AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Power Past Penguins, 4-2

Published on February 5, 2011 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Syracuse, NY - The Syracuse Crunch scored three power play goals for the second straight night, Nick Bonino recorded his second two-goal performance of the season, Matt Beleskey notched two points (1g, 1a), including the game-winner, and J.P. Levasseur stopped 36 of 38 shots en route to his second victory in a 24-hour span, catapulting the Crunch to a 4-2 win over the AHL-leading Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins tonight at The Oncenter War Memorial Arena.

As they did last night at Adirondack, the Crunch tallied the game's first goal on the power play 11:16 into the first period when Bonino took a touch pass from Beleskey at the point and rocketed a slapper to the top right corner of the cage past John Curry to put Syracuse up 1-0.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton didn't panic and got the goal back just over two and a half minutes later when Ben Street dove to re-direct a Nick Johnson centering feed off a rush up ice and ticked it past J.P. Levasseur to make it a 1-1 contest. The goal was the first of Street's AHL career.

The Penguins had the Crunch back on their heels for most of the rest of the first, but Levasseur stopped 15 of 16 shots he faced in the opening 20 minutes to keep the game tied.

Special teams came into play again when Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's Robert Bortuzzo was whistled off for hooking at the 9:04 mark of the second.

The Crunch once again took advantage of the power play opportunity and cashed in on a tic-tac-toe play to take a 2-1 lead at the 10:10 mark.

Kyle Palmieri found Mark Mitera at the bottom of the right circle and Mitera quickly deflected the puck in front to a wide open Maxime Macenauer, who whipped it into the open side for his fourth goal of the season.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton held a 28-18 lead in shots after two periods of play, but the Crunch took the one-goal lead into the dressing room for the second intermission.

The score stayed that way until Beleskey gave the Crunch its first two-goal lead of the game when he took a pass from Nicolas Deschamps at the right face-off dot and snuck a wrister through a screen past Curry from a sharp angle to make it 3-1 at the 14:27 mark of the third.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton stormed back late to cut it to 3-2 after Mat Clark was called for cross-checking and Steve Wagner scored on the ensuing power play with just 1:11 left in regulation.

The Penguins pulled Curry for the extra attacker in the game's final minute, but Palmieri was able to feather a pass from the right side over to a wide open Bonino, who capped the game with an empty-netter.

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American Hockey League Stories from February 5, 2011


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