San Antonio, TX (March 5, 2011) – Ray Emery turned in a sparkling 40-save performance after being assigned by Anaheim earlier in the day and the Syracuse Crunch got goals from four different players en route to a 4-1 win over the San Antonio Rampage tonight at the AT&T Center. The victory snapped the Crunch's overall four-game winless streak and five-game road winless skid.
Nick Bonino picked up two assists and Josh Green also picked up a helper to extend his point streak to eight games (4g, 7a). The Crunch finish up their three-game road trip to the Lone Star State with a 12 p.m. matinee match-up on Monday, March 7 in Austin vs. Texas before returning home to face the Stars on Friday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m. at The Oncenter War Memorial Arena.
The Crunch got off to a quick start and scored the first goal for the fifth time in their last seven contests just after a Hamilton power play expired.
After getting out of the box after serving a two-minute minor for hooking, John Mitchell corralled the puck, raced into the offensive zone past Maxim Goncharov and ripped a shot to the top corner past Matt Climie to put the Crunch up 1-0 at the 3:48 mark of the first.
That quick start, however, was answered quickly when Nolan Yonkman’s harmless-looking wrister from the point found its way past a screened Emery to tie the game at 1-1 just 16 seconds later. The goal proved to be Emery’s only blemish on the evening.
The score stayed that way until the 12:27 mark of the second, when Brian McGrattan got his stick on a Bonino point shot and re-directed the disk past Climie to put the Crunch back up 2-1. The goal was McGrattan’s first as a member of the Crunch.
Syracuse took a two-goal lead just 1:18 later when John Kurtz lumbered in down the left wing and slipped a sharp-angle shot behind Climie to push the Crunch to a 3-1 advantage, which is how the second stanza would end. The Crunch scored twice and kept San Antonio off the board in the second period despite being outshot by an 18-9 margin.
Emery made some key saves down the stretch and Macenauer finished off the game with an empty-netter at the 19:15 mark.
CRUNCHABLES: The Crunch PK was a perfect 5-for-5 on the night…John Kurtz’s goal was his first this season and first AHL tally since his second AHL game on April 2, 2010 @ Adirondack.
Courtesy: Syracuse Crunch
