chris Taylor added a shorthanded empty-netter to give Rochester the 7-4 lead which they did not relinquish.

CRUNCHABLES: Syracuse fell to 0-4-2-0 against Rochester this season...Bates Battaglia has four points (2g, 2a) in his last two games...Kevin Lalande started his fifth straight game and third in three days today.

Check out the Syracuse Crunch Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



American Hockey League Stories from November 30, 2009


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central