A precious 2 points slipped through the hockey gloves of the Albany Devils Saturday night in Syracuse. Stymied by the net minding of Crunch Goaltender Riku Helenius the Crunch defeated the Devils 3-1.

The Devils in a spring to the finish remained out of the playoff picture as the games slip to a must win few. The 27-24-1-10 Devils have 65 points and remain in 9th place in the Eastern Conference. They trail the 8th place Hershey Bears who have 69 points. 7th place Connecticut has 70 points.

Jeff Frazee returned to the net for Albany, just back from his stint with the parent NJ Devils. Frazee made 33 saves but that wasn't enough.

Syracuse scored a pair in the 1st period and added a 3nd period goal to take a commanding 3-0 lead to the locker room. Matt Anderson scored a power play goal with 56 seconds left to breakup the shutout bid of Helenius.

1 other note from the Albany camp. Stefan Stepanov made his AHL debut in the loss to Syracuse. The Devils will look to get off the shneid and back into the win column Sunday afternoon in Bridgeport.

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