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AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Rally Past Phantoms

February 24, 2010 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Glens Falls, NY (February 24, 2010) - Three unanswered goals fueled a furious third period comeback for the Syracuse Crunch, as they edged the Adirondack Phantoms by a 6-5 score in front of 2,642 fans tonight at the Glens Falls Civic Center.

Maksim Mayorov recorded his first two-goal game of the season, Alexandre Picard notched a goal and two assists and Tomas Kana and Derek MacKenzie chipped in a goal and an assist each in the win.

Adirondack got on the board first and went ahead by a 2-0 count by the 16:31 mark of the first period on Andreas Nodl's eighth of the year five and a half minutes into the game and Jonathon Kalinski's shorthanded marker just over 11 minutes later.

The Crunch got one back just over a minute after Kalinski's goal when Mike Blunden found the puck down at the hash marks, turned and blistered a shot underneath the crossbar past Johan Backlund to cut it to 2-1.

Adirondack struck back and re-gained the two-goal advantage with 51 seconds left in the period with the first of their three power play goals. Joey Mormina flung the puck towards the net where it bounced off a few bodies, including Stefan Legein's, who was eventually given credit for the tally.

It was a back-and-forth game after that, with a flurry of four goals being scored in the final seven minutes of the second period.

The Crunch scored the first two of those goals, tying the game at 3-3 before Adirondack took their third two-goal lead of the game with one second remaining in the stanza.

Mayorov broke behind the Adirondack defense, took a perfect pass from Jared Aulin down the left side and beat Backlund short side to make it 3-2.

Picard tied the game at 3-3 1:26 later when he punched in a rebound from the top of the crease past Backlund on a shot from Tomas Kana.

Adirondack capitalized on three straight power plays, including a 5-on-3 goal by David Laliberte at the 17:54 mark and a partial breakaway score from Jared Ross with one second left in the second to make it a 5-3 game heading into the third.

Kana tapped in a power play goal for the Crunch just 1:21 into the third to give his club some life when he found a loose puck after Brent Regner's point shot bounced off the back boards and to the front of the cage to cut it to 5-4.

The game took a turn for the strange after that.

With the Crunch down a man, MacKenzie came in on a shorthanded breakaway and appeared to beat Backlund with a wrister over the right shoulder.

The goal light went on, with the Crunch thinking that the puck went through the netting for the goal. After the referee and linesmen huddled with the goal judge, it was ruled no goal.

That adversity seemed to make the Crunch, and especially MacKenzie, work that much harder to get the equalizer. The captain's determination paid off when he swatted home a backhand no more than two minutes later to make it a 5-5 game.

After that goal, Picard was given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, resulting in another opportunity for the Phantoms to take the lead.

But the Crunch capitalized again on a defensive mistake by Adirondack, with Mayorov finishing off a shorthanded 2-on-1 opportunity with MacKenzie to take a 6-5 lead with 2:49 left.

The Phantoms pulled Backlund for the extra attacker, but the Crunch weathered the storm to come away with the 6-5 victory.

CRUNCHABLES: Mike Blunden now has eight points (3g, 5a) over his last five games...The Crunch are now ranked third in the AHL with 12 shorthanded goals...Derek MacKenzie leads all AHL players with seven shorthanded points (5g, 2a)...The Crunch are 10-4-0-1 over their past 15 road games.

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