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Game Notes: 1/11/08 v. Hamilton Bulldogs
Crunch Hammered by Hamilton
Hamilton, ON (January 11, 2008) – The Syracuse Crunch fell to the Hamilton Bulldogs tonight, 5-2 at the Copps Coliseum in front of 3,881fans.
The trip across the border did not start well for the Crunch as Hamilton jumped out to a 3-0 lead after only the first eight minutes. Hamilton scored three goals in a span of 2:11.
The first came on the power play with Steven Goertzen in the box for boarding. Corey Locke took a pass in the left circle from Pavel Valentenko and fired it past Syracuse starter Karl Goehring.
Less than a minute later, Duncan Milroy notched the Bulldogs’ second goal of the game. Milroy found some open space and went to the net untouched. He took an Ajay Baines pass and deposited a one-timer into the empty net past a helpless Goehring for the 2-0 lead.
Hamilton would stretch their lead to 3-0 only a minute and a half later. Janne Lahti was able to stuff a shot through the pads of Goehring that just trickled over the goal line to give the Bulldogs their second power play score of the game.
The Crunch would get one back on their own power play opportunity at the 11:20 mark. Zenon Konopka redirected an Aaron Rome shot from the point that eluded Hamilton starter Carey Price and cut Syracuse’s deficit to 3-1.
The Crunch tried to keep the momentum of their comeback going, but that hope was washed away when Matt D’Agostni took a pass in the slot from Eric Manlow and sniped a shot over the right shoulder of Goehring to give Hamilton a 4-1 advantage.
Syracuse’s come from behind effort took another blow when Daniel Corso skated down the left wing, went around Brett Motherwell and fired a shot to the top corner to give Hamilton a 5-1 lead after two periods.
Crunch goaltender Adam Munro came in and replaced Goehring at the beginning of the third period.
Derek MacKenzie’s tally six and a half minutes into the third made it 5-2. MacKenzie took a cross-ice feed from Rome and buried it past Price.
That was all the Crunch could muster, as they left Hamilton with a 5-2 loss, their third in the last four games.
CRUNCHABLES: Entering tonight’s game, the Crunch were 3-0-0-0 against Hamilton in the season series…Coming into tonight, Adam Pineault was riding a five-game point-scoring streak with 7 points (5g, 2a) over that span…With tonight’s loss, the Crunch fell to 7-2-0-1 over the last five years at the Copps Coliseum…With an assist on Derek MacKenzie’s third period goal, David Cullen notched his first point of the season and first as a member of the Crunch…Goaltender Adam Munro replaced Goehring at the start of the third period…it was his first appearance since injuring his groin December 7 in Grand Rapids.