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Game Notes: 1/29/10 v. San Antonio Rampage
Crunch Rally Over Rampage
Syracuse, NY (January 29, 2010) – The Syracuse Crunch won their second straight game in a shootout, coming from two goals down twice to defeat the San Antonio Rampage tonight by a 5-4 count at the War Memorial at Oncenter.
Brendan Bell was the only player to score for either team in the tiebreaker, beating Josh Tordjman with a forehand move in the first round, and Kevin Lalande shut the door on all five San Antonio shooters to seal the win.
San Antonio’s Chad Kolarik tallied two goals in the game’s first 10 minutes to give the Rampage the early 2-0 lead.
He corralled a pass on the doorstep from Joel Perrault and was able to slide the puck past the left skate of Kevin Lalande to make it 1-0 at the 6:55 mark.
Kolarik’s second tally came just under three minutes later when his snapper from the right side beat Lalande up high to put San Antonio up 2-0.
The Crunch quickly had an answer when Mike Ratchuk cut to the middle of the ice and whizzed a shot by Tordjman to cut it to 2-1 just over a minute later, which is where the game stood after 20 minutes of play.
San Antonio re-gained its two goal lead at 3-1 on the tail end of a 4-on-3 power play when Kevin Porter’s shot caromed off the skate of Derek MacKenzie past Lalande 9:16 into the second stanza.
The Crunch received a jolt with 57 seconds remaining in the period when Maksim Mayorov notched his eighth goal of the season and fourth in his last eight contests by going to the net, finding a loose puck and roofing a backhand to the top of the cage to make it a 3-2 game heading into the third period.
Dan Fritshe knotted the scored at 3-3 on the power play 4:43 into the third when Ratchuk skated in down the right side, outmuscled a defender, whipped a backhand pass across the ice and he finished the one-timer past Tordjman for the equalizer.
Just 40 seconds later, Dylan Reese sent the War Memorial crowd into a frenzy when his slapper from the right point made its way through traffic and eluded Tordjman to give the Crunch their first lead of the night at 4-3.
San Antonio’s Jeff Hoggan answered to tie the score for the second time, when he squeezed a loose puck past Lalande from the left side of the crease at the 12:08 mark for the shorthanded marker.
CRUNCHABLES: Derek MacKenzie had his goal streak snapped at five games, but extended his point streak to seven games with an assist…Mike Ratchuk’s goal tonight was his first of the season and first as a member of the Crunch…Kevin Lalande has stopped nine of the last 10 shootout attempts against…Brendan Bell leads all defensemen in shootout goals (4) and is tied for second in the AHL in that category…The Crunch won their third game this year when trailing after two periods.