AHL Syracuse Crunch

History Remembered and Made as Crunch Edge Albany

Published on March 21, 2009 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Syracuse, NY - On a night when the Crunch wore special retro jerseys on ‘Turn Back the Clock Night', Alexandre Picard didn't want to turn back anything, as he continued playing the best hockey of his career with a four-goal performance after netting a hat trick last night, to defeat Albany in a 5-4 thriller in front of 6,090 fans at the War Memorial at Oncenter.

Picard became the first Crunch player ever to record at least three goals in back-to-back games and now has 18 points (14g, 4a), over his last 11 contests.

Looking to extend their home and overall winning streak to five games and the club's home points streak to a season-high nine games, the Crunch came out and took control of the game right away.

Picard looked like a man possessed in the first period and tallied the game's first goal six minutes in.

After taking a pass from Grant Clitsome, Picard raced down the right side, fired a wrister from the off-wing and collected his own rebound after being forced wide.

Picard's momentum took him behind the net, where he corralled the puck and quickly made a wraparound move from his backhand that hit off the inside of Daniel Manzato's pad and snuck through the five-hole to give the Crunch a 1-0 lead.

Albany tied the game on the power play at the 13:51 mark after Kevin Harvey was whistled off for interference.

Brandon Sutter found the puck to the left of Kevin Lalande and fed a pass through the defenseman's legs to a wide open Pat Dwyer, who shot it into the open cage to knot the game at 1-1.

Albany took the lead when Pat Dwyer notched his second of the game and 22nd of the season when he put one past Lalande just over three minutes later to give the Rats a 2-1 edge.

Albany extended its lead to 3-1 when Jerome Samson found a streaking Mark Flood down the middle, who ripped a slapper past Lalande two minutes into the second stanza.

The Crunch did not give up after falling behind and Picard proceeded to take over the game when he tallied his second goal of the night at the 8:35 mark of the second.

Nick Holden fed Mike York at the left point, who rifled a bid towards the net. Picard out-muscled the Albany defenseman to get the rebound and then whacked it through Manzato on a second chance to cut the Crunch's deficit to 3-2.

The Les Saules, Quebec native tied the game with his hat trick goal just over two minutes later when he took a feed from Derek MacKenzie cut to his forehand at the hash marks and beat Manzato with a bullet low to the glove side to tie the game at 3-3.

Picard's hat trick goal gave him back-to-back hat tricks for the first time in the AHL since Norfolk's Brandon Bochenski did it at Hershey December 30, 2006 and vs. Hershey on January 3, 2007.

Albany re-took the lead just 35 seconds into the third period when Dwyer finished off his own hat trick by tipping in a point shot by Ryan McGinnins to make it 4-3.

Nikita Filatov got on the board to tie the game once again when he notched his fourth goal in five games and 13th of the season by taking a pass from Craig MacDonald, cutting to the center of the ice and sending a shot to the top left corner past Manzato to knot the contest at 4-4.

Syracuse continued to ride the sizzling stick of Picard when he racked up his fourth goal of the game three and a half minutes later by stuffing the puck past Manzato in a pileup in front of the net to give the Crunch the 5-4 edge.

Syracuse hung on in the final 11 minutes and Kevin Lalande made 37 saves to secure the win.

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American Hockey League Stories from March 21, 2009


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