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Game Notes: 2/09/08 v. Albany River Rats
Crunch Defeat Rats 3-1 in Return Trip to Glens Falls
Syracuse, NY (February 9, 2009) - Derek Dorsett, Adam Pineault and Clay Wilson each recorded a goal to lead the Crunch to a 3-1 victory tonight over the Albany River Rats at the Glens Falls Civic Center in front of 5,021 fans. Syracuse improved to 2-0-0-0 on its current three game road trip that will conclude in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
Syracuse, NY (February 9, 2009) - Derek Dorsett, Adam Pineault and Clay Wilson each recorded a goal to lead the Crunch to a 3-1 victory tonight over the Albany River Rats at the Glens Falls Civic Center in front of 5,021 fans. Syracuse improved to 2-0-0-0 on its current three game road trip that will conclude in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
Playing for the first time at the Glens Falls Civic Center since the 1998-99 season, Syracuse played a spirited first period in which they scored the only two goals of the frame and had another disallowed.
Syracuse opened the games scoring 12:59 into the first period when, while on the power play, Aaron Rome took a feed from Derek MacKenzie along the blue and wristed a puck that was deflected by Derek Dorsett (5), off the cross bar and behind River Rats goaltender Michael Leighton.
The Crunch extended their lead to two on the strength of Adam Pineault’s 14th of the season. The play began with Zenon Konopka picking up a loose puck along the boards, driving behind the net and throwing the puck in the direction of the hard charging due of Alexandre Picard and Pineault. Both players whacked at the puck before Pineault was able to push it past Leighton.
Syracuse thought they had a third goal when, while on the penalty kill, Mark Rycroft dove to clear the puck from the defensive zone, the puck was deflected off an Albany player and gloved out of the air by a flying MacKenzie. After settling the puck down MacKenzie fired a shot passed Leighton as time was expiring – despite the referee originally signaling a goal the score was disallowed after a conference with the three on-ice officials.
Albany cut the Crunch’s lead in half at the 15:57 mark of the second period. Defenseman Bryan Rodney (3) got the goal, beating Dan LaCosta with a shot from the slot.
After controlling much of the play for the first two periods, the Crunch outshot the River Rats 20-9, the third period was more back and forth as Albany attempted to get the tying goal. The Crunch’s final test came when they were forced to kill off a penalty with 2:46 left in the game. Not only did they do that but they put the game out of reach when Clay Wilson (8) scored a short-handed, empty net goal.
Crunch goaltender Dan LaCosta improved to 2-1-1 on the season, recording 19 saves. Albany net-minder Michael Leighton fell to 16-17-2 as he recorded 27 saves.
CRUNCH SIGN FORWARD: The Crunch announced prior to game time the signing of center Bobby Robins to a PTO (professional try-out contract). Robins, 26, has appeared in 42 games for Elmira (ECHL) this season, tallying 10 goals, 8 assists and 86 penalty minutes. He has also appeared in 5 games for Rochester and 1 game for Albany this season, racking up a combined 13 penalty minutes. A native of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, Robins has appeared in a combined 102 American Hockey League games with Binghamton, Rochester and Albany, notching 11 goals, 11 assists and 142 penalty minutes.
CRUNCHABLES: Tomas Popperle (injury), Adam Munro (injury), Tom Sestito (injury) and Brett Motherwell (healthy) were scratched tonight… Tonight’s game featured two referees (Chris Ciamaga & Brian Pochmara) as opposed to the standard one used in AHL games… With an assist on Adam Pineault’s first period goal Alexandre Picard now has four points (1g 3a) in his last four games… Syracuse outshot Albany 10-4 in the first period and 10-5 in the second.