Syracuse Crunch doubled up by Penguins

6-3 Loss

Syracuse, NY – The Syracuse Crunch were downed by the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 6-3 tonight at the War Memorial Arena.

The Penguins were led by their special teams, scoring three times on the power play and once shorthanded. Syracuse went one-for-five on the man-advantage and also recorded a shorthanded goal. Crunch netminder Riku Helenius made 21 saves in the losing effort, while his Penguins counterpart and former Crunch goalie Jeff Deslauriers stopped 26 of 29 shots for the win.

The Crunch went into the first intermission down 1-0 thanks to the first of two power-play goals from Tom Kostopoulos. He scored the first with 2:32 to play in the opening frame.

Vlad Namestnikov evened the score with his first goal of the season halfway through the second period. While on the man-advantage Namestnikov deflected a Matt Taormina point shot past Deslauriers.

Syracuse doubled its score just a few minutes later on a shorthanded two-on-one with Cedric Paquette and Evan Rankin. Rankin's shot was saved but Paquette lifted the rebound over Deslauriers for his first of the season. The Crunch carried their 2-1 lead into the second intermission.

The tide turned in the final frame with the Penguins scoring five goals. Kostopoulos scored his second goal of the night 55 seconds into the third period and Nick Drazenovic added the Penguins third power play tally at the 4:04 mark. Center Jayson Megna put the Penguins up 4-2 with a shorthanded breakaway at the 8:48 mark.

Taormina brought the Crunch within one by converting a drop pass from Geoff Walker at the 10:26 mark of the third period.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton rounded out the scoring with an even strength goal from Harry Zolnierczyk at 14:20 and an empty-net goal by Dominik Uher with 1:26 to play in regulation.

CRUNCHABLES: The Crunch have yet to score a goal in the first period this season…Cedric Paquette's second period goal was his first professional goal…With a goal and an assist tonight, Matt Taormina had his second consecutive multi-point game…

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