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AHL Syracuse Crunch

Mike and Mike Lead Crunch to First Win of 2010

January 2, 2010 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


Syracuse, NY - A four-goal third period and two markers each from Mike Blunden and Mike Radja helped the Syracuse Crunch to a 6-3 win over the second-place Albany River Rats in the club's first game of 2010 tonight, in front of 5,249 fans at the War Memorial at Oncenter.

For the fourth straight game, the Crunch tallied the game's first goal on the second of back-to-back power plays within the first four minutes of the opening period.

Bates Battaglia passed the disk along the far left wing boards to Tomas Kana. Kana looked to the net and snapped a wrister from a sharp angle that fooled Rats goaltender Mike Murphy and hit off the inside of the far post and over the goal line to give the Crunch an early 1-0 advantage.

The Crunch struck again just 22 seconds later when Jonathan Sigalet found Radja camped out to the left of the cage down low and the Yorkville, Illinois native turned and fired a shot form a sharp angle that squeezed through the pads of Murphy to put the Crunch up 2-0 just 6:05 in.

Syracuse, however, could not hold the lead as Jerome Samson tied the game by scoring twice before the first frame was over.

Samson's first marker came less than two minutes after the Crunch took a two-goal lead when he came down the left side and threw a shot on goal. His shot ticked off Lalande, popped straight up in the air and scrambled over the goal line to cut it to 2-1.

Samson tied the game when he shot the puck from a similar location, this time with the disk re-directing off the skate of Crunch defenseman Brendan Bell and past Lalande, knotting the contest at 2-2.

Albany carried its momentum into the second stanza, but Lalande made some key saves and refused to let the Rats go ahead, stopping all 14 shots he saw in the middle 20-minute session.

The Crunch re-took a lead that they would not relinquish four and a half minutes into the third when Grant Clitsome took a drop pass from Blunden and fired a wrister that hit off Murphy's glove and into the net to make it 3-2.

Less than a minute later Radja tallied his second of the game and third in two games when he re-directed a Sigalet floater from center point past Murphy to put the Crunch back up by two at 4-2.

The River Rats stormed back again and got back to within one when Chris Terry banked home Nick Dodge's rebound on the backhand with exactly 11 minutes left in regulation.

Blunden powered the Crunch to their third two-goal lead of the game when he barreled his 6-foot, 4-inch frame down the right side, threw a shot on goal and tucked his own rebound past Murphy for the 5-3 Syracuse advantage at the 16:19 mark.

The Toronto, Ontario native added an empty-netter to ice the game for the Crunch with one and a half minutes to play, while Lalande ended up stopping 29 of 32 shots on the night.

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