Crunch Follow Moose Tracks to 6-3 Win
Syracuse, NY, (Saturday, November 8, 2008)
Syracuse, NY (November 8, 2008) – The Syracuse Crunch returned home Saturday night after a season-long four-game road trip to face the red hot Manitoba Moose, and disposed of their North Division rivals by a 6-3 count in front of 5,729 fans at the War Memorial at Oncenter.
Manitoba struck first just over two minutes into the game off of a well put-together offensive effort. Mark Cullen centered the puck to Raymond Sawada while breaking into the zone. Sawada then fed Cullen, who squeezed it low to the stick side past Crunch starting goaltender Dan LaCosta.
The Crunch got on the board with a power play goal at 12:56 in the first period. Kris Russell rocketed a pass up the center of the ice to a streaking Craig MacDonald who broke through a couple of Moose defensemen and sent a wrister over the shoulder of Manitoba’s starting goalie Karl Goehring to make it 1-1.
Just five seconds into the second period, Syracuse struck again. MacDonald took the face-off and quickly fed it to Maksim Mayorov. Mayorov then dished it to rookie phenom Nikita Filatov who buried it into the back of the net.
The Moose had an answer for the Crunch a little over two minutes later when Mike Keane picked up a rebound in front of the net and slid it through the 5-hole of LaCosta at 2:16 of the second period, tying the score at 2-2.
After a scuffle a little over six minutes into the second, the Crunch faced a tough challenge, but killed off a two-minute 5-on-3 that got the War Memorial crowd into it.
Once that was over, Syracuse thought they were going to be able to breathe for a bit until Trevor Frischmon and John Vigilante were both whistled over for penalties at the same time just 43 seconds after they killed off the previous 5-on-3.
To their credit, the Crunch killed off a second consecutive two-man disadvantage and used that momentum to carry themselves for the rest of the period.
Just under two minutes into the third period, Manitoba took a 3-2 lead when Darryl Bootland buried a cross-ice feed from Jason Krog
The Crunch evened the match at 3-3 just 41 seconds later when Aaron Rome whizzed a one-timer from the blue line passed Goehring off of a feed from Grant Clitsome.
Syracuse grabbed a 4-3 lead off its second power play goal of the night a little over five minutes later. A shot by Kris Russell from the point through traffic was left sitting in front of the net and Derek Dorsett cashed in on the opportunity, tallying his first of the season.
Nikita Filatov notched his second of the night as he received a pass from Jonathan Sigalet, sped down the sideboards, cut to the front of the net and beat Goehring stick side to make it 5-3 in favor of the Crunch.
The icing on the cake came in the last minute of play as the Crunch’s Trevor Frishmon netted an empty net goal off of a feed from Filatov, ending the bout with a 6-3 Syracuse win. LaCosta improved his record to 6-1-0-0 with the victory.
CRUNCHABLES: Kris Russell recorded his first AHL point and first as a member of the Crunch tonight… Derek Dorsett wore an ‘A’ tonight as alternate captain… Dorsett recorded his first goal with the Crunch since being assigned from Columbus November 3 and has two points (1g, 1a) in his last two games… Dan LaCosta recorded the first point by a Crunch goaltender this season with his first period assist… Trevor Frischmon scored his first goal of the season… The Crunch snapped Manitoba’s nine game winning streak with the win tonight… Nikita Filatov tallied his first multi-point game as a professional.