BINGHAMTON -- Greg Moore and Chad Kolarik, the two newest members of the Crunch, combined for five points and three of the club’s four goals to lift Syracuse to a 4-3 overtime win over the Binghamton Senators Sunday night at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.  The win helped the Crunch keep pace for the fourth and final spot in the East Division playoff race, as they currently sit five points behind Bridgeport, who also won today.

David Liffiton shuffled home the overtime-winner 2:26 into the extra session from the right side of the net after finding the rebound from Brendan Bell’s point shot to give the Crunch their first overtime win of the 2009-10 season and first since October 24, 2008 vs. Binghamton at the War Memorial at Oncenter.

Binghamton’s Martin St. Pierre notched the game’s first goal when he broke in down the right wing and flipped a shot that snuck between Kevin Lalande’s arm and body and into the back of the net four and a half minutes into the second period.

The Crunch tied the game just over eight minutes later when Kolarik kept the puck in the offensive zone and got it to Jordan LaVallee-Smotherman, who quickly moved the disk to Moore in the slot.  Moore fooled Chris Holt with a quick release and rifled a shot to the top right corner to make it 1-1.

Binghamton re-took the lead five minutes into the third when Josh Hennessy’s shot hit the post and bounced out in front to Ryan Keller.  Keller kicked the puck over to Kaspars Daugavins, who muscled the puck into the net to make it 2-1.

The Crunch fought back to tie the game at 2-2 when LaVallee-Smotherman worked the puck behind the goal line to Kolarik, who spun around to the front of the cage and swept and shot along the ice that found its way through the five-hole of Chris Holt at the 9:41 mark.

Syracuse took its first lead of the game when Kolarik pulled the same move with just over a minute to play in regulation.  The Abington, PA native again took the puck from behind the goal line and spun around to the front of the net.  This time, Kolarik fed a wide open Moore, who one-timed a shot from the hash marks past Holt to give the Crunch a 3-2 lead with 1:05 remaining.

The Crunch, however, could not hold onto their short-lived lead, as Hennesy’s blast from the left point with his club’s goaltender pulled found its way past a screened Lalande to tie the game for the third time with 29 seconds left in regulation.

Lalande stopped 37 of 40 shots in the game, securing the club’s third win in three games this weekend.

CRUNCHABLES: The Crunch were the only AHL team without an overtime win prior to tonight…The Crunch reached the .500 mark for the first time since October 30 when the club was 4-4-1-1…Tonight was the Crunch’s first road overtime regular season win since Nate DiCasmirro’s goal beat Toronto at Ricoh Coliseum on March 9, 2008…That was the first win of Syracuse’s 15-game streak to end the 2007-08 regular season…The newly-formed line of LaVallee-Smotherman, Kolarik and Moore combined for eight points (3g, 5a) tonight…Tonight was the first time this season the Crunch were not awarded a power play…Tonight was the fifth time in eight meetings this year that Binghamton has recorded at least 40 shots against the Crunch…Tonight was the final meeting of the year between these two clubs…The Crunch went 5-3-0-0 against the Senators this year.

Courtesy: Syracuse Crunch