PENGUINS KNOCKOUT
CRUNCH ON BOXING DAY

The night after Christmas was anything but silent at Wachovia Arena, as the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins downed the Syracuse Crunch, 4-0, in a fight filled post-holiday contest on Wednesday.

The win was the fifth in a row for the Penguins, and raised the team's record to 17-12-0-1 on the season, and moved Wilkes-Barre/Scranton into third place in the American Hockey League's East Division. The Crunch fell to 15-17-1-1, third in the North Division.

Unlike the first two meetings between the clubs, which saw tempers held in check, this contest was full of fists, with the Penguins piling up a season-high 55 penalty minutes in the game. Many of those came thanks to six fighting majors handed out to each squad.

"The other games have been pretty quiet versus them. And certainly this game was much different than the previous two," said Penguins head coach

Todd Richards. "Yeah, they have toughness, but I think the great thing to see from our guys is they came together and made a commitment that we weren't going to get pushed around. Some guys stood up, and it was a great job on their behalf."

The marquee matchup of the evening was the bout between veteran tough guy Dennis Bonvie and AHL newcomer John Mirasty. The two went toe-to-toe midway through the first period, bringing the crowd of 7,668 to its feet.

"When you get feisty guys on both sides, that's what happens," said Bonvie, who broke the all-time record for career penalty minutes across all minor leagues in the contest. His 22 minutes on the night gave the 15-year vet 4,381 in the AHL alone, six more than journeyman Kevin Evans put up during a decade and a half in the IHL, ECHL, CHL and WPHL combined.

The game was already decided by the time the two tough guys dropped the mits, though.

Kurtis McLean opened the scoring just 55 seconds into the game, beating former teammate Karl Goehring high on the blocker side with a quick release. That proved to be the game-winner, giving McLean three deciding goals in the past four Penguins' victories.

Nathan Smith followed suit minutes later, snapping off a wrister from a Connor James feed at 7:29.

"The first goal, that's a tough save. A one-timer from the center of the ice at about the hash marks. Can't fault him too much," Richards said of his former netminder, who made just one save before being pulled. "It's tough to get into a game. Three shots, and two of them are pretty good quality, then your night is over with.

Craig Kowalski didn't fare much better, allowing two goals on his first 11 shots faced. Smith and McLean were the beneficiaries again, both tipping home Ben Lovejoy shots from the point for their second tallies of the game.

John Curry was up to the task, though, turning aside 20 shots to record his first AHL shutout.

"I'll definitely hand on to this [puck]," said Curry. "The guys played really hard in front of me. I didn't see a lot of quality shots, that made my job pretty easy."

Wednesday night's game could be a glimpse of things to come, as the Penguins travel to Syracuse on Thursday night, and will play the Crunch a third time in a five game span on January 2.

NOTES: Tim Brent picked up three assists in the game, giving him 20 on the season...Brent now has points in his past five games (1+8=9), as does Smith (3+4=7). Those two players are tied for the team scoring lead with 23 points apiece...McLean's three game-winning goals on the season are tied for eighth in the league...Bonvie moved into the top 20 in penalty minutes on the season with 91, tied with Boris Valabik of the Chicago Wolves for 16th place...The game was also the 841st in the AHL for Bonvie, moving him into sole possession of 18th place on the league's all-time games played list, one ahead of Rene Drolet.

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