SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Syracuse Crunch held off the Rochester Americans to take a 6-5 victory in a back-and-forth scoring affair tonight at the War Memorial Arena.
 
Matthew Peca paced the team with a career-high four points (1g, 3a), while Alex Volkov tallied two goals and Mat Bodie and Erik Condra earned two helpers each. The win gives the Crunch a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five North Division Semifinals series.
 
Eddie Pasquale stopped 20-of-25 shots for the Crunch in his second postseason win. Linus Ullmark turned aside 16-of-22 in net for the Amerks. Syracuse went 1-for-3 on the power play and 4-for-5 on the penalty kill.
 
Syracuse was first on the board with a power play goal 3:48 into the opening period. Bodie tossed a feed over for Peca to net from the top of the left circle while Ullmark was screened down low. Condra recorded the secondary helper on the opening tally.
 
At 15:43, the Amerks knotted the game on the power play when Colin Blackwell redirected Stuart Percy's shot from the point. Seth Griffith was awarded the helper.
 
Three minutes later, the Crunch went back on top off a tic-tac-toe play. Dominik Masin sent the puck ahead for Peca at the goal line. He quickly redirected the feed for Mathieu Joseph to chip into an open net from the slot.
 
Syracuse built a three-goal lead early in the middle stanza with two goals 46 seconds apart. One minute into the period, Ullmark made the save on Mitchell Stephen's one-timer from the right circle, but left the rebound for Archambault to tap in. Peca earned the secondary assist. Less than a minute later, Condra set up Reid McNeill to net a wrister through traffic from the blue line.
 
Rochester responded with two goals of their own in 58 seconds to pull back within one. At the 5:10 mark, Justin Bailey forced a turnover then netted a shorthanded breakaway off a stretch pass from Kevin Porter. Percy then lit the lamp with a wrister from the top of the left circle with the help of Sean Malone and Blackwell.
 
The back-and-forth battle continued through the third frame. Syracuse regained a two-goal lead 4:52 in when Volkov tipped in Jamie McBain's feed from the corner, but 30 seconds later, Porter went five-hole from the slot.
 
Volkov scored his second of the game to reclaim another two-goal lead at the 5:59 mark. After knocking down a clearing attempt, Bodie fired from the blue line. The puck got away from Ullmark for the rookie to sweep in.
 
With 13:02 remaining in the game, Rochester pulled back within one yet again. Nicholas Baptiste got a stick on Andrew MacWilliam's slap shot to beat Pasquale.
 
The Crunch were able to stave off a comeback effort and won Game 2. The teams travel to Rochester for Game 3 on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m.
 
Single game tickets and packages for the 2018 Calder Cup Playoffs are on sale now and can be purchased in person at the Crunch office located inside the War Memorial Arena at 800 S. State St. in Syracuse, by calling the office at 315-473-4444. For the latest Crunch news, visit www.syracusecrunch.com or follow the club on Facebook (www.facebook.com/syracusecrunch), Twitter (@SyracuseCrunch) and Instagram (@syracusecrunch) using #SyrCrunch.
 
Crunchables: Tonight is the first time the Crunch have scored at least six goals in back-to-back games since Feb. 13 and Feb. 15, 2013… The last time Reid McNeill scored a goal was Feb. 7, 2017 with the Chicago Wolves.