Hershey, PA (December 21, 2011) – The Syracuse Crunch fell to the East Division leading Hershey Bears by a final score of 5-2 tonight at the Giant Center.

The Bears got a goal from right wing Matthew Ford to open the scoring and give the Bears an early 1-0 lead. Ford's shot, assisted by Patrick McNeill and Sean Collins, got by Crunch netminder Iiro Tarkki just 1:39 into the contest.

The Crunch fought back with a power-play goal from Patrick Maroon, making it a 1-1 game halfway through the first period. Maroon capitalized on a Dany Sabourin rebound for his 12^th goal of the season. Maroon's power-play tally score came after Hershey's Boyd Kane was called for interference 9:59 into the first period.

The Bears scored three unanswered goals in the second stanza to extend their lead to 4-1 after 40 minutes of play.

 Hershey came out to a fast start to begin the second stanza, making it 2-1 21 seconds in with a goal from Cody Eakin. Eakin's goal was assisted by Christian Hanson and Julien Brouillette.

With Keith Aucoin serving a double-minor high-sticking penalty, Bears defenseman McNeill scored short-handed at the 16:29 mark of the second.
Kyle Greentree added his second goal of the season to make it 4-1 with two minutes remaining in the second period. Greentree's goal chased Tarkki from the game; he was replaced by Jeff Deslauriers after allowing four goals on 24 shots.

At the 2:38 mark of the third, Crunch center Maxime Macenauer scored his first Crunch goal of the 2011-12 season after being assigned from the Ducks on December 17 to cut the Crunch deficit to two goals.

Bears defenseman, Brouillette added a power-play goal at the 9:43 mark of the third period leading to the final score of 5-2.

The Crunch return to action December 28 when they host the Springfield Falcons at the War Memorial Arena.

Crunchables: Prior to tonight's contest defenseman Trevor Ludwig was released from his PTO…Left wing J.F. Jacques has seven points in his past four games…With tonight's first period power-play goal Patrick Maroon now leads the team with 5 goals on the man-advantage.