Mirasty and Yablonski rock the house once again as the crunch soar to the .500 mark for the 1st time this season!

In what was considered one of the most important games of the season for Jon Mirasty and his Syracuse Crunch team, the night turned out to be a huge success. After 8 previously failed attempts of reaching the .500 mark this season, the Crunch found the 9th time to be a charm as they defeated a very tough Bingamton Senators team 4-1 on home ice at the War Memorial in Syracuse. The Crunch have really come together as a team of late despite the absence of highly skilled forwards Lindstrom and Brassard who remain with the Crunch`s parent team in Columbus.

After the Crunch jumped out to a 1st period 2-0 lead, the physical side of the game really picked up as Syracuse`s Derek Dorsett and Binghamton`s Brian Lee dropped the gloves in what turned out to be a one sided battle with Dorsett landing flush punches to the face of Lee and earning the lopsided victory.

After Dorsett and Lee headed to their respective dressing rooms, you could see Binhamton`s Jeremy Yablonski sitting on the boards in front of his bench just chomping at the bit to get on the ice and look to even the score for his team and try to give his club some momentum to turn the game around. Yablonski knew who his opponent would be without question and knew his opponent would be more than willing to answer the bell.

As Yablonski sits over his bench boards during the stoppage in play, Syracuse`s Jon Mirasty keeps glancing over at the Binghamton bench to see who their coach is going to send out. The second Nasty sees Yablonski hit the ice, he gets up and looks back at his coach for the green light. Coach Yates then sends Mirasty out to lineup opposite Yablonski. Its obvious that Yablonski gives Nasty the friendly invitation off the faceoff and who is Mirasty to ever turn down a fight?

Ding...Ding.. It`s on!

Just when you thought there was no way these two hometown Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan boys could match their first epic battle that took place against one another back in December in Binghamton, they did it again! Unbelievable fight!

The fight must have lasted for a minute and a half to two minutes with both players just throwing bombs. Mirasty switched hands frequently throughout the fight as his power hand (right hand) had been taken away at times by the bigger Yablonski, who used his reach to lock out Mirasty`s right hand. Both Mirasty and Yablonski must have thrown around 50 punches each in what turned out to be another possible AHL fight of the year candidate. To call a loser in this fight would be a sin. It was as close a fight as you will see with both players fighting to the end like true warriors with nothing left in the tank. At fights end, you could see the amount of respect they have for one another as they gave each other a smile and a pat on the head and said, "good fight". Some NHL tough guys could learn a thing or two from these boys. I hope Columbus and Ottawa GM`s wake up and realize both these guys are "NHL tough" and deserve their shot in the NHL one day soon.

Up next for Mirasty and "The Nasty Boys" from Syracuse are the Rochester Americans on Saturday night February 16th at the War Memorial at Oncenter in Syracuse. Could we see the Crunch go over the .500 mark for the first time this season? Will Jon "Nasty" Mirasty find a willing dance partner on a physically weak Amerks club? Tune into www.jonmirasty.com and find out!