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Crunch Outlast River Rats In Overtime 3-2

March 28, 2008 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Albany River Rats News Release


SYRACUSE, NY - Brett Motherwell scored a power play in overtime to lift the Syracuse Crunch to a 3-2 win over the Albany River Rats Friday night at the War Memorial at Oncenter.

Defenseman Andrei Plekhanov put the Crunch ahead in the first period when his slap shot from the blue line beat goaltender Michael Leighton at 7:20, from Zenon Konopka and Tom Sestito. At the other end goaltender Karl Goehring help the River rats at bay, making several fantastic saves to keep the lead.

Albany tied the game 1-1 at 4:57 of the second period when Joey Mormina snapped a shot from the left wing boards that slid under Goehring's pads and into the net. The goal was Mormina's third of the season, assisted by Jamie Johnson and Brett Carson. The teams continued to go back and forth, each holding the momentum for several minutes at a time. Late in the period Syracuse went back on top as Derick Brassard made a perfect cross-ice pass to Adam Pineault, who one-timed the puck into the net at 18:31, giving the Crunch a 2-1 lead.

But Albany would not be denied a point in this game as they continued to grind away at the Crunch defense. As time was winding down, Jamie Johnson poked in a loose puck off a Marc Cavosie slap shot to tie the game 2-2 at 16:54. At the other end of the ice Leighton made several unbelievable saves to send the game into overtime.

The River Rats had a couple chances to win the game in the first minute of the extra session, but ran into trouble when Bryan Rodney was whistled for interference at 1:09. Albany killed off a majority of the penalty, but could not hold off for the final seconds. With four seconds remaining on the four-on-three power play, Syracuse defenseman Brett Motherwell's blast from the blue line hit off an Albany player and deflected past Leighton, giving the Crunch a 3-2 overtime win.

Karl Goehring earned the win, stopping 35-of-37 shots in the game, helping the Crunch improve to 38-26-2-6 on the season. Michael Leighton made 30 saves on 33 shots as the River Rats dropped to 40-26-3-4. Syracuse was 1-for-2 on the power play, while Albany was 0-for-3 in the game.

Next up for the River Rats is a 4:05 pm Sunday afternoon game in Portland, Maine against the Pirates at the Cumberland County Civic Center. Albany's next home game is on Wednesday, April 9th against the Norfolk Admirals; a 7:00 pm face off at the Times Union Center.

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