AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Thumped by Toronto

Published on February 11, 2009 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Toronto, ON (February 11, 2009) - Two power play goals and one shorthanded goal against did in the Syracuse Crunch, as they fell 6-3 in an 11:30 a.m. matinee match-up against the Toronto Marlies today at the Ricoh Coliseum in front of 7,851 fans on School Kids Day.

After a convincing 4-1 win on Saturday night in Toronto, the Crunch were looking for a repeat performance. The Marlies got on the board first, however, at the 5:29 mark of the first period.

Andrey Plekhanov's attempted shot from the point on the power play was blocked and Toronto's Bates Battaglia picked it up and moved the puck ahead to Jiri Tlusty.

Tlusty broke in down the left side and beat Sebastian Dahm low to the glove side for the shorthanded marker to put the Marlies up 1-0.

The Crunch answered back just under four minutes later during a 4-on-4 situation.

Nikita Filatov slid the puck to Craig MacDonald, who had some room and skated in down the left wing. With his angle being cut off, MacDonald wound up and let go a rocket that found its way through the legs of Toronto starter Justin Pogge.

Toronto re-took the lead on the power play at the 14:35 mark when Andre Deveaux made a move from behind the net and found Joe Ryan at the point.

Ryan's slapper eluded Dahm to give Toronto a 2-1 advantage.

The Marlies went up 3-1 just a minute and a half later when Phil Oreskovic's wrister from the blue line deflected off of Brent Aubin, then off of Dahm and into the back of the net.

Toronto struck quickly to start the second, when Boyd Devereux shuffled a wrist shot toward the net that slid past Dahm to make it 4-1.

That goal chased Dahm from the game and he was replaced by John Murray.

The Crunch got one back on the power play and pulled to within two at the 9:15 mark when Derek MacKenzie's shot from the right circle beat Pogge to make it 4-2.

Toronto answered and took back their three-goal lead on the man-advantage with just under two minutes left in the stanza when Anton Stralman faked a slapshot and slid the puck to Tim Stapleton at the left face-off dot.

Stalpleton's shot beat Murray through the five-hole to give the Marlies a 5-2 edge.

Devereaux tallied his second of the game to put Toronto up 6-2 when the puck squirted loose in front of the net and sat there as a pileup ensued. Devereaux picked it loose and roofed the puck over Murray's shoulder at the 5:18 mark of the third.

Grant Clitsome got one back for the Crunch shorthanded, when he took a cross-ice pass from Derek MacKenzie and sniped the puck over Pogge's shoulder to make it 6-3 at the 15:46 mark.

Toronto outshot the Crunch 23-19.

CRUNCHABHLES: The Crunch have just 121 shots over their last six games, an average of 20.2 shots per game...Derek MacKenzie stretched his point streak and Crunch individual season-high goal-scoring streak to four games...The Crunch are 1-12-1-0 when allowing four goals or more.

Check out the Syracuse Crunch Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from February 11, 2009


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