Palat scores twice but Crunch fall to Monsters

4-2 loss

Syracuse, NY- Ondrej Palat scored twice, but the Crunch were defeated by the Lake Erie Monsters 4-2 tonight at the War Memorial Arena.

The Crunch now sit in fourth place in the Eastern Conference with a 24-10-2-3 overall record and 8-6-2-1 record at home. Crunch goaltender Riku Helenius had 19 saves in the loss bringing his season record to 7-6-0-0.

After a scoreless first period the Lake Erie Monsters jumped out to a 2-0 lead with goals from Paul Carey (3:42) and Thomas Pock (8:55). Crunch goaltender Riku Helenius stopped the initial breakaway chance but the rebound found Carey's stick and he put the Monsters up 1-0.

Palat evened the score with two second period tallies. Palat scored his first goal of the game by beating Monsters goaltender Calvin Pickard with a wrap-around shot at the 9:20 mark of the second period. His second goal was a shorthanded goal, set up by Tyler Johnson with 3:37 to play in the period.

Monsters right wing Bill Thomas broke the tie with a power-play goal to avoid overtime with 3:01 to play in the third period. Thomas beat Helenius with one-timer from the left point. Joel Chouinard added an empty net goal with one second remaining to secure a 4-2 Monsters victory.

Crunchables: This is the first time this season Ondrej Palat has scored twice in a game…it is his sixth multi-point game of the season…The last Crunch player to score twice in one game was Richard Panik on Dec. 31 at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton…The Crunch have scored five shorthanded goals this season…The Crunch have lost a season-high three consecutive games.

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