Crunch Tame Wolves, Extend Home Regular Season Winning and Points Streaks
Syracuse, NY, (Saturday, November 15, 2008)
Syracuse, NY (November 15, 2008) – The Syracuse Crunch used three power play markers to dispose of West-Division leading Chicago tonight, 4-2, in front of 5,284 fans at the War Memorial at Oncenter. In the process, the club also extended its home winning streak dating back to last season to 17 games and its home points streak dating back to last season to 23 games.
The American Hockey league record for consecutive regular season wins at home is 19, held by the Philadelphia Phantoms. The AHL record for home undefeated/points streak is 24, held by the Springfield Falcons.
After the Crunch and Chicago only combined for 16 penalty minutes in the teams’ first meeting at Allstate Arena back on November 2, not many people could have predicted nine total penalties between the two clubs in the first period of tonight’s game. Chicago was able to capitalize on the physical play when they opened the scoring on the power play just two minutes into the first period.
Former Crunch member Joe Motzko found a rebound in the slot off a Steve Martins shot and was able to squeeze it by Crunch starter Dan LaCosta for a 1-0 Chicago lead.
The game’s momentum turned towards Syracuse when Chicago took back-to-back-to-back penalties which gave the Crunch an ample amount of 5-on-3 time to work with. The power play was clicking on all cylinders as evidenced by a nice tic-tac-toe passing play.
Former Wolf Derek MacKenzie got the puck to Clay Wilson, who criss-crossed at the point with Kris Russell and featherd over a perfect pass to his defense partner. Russell wound up and his shot found the open blocker side to make it a 1-1 game.
The Crunch would strike again just 18 seconds later, still on a 5-on-3 advantage. MacKenzie again found Wilson, this time at the top of the right circle. Wilson took aim and again beat Gherson to the stick side with a perfectly placed wrister to give the Crunch a 2-1 lead.
After another physical start to the second period, the Crunch took advantage of a defensive mistake by Chicago. The Wolves came down the ice with a 2-on-1, but the opportunity was broken up with a good backcheck from Mike York. Hustling all the way on the play, York took the puck up the ice the opposite way and led Syracuse on a two-on-one of its own.
York saucered a pass right on the tape of a streaking MacKenzie, who took his time and pinpointed a shot right under the crossbar to give the Crunch a 3-1 advantage.
Syracuse again capitalized on its momentum and scored another quick goal just 1:04 later, when Maksim Mayorov corralled the puck in the slot and sent a knuckling wrist shot through a screened Gherson for his fifth of the campaign. Trevor Frischmon and Russell picked up the assists as that goal made it 4-1 in favor of Syracuse.
Chicago got one back late in the stanza at the 15:49 mark on the power play when Joey Crabb came in down the left side and centered a feed that deflected off Jonathan Sigalet’s skate and past LaCosta to make it 4-2.
LaCosta staved off 16 third period bids and made a season-high 44 saves on 46 shots to seal the win for Syracuse. For his effort, he was named the game’s third star.
CRUNCHABLES: With his two points tonight (1g, 1a), Clay Wilson extended his point-scoring streak to four games…He has five points (2g, 3a), over that span…With his +1 plus-minus rating tonight, Jonathan Sigalet is now a +14 on the season and ranks second in the AHL in that category…The Crunch is 11-0-0-0 when scoring two goals or more…Kris Russell has four points (2g, 2a) in his last three games…The Crunch improved its points streak to a season-high five games tonight.