HERSHEY, PA -- Hershey received two-point efforts from six different players en route to a 6-1 win over the Syracuse Crunch Saturday night at the Giant Center, setting the AHL all-time mark for wins in a season (58), breaking the record of 57 previously held by the 1992-93 Binghamton Rangers.
Hershey got the scoring started just 1:07 into the game when Boyd Kane re-directed a Patrick Wellar point shot past Kevin Lalande for the 1-0 lead.
Just one minute later, Matieu Perrault was hooked down on a breakaway and was awarded a penalty shot. Perreault came in and deked to his backhand but was denied by the glove of Lalande to keep it a one-goal game.
Jay Beagle finally did put Hershey up 2-0 at the 12:30 mark when he stole the puck from Lalande, who was trying to play the puck behind the net and wrapped it around on the backhand into the empty cage.
Hershey went up 3-0 on the power play when Alexandre Giroux’s rocket from the right point found its way through traffic and past Lalande for his AHL-leading 45th of the season just three minutes into the second stanza.
The Crunch finally got on the board when Lalande slid a pass to center ice for a streaking Evan McGrath, who snuck in behind the defense on a breakaway and tucked a backhand past Michal Neuvirth to cut Syracuse’s deficit to 3-1 at the 8:56 mark of the second.
The two-goal deficit was quickly turned into three once again just over one minute later when Mathieu Perreault found a streaking Beagle from behind the goal line and Beagle snuck it between Lalande’s pads, making it a 4-1 Hershey lead.
Hershey struck quickly again, making it 5-1 just 62 seconds later when Zach Miskovic’s point shot found the back of the net, chasing Lalande from the game in favor of Dan Taylor.
Taylor stopped 15 of 16 shots in relief, with his only blemish coming on a point blast from the stick of Karl Alzner with just over six minutes left in the third period, making it a 6-1 final.
The Crunch faces Hershey on Tuesday, April 6 at the War Memorial at Oncenter for the last time this season.
CRUNCHABLES: The AHL announced that Hershey will host the 2011 AHL All-Star Classic…The Crunch are 0-5-0-0 and have been outscored by a 25-9 margin against Hershey this year…Kevin Harvey moved past Larry Courville into eight place on the Crunch’s all-time penalty minutes list.
Courtesy: Syracuse Crunch
