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AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch streak snapped

January 16, 2010 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Syracuse, NY - Two goals from Jeff Taffe and one each from Michal Repik and former Crunch defenseman Clay Wilson helped Rochester squeak out a 4-3 win against the Syracuse Crunch tonight in front of a raucous crowd of 6,129 fans at the War Memorial at Oncenter. The loss snaps the Crunch's four-game win streak and six game points streak.

Maksim Mayorov scored his second goal in three games, Jordan LaVallee-Smotherman notched his first tally in 20 games and Derek MacKenzie added his sixth of the year for the Crunch to cap the Syracuse scoring.

Alexander Salak made 29 saves on 32 shots to move his record to 8-0-0 against the Crunch this season, while Dan LaCosta stopped 19 of 23 Rochester bids.

The packed house in downtown Syracuse was quickly silenced just 31 seconds into game when Evgeny Dadonov hit Repik down the right wing with a pass. Repik wound up and cranked a slapper that beat LaCosta to give Rochester the early 1-0 edge.

The Crunch picked up their play after that and tied the game six minutes later on a pretty play. Jared Aulin zig-zagged his way to the left face-off dot and made a perfect touch pass to Maksim Mayorov, who snapped a perfectly placed shot inside the right post past Salak to make it 1-1.

Rochester gained the lead back at the 13:03 mark when Jeff Taffe was sprung in on a breakaway, cut to his backhand and roofed a shot over LaCosta's glove to make it 2-1.

The Crunch dictated the pace for almost the entire second stanza, stemming from a one-minute, 20 second 5-on-3 advantage about five minutes in. Syracuse almost tied the game, but Salak stoned Derek MacKenzie on a cross-ice feed and then moments later dove across to crease to deny Aulin's bid from the left side with his goal paddle.

After peppering Salak with 14 overall shots in the period, the Crunch finally broke through on the Amerk's Czech-born netminder at the 14:58 mark.

Aulin gained the offensive zone and dished the disk to Nick Holden, breaking down the left side. Holden cut to the center of the ice and slid it toward the Rochester crease, creating a scramble. The Big-bodied LaVallee-Smotherman was able to barrel his way to the rebound and punch it past Salak to make it a 2-2 game.

The score stayed that way until Taffe tallied his second goal of the game when he found the rebound of a Wilson shot and buried it past LaCosta four minutes into the third period.

The Crunch answered just over three and a half minutes later when Tomas Kana broke in on a 2-on-0 with MacKenzie and slid a one-timer over to the Crunch captain, who picked the top right corner to knot the game for the third time at 3-3.

Rochester took the lead for good when Wilson's slapshot from the point found its way through traffic and eluded LaCosta with just over seven minutes left in regulation.

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