Friday, March 12, 2010

Devils Outmuscle Crunch, 3-1
McKenna stops 37 shots for 20th win of season

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Mike McKenna turned aside 37 shots and registered his 20th win of the season as the Lowell Devils gathered their first-ever win against the Syracuse Crunch, 3-1, on Friday at the Onondaga County War Memorial at Onecenter. 

Holding onto a 1-0 edge coming into the second frame, the Devils had to kill off four Crunch power plays before getting their offense going.  As Alexander Vasyunov stepped out of the penalty box to end a Syracuse man-advantage, he picked up a clearing pass and led a 2-on-1 rush that he eventually deposited past the blocker of Kevin Lalande at 15:23 of the period. 

Matt Taormina then pushed Lowell’s lead to 3-0 with less than three minutes until the intermission when his slapshot on the power play weaved way through traffic and found the back of the net for his 10th of the year.

The Devils opened the scoring at 8:33 of the first with their second power play of the period.  Ben Walter backhanded a pass from behind the net for Nathan Perkovich, who tucked his 15th goal of the season inside the near post. 

Syracuse foiled McKenna’s shot bid during a delayed penalty as Chad Kolarik dumped in the rebound from Brendan Bell’s shot with 15:09 left in regulation. 

Lowell finished 7-for-7 on the penalty kill and tied their season high with 48 penalty minutes in the contest. 

The Devils travel on Hartford to face the Wolf Pack on Saturday, Mar. 13 at 7:00PM. Go online to ahllive.com to listen to all of the live Devils action.  For more information on Devils home games, call (978) 458-PUCK (7825) or visit lowelldevilshockey.com.

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