AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Manhandle Monsters

Published on March 28, 2009 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Syracuse, NY - In a wild game that saw 13 total goals, the Syracuse Crunch came out the victors in a see-saw 8-5 win over Lake Erie tonight, in front of 6,012 fans at the War Memorial at Oncenter.

With their win and a Toronto loss, the Crunch finds themselves one point back of the fourth-place Marlies for the North Division's final playoff spot with six games remaining. These two teams square off for their final match-up of the regular season tomorrow at Ricoh Coliseum at 4 p.m.

The Crunch came out with a purpose and got off to a good start.

Just two minutes into the opening period, Nikita Filatov skated into the offensive zone and pulled up along the left half-wall. Filatov found a wide open Jon Landry streaking down the middle, who wound up and blasted it by Tyler Weiman for the 1-0 lead. The goal was Landry's first AHL marker.

Mike York added to the Crunch's lead on a five-on-three at the 6:12 mark. Dan Spang found Craig MacDonald at the left face-off dot, who turned and fired a shot on goal. The rebound squirted over to York on the far side and he swatted past Weiman for the 2-0 Crunch advantage.

Syracuse stretched its lead to 3-0 just one minute, seven seconds later while still on a 5-on-4 power play when Mike Blunden took a pass from Filatov, made a move to the front of the net and beat Weiman low to the glove side.

Lake Erie got one back with the man-advantage at the 11:08 mark when Ray Macias tapped in the rebound of a Philippe Dupuis shot past Dan LaCosta to make it a 3-1 game.

David Marshall added another power play tally for Lake Erie just five and a half minutes later to cut the Crunch's lead to 3-2.

With the momentum clearly in their favor, the Monsters capitalized with their third straight goal when Chris Mueller's wrist shot form the slot eluded LaCosta and snuck past his left shoulder to make it 3-3 with less than three minutes remaining in the first.

The Crunch re-took the lead eight and a half minutes into the second stanza when Tom Sestito found Blunden camped out on the left side of the cage and he whipped a one-timer past Weiman to put Syracuse up 4-3.

Blunden returned the favor the Sestito just over two minutes later when the pair broke in on a 2-on-1 and Sestito stuffed the rebound from Blunden's shot past Weiman to make it a 5-3 game.

Syracuse kept pouring on the offense when Alexandre Picard tipped in Nick Holden's point shot at the 13:37 mark to give the Crunch back their three-goal lead. The tally was Picard's 16th marker in as many games.

The Crunch stretched its lead to 7-3 before the second period was done when Filatov rifled a shot past Weiman right off a face-off win by Trevor Frischmon with 46 seconds left to go.

As they did in the first period, Lake Erie stormed back to make it a game when Codey Burki and Chris Durno found the back of the net seven minutes apart on Kevin Lalande, who replaced Dan LaCosta at the start of the second period to make it a 7-5 game with less than six minutes remaining in regulation.

The Crunch iced the game two minutes after Durno's goal when Columbus Blue Jackets second round draft pick Stefan Legein notched his first professional goal.

Legein swooped in to corrall the puck in the right circle from an offensive zone draw, cut to the front of the net and backhanded the biscuit by Jason Bacashihua, who replaced Weiman to start the third period.

Check out the Syracuse Crunch Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from March 28, 2009


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