Syracuse, NY (March 26, 2011) – Kyle Palmieri tallied twice and added an assist, Patrick Maroon contributed a goal and two assists and Maxime Macenauer chipped in two goals, as the Syracuse Crunch defeated rival Rochester 6-4 in front of a sellout crowd of 6,198 fans tonight at The Oncenter War Memorial Arena.
The win was the Crunch’s fifth in their last six games and extended the club’s home win streak to a season-high four. Tonight’s victory also gave Syracuse the win in the season series against Rochester, going 5-4-1-0 in 10 games against its nemesis.
Brian McGrattan put the Crunch on the board and made it 1-0 just 39 seconds into the game when he came in down the left wing and threw a backhand shot on goal that pin-balled around before sliding past Marc Cheverie.
Cory Conacher rifled a wrister that beat J.P. Levassuer right under the crossbar at the 6:19 mark of the first to tie the game at one apiece. Just 1:40 later, Rochester took its first and only lead of the game when Mark Cullen re-directed a Bill Thomas shot past Levasseur to make it 2-1.
The Crunch stormed back to tie the game at the 10:23 mark after Maroon fed Palmieri, who broke in all alone and beat Cheverie with a beautiful backhand to forehand deke that the Rochester netminder had no chance on.
The turning point may have come with just one minute left in the first when Cheverie went to feed the puck up ice to his defense, but it was picked off by Macenauer who flipped a shot into the half empty cage to give the Crunch back their two-tally lead at 3-2 heading into the second.
Maroon made it a 4-2 game just over five minutes into the second after pounding a patient feed from Palmieri at the right side of the net past Tyler Plante, who replaced Cheverie to start the stanza
Michael Caruso cut it to 4-3 a minute and a half later, but Palmieri notched his second of the game on the power play at the 17:42 mark to give the Crunch a 5-3 lead heading into the third.
Macenauer added his second of the contest and fourth in his last three games at the 11:46 mark of the third to make it a 6-3 game. Hugh Jessiman recorded his seventh of the season to close the gap to 6-4 with 27 seconds left, but the deficit proved to be too much as the Crunch skated away with the victory.
CRUNCHABLES: The Crunch improved to 9-4-0-0 in the month of March this season and are 65-30-5-6 in March since the 2003-04 campaign…Palmieri extended his point streak to six games and has 12 points (9g, 3a) over that span...Patrick Maroon extended his point streak to five games and has seven points (4g, 6a) over that span…The Crunch have scored 26 goals over their last five games…Rick Schofield’s assist tonight was his first professional point.
Courtesy: Syracuse Crunch
