AHL Syracuse Crunch

Crunch Trumped by Albany

November 29, 2008 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Albany, NY (November 29, 2008) - The Syracuse Crunch could not stop the constant Albany attack, as they fell to the River Rats at the Times Union Center tonight, 6-3, in front of 3,241 fans.

Playing each other for the fourth time in 16 days, the Crunch and River Rats wasted no time getting down to business.

Syracuse notched the first goal for the second consecutive game at the 8:12 mark when Derek MacKenzie won an offensive zone face-off back to Andrey Plekhanov. Plekhanov's shot from the right pointwas deflected by Alexandre Picard past Albany starter Daniel Manzato for the 1-0 Crunch lead.

Albany stormed back under four minutes later and tied the game just eight seconds into a man-advantage with the Crunch's Picard in the penalty box for slashing.

Stefan Chaput's shot found its way through traffic and Michael Ryan tapped in the rebound behind Dan LaCosta to make it 1-1.

Albany capitalized on another power play with under two minutes to play in the frame when, on a similar-looking play to their first goal, Ryan found a rebound off a point shot from Brett Carson and batted it past LaCosta to give Albany a 2-1 lead.

The River Rats carried over their momentum from the second half of the first period and went up 3-1 seven minutes into the second frame. Off a face-off win from Dwight Helminen, Joe Jensen's change-up shot fooled LaCosta to the glove side to put Albany up by two tallies.

As they have done all season when playing from behind, Syracuse stayed calm and closed Albany's lead to 3-2 at the 14:31 mark.

Working hard down low, Craig MacDonald came away with the puck on the right side and fed the disk through the legs of an Albany defender and right to the waiting stick of Nikita Filatov, who buried it into the empty net past Manzato for his sixth of the season.

The Crunch kept the pressure on and tied the game with 59 seconds left in the second.

After a persistent, scrambling play in the Albany zone, the Crunch kept the puck inside the blue line and Clay Wilson somehow found it. Wilson's shot eluded a crowd of players in front of the net and beat Manzato to tie the game at 3-3 heading into the third.

Although Syracuse battled back, Albany regained the lead seven and a half minutes into the final frame.

Andrey Plekhanov got the puck stripped from him by Dwight Helminen as he carried out of his own zone. Helminen skated in all alone and picked the top right corner over the glove of LaCosta to make it a 4-3 game.

The River Rats added another when Jakub Petruzalek took a pass from Bryan Rodney, skated in and finessed the puck over a fallen LaCosta to make it 5-3.

Albany's Mike Angelidis added an empty-netter with 1:06 remaining to seal the win for the River Rats.

CRUNCHABLES: Nikita Filatov broke and 11-game goal-less drought with his second period tally...The Crunch lost for the first time tonight when scoring at least two goals...With his assist toinight, Craig MacDonald extended his point-scoring steak to three games (2g, 2a)...Left Wing Alexandre Picard extended his point-scoring streak to three games (2g, 2a)...Syracuse matched a season-high with three goals allowed in one period (third period).

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American Hockey League Stories from November 29, 2008


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