AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Scare Away Monsters

March 13, 2009 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Syracuse, NY (March 13, 2009) - A 31-save performance by Kevin Lalande and goals from three different players catapulted the Syracuse Crunch to a 3-1 win over the Lake Erie Monsters in front of 5,416 fans at the War Memorial at Oncenter tonight.

Coming off a huge win over the Toronto Marlies at home Wednesday, the Crunch put their five-game home points streak on the line against Lake Erie Friday and got on the board first, despite being out-shot by a 9-5 margin in the opening period.

Nick Holden collected a loose puck at the point and shuffled a backhand over to Jon Landry on the right side.

Landry threw a wrister towards the goal that was neatly deflected by Maksim Mayorov and skipped past Monsters starter Jason Bacashihua for the 1-0 Crunch lead at the 7:56 mark.

The Crunch took a 2-0 lead six and a half minutes into the second stanza.

Craig MacDonald worked the puck to Johann Kroll in front of the net as he was spun around and the puck popped loose on the right side of the net where Nikita Filatov was driving to.

Filatov, from almost parallel to the goal line, reached out and poked the disk into the open side on his backhand to put Syracuse ahead by two.

Crunch captain Dan Smith gave Syracuse a three-tally cushion just two minutes later when his original slapper from the point was blocked, but came right back to him.

Smith snapped the puck at the cage and it found its way through a screen and over the left shoulder of Bacashihua to make it 3-0.

Shots were 18-15 in favor of the Crunch after 40 minutes of play.

The Crunch kept their shutout going until Lake Erie tallied late at the 16:47 mark of the third on the power play when T.J. Galiardi notched his tenth goal of the campaign.

Lake Erie threw 17 shots at Lalande in the final frame, but the Kingston, Ontario native stood tall to seal the win for Syracuse.

CRUNCHABLES: With an assist tonight, Alexandre Picard has nine points (6g, 3a), over his last eight games... The Crunch extended their home points streak to six games...Syracuse is 5-0-1 over that span...The Crunch are 7-1-1 over their last nine home games and improved to 19-10-2-0 at the War Memorial at Oncenter this season...Syracuse improved its record to 15-15-3-1 when getting out-shot.

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American Hockey League Stories from March 13, 2009


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