Syracuse, NY (February 10, 2012) – Antero Niittymaki made 30 saves in his Syracuse Crunch debut but the Crunch fell 2-1 to the Hershey Bears tonight at the War Memorial Arena.

Rick Schofield gave the Crunch a 1-0 lead after blasting a snap shot from the far circle past Hershey netminder Braden Holtby with 6:50 to play in the first. Luca Caputi and former Hershey Bear Andrew Gordon picked up assists on the play.

The Bears responded with 3:08 to play in the period with a power-play goal from Cody Eakin. While Schofield was serving two minutes for tripping, Cody Eakin scored to tie the game at one. Bears defenseman Patrick McNeil fed Eakin, who was wide open at the circle and able to fire a slap shot past Niittymaki.

Right wing Garrett Mitchell scored the eventual game-winner with under three minutes to play in the middle frame. Mitchell slid across the goal line along with the puck which had rebounded from a Tomas Kundratek shot.

The Crunch put 13 shots on goal in the final frame but were unable to find the equalizer, resulting in 2-1 final. With the loss tonight, the Crunch drop to 19-20-4-3 on the season.

The Crunch will face the Albany Devils Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the War Memorial Arena.

Crunchables: Right wing Devante Smith-Pelly made his first appearance at the War Memorial Arena…Kyle Cumiskey returned to the lineup after missing seven games with an injury…The Crunch are 16-3-1-3 when scoring first…Luca Caputi has 14 points in 15 games with the Crunch.