Syracuse, NY (February 19, 2011) – The Syracuse Crunch offense exploded for a season-high seven goals from seven different players, dominating I-90 rival Rochester in a 7-1 win tonight in front of 6,098 fans at The Oncenter War Memorial Arena.

Matt Kennedy and Maxime Macenauer both had career-highs with three points (1g, 2a) each, while Nick Bonino, Patrick Maroon, David Laliberte, Kyle Palmieri and MacGregor Sharp all also lit the lamp for the home team and Ray Emery stopped 37 of 38 shots he faced en route to his first professional win since February 1, 2010, when he was a member of the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Crunch came out with an energetic, high-tempo game from the outset and took an early 1-0 lead just 2:45 into the game when Bonino stole the puck from a Rochester player in the offensive zone, took a few strides into the slot and rifled a wrister past Tyler Plante.

Macenauer tallied his fifth of the season and put the Crunch up 2-0 at the 4:36 mark of the second when his wrister from the slot trickled through the pads of Plante.

The Crunch capitalized again and made it a three-goal lead just 37 seconds later when Maroon took a touch pass from Kennedy down the right wing and sailed a wrister over the glove of Plante to make it 3-0.

Rochester cut the deficit to 3-1 at the 9:35 mark of the second when Chris Taylor re-directed a Paul Baier bid through the legs of Emery.

Any momentum from that goal was thwarted quickly, as Laliberte finished off a rush up ice by slamming home a rebound of a Macenauer shot from the right side to make it 4-1 just 38 seconds later.  Plante appeared to get hurt on the play and was replaced by call-up Marc Cheverie, who made his first AHL appearance.

The Crunch scored another early-period goal, this time at the 5:35 mark of the third when Palmieri’s shot caromed off a Rochester defender and past Cheverie to give the Crunch a commanding 5-1 lead.

Kennedy added his first of the season off a centering feed from John Mitchell at the 13:47 mark and Sharp slipped a bid past Cheverie off a pass from Palmieri with just 1:10 left to cap the scoring.

CRUNCHABLES: The Crunch have now won three of the last four meetings against Rochester…All seven of the Crunch’s goals tonight came at even strength…Syracuse has put up 78 shots over the last two games (39 SPG)…Matt Kennedy’s only other AHL goal before tonight came as a member of the Crunch during a brief four-game stint with the club at the end of the 2008-09 season.

Courtesy: Syracuse Crunch