AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Solve Senators

Published on December 5, 2009 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Syracuse, NY (December 5, 2009) - The Syracuse Crunch scored two power play goals in a game for the first time since October 17 and Kevin Lalande had 31 saves to nail down a 3-2 win over Binghamton tonight at the War Memorial at Oncenter.

The Crunch came out looking to erase the memory of last night's 5-0 loss to the B-Sens at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Coliseum and once again, Jon Mirasty put himself in a position to be the team's sparkplug by battling Binghamton's Jeremy Yablonski off the game's opening puck drop.

That showdown left the crowd buzzing and set the pace for a very physical first period of action.

Both teams traded power play chances in the game's first 20 minutes, but neither converted as Crunch starter Kevin Lalande made nine saves, while last night's first star of the game Chris Holt turned aside all seven Syracuse bids he saw.

The Crunch were the first team to break through on the scoreboard, when Dan Fritsche notched his seventh goal of the season on the power play at the 8:02 mark.

Pascal Pelletier gained the zone and drew two defenders to him, opening up the lane on the right side for Fritsche. Pelletier lasered a pass over to Fritsche, who skated two strides and sniped a wrister to the top right corner over Chris Holt's shoulder to put the Crunch up 1-0.

Binghamton bounced back and knotted the score at 1-1 about eight and a half minutes later with a power play goal of their own when Kaspars Daugavins found a rebound from a Josh Hennessy shot and stuffed it past Kevin Lalande from the top of the crease.

The Crunch re-took the lead before the second frame was over when Fritsche won a face-off back to Grant Clitsome who quickly moved the disk to Nick Holden.

Holden let go a shot that needled its way through traffic and past Holt to put the Crunch back ahead at 2-1.

Syracuse extended its lead to 3-1 about half-way through the third period when Jared Aulin scored the club's second man-advantage goal of the night.

Alexandre Picard, who arrived about 10 minutes before game time due to flight delays after being assigned by Columbus today, got the puck from Grant Clitsome along the right half wall. Picard slid a tape-to-tape pass to Aulin, who was camped out on the left side of the net and swept the biscuit off the one-time feed past Holt.

Binghamton made it interesting when Brandon Svendsen's sharp angle shot from the side of the net somehow squeezed through Lalande to cut it to 3-2 with two minutes to play in regulation.

The Senators pulled their goalie for the extra-attacker late, but the Crunch clamped down on defense and came together for the 3-2 win.

CRUNCHABLES: The Crunch scored the first goal tonight for the first time since a November 21 win over Hartford, a span of five games...With his five penalty minutes tonight, Jon Mirasty moved past Jody Shelley into soul possession of fourth place all-time in that category (523 PIM)...Pascal Pelletier has five assists over his last four games...Syracuse moved its home record against East Division opponents to 5-1-0-0...Tonight marked just the third time this season the Crunch have won when scoring less than four goals.

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American Hockey League Stories from December 5, 2009


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