AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Fall to Monsters in Overtime

January 3, 2009 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Cleveland, OH - The Syracuse Crunch extended its season-high and franshise-record winless streak on the road to 11 games, dropping a 3-2 decision to the Lake Erie Monsters in overtime at Quicken Loans Arena tonight in front of 6,288 fans.

After killing off a holding the stick penalty on Mike York early in the first stanza, the Crunch scored the first goal of the game on a delayed penalty coming to Lake Erie. Petr Pohl found a rebound on a point shot from Clay Wilson and stuffed it past Monsters' starter Jason Bacashihua to put the Crunch up 1-0.

Lake Erie tied the game at 1-1 when the Crunch's Kevin Harvey took a hooking penalty 3:47 into the second frame. Cody Burki's shot from a sharp angle pulled Dan LaCosta out of the crease and Tom Fritsche was there to tap in the rebound 58 seconds into the man advantage.

The Crunch did not let Lake Erie take the momentum after that goal and retook the lead 1:41 later.

Pohl found the puck in the corner and sent a backhand pass up the boards to Aaron Rome. Rome's innocent point shot was deflected perfectly by Ryan Garlock past Bacashihua to give the Crunch a 2-1 lead.

Shots favored Lake Erie 21-20 through two periods.

The Monsters came back to tie the game once again just 2:15 into the third when Burki stuffed a rebound past LaCosta off a shot from the slot by T.J. Galiardi.

Shots were 36-26 at the end of regulation as the Crunch and Monsters played to overtime.

An exciting back-and-forth extra session was started when LaCosta stuffed Kyle Cumiskey on a breakaway with his left pad just one minute in when he broke in free after Steve Kelly could not keep the puck in the zone.

The Crunch had some chances of their own, but Bacashihua made some key stops to keep the game going.

Lake Erie's Mike Vernace netted the winner when he took a cross-ice feed skating down the slot from former Crunch member Philippe Dupuis and wristed it past LaCosta with just 13 seconds remaining.

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American Hockey League Stories from January 3, 2009


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