SYRACUSE, N.Y – In their first meeting as division rivals, the Syracuse Crunch and Hartford Wolf Pack had a first period of strong defensive play, a five-goal second period, and a third period that wasn't enough. It took overtime for Hartford to win their first matchup as Northeast Division opponents, 4-3.

Oscar Lindberg scored the game-winner in the 3-on-3 portion of overtime with 2:07 remaining in the period. Right before the game-winning goal, Mike Blunden was awaiting a one-timer opportunity but it wasn't connected on. After that, Lindberg found the top right corner of the net to beat Andrei Vasilevskiy. In his AHL debut, Vasilevskiy stopped 30 shots but said he wasn't satisfied with his performance.



As Vasilevskiy was making his AHL debut, Cedrick Desjardins returned to Syracuse for his first time after playing 35 games for the Crunch last season. 

Both goalies were strong in the first period, then the scoring started early in the second period as Tanner Richard got his first goal of the season 1:35 into the period, and 50 seconds later, the Wolf Pack responded with a goal from Oscar Lindberg.

Both goals were scored on the power-play, and were the first power-play goals of the season for each team. Syracuse went 1-for-6 on the power-play, and Hartford went 1-for-4.

The Crunch took the lead back 4:47 into the second period as Cedric Paquette took a pass from Yanni Gourde that gave him a breakaway, and after a quick move at the net against Desjardins, Paquette slid it through the five-hole to give Syracuse the 2-1 lead.

After Chris Mueller scored the equalizer on a delayed penalty against the Crunch, Paquette scored his second goal of the game after taking a pass at the blue line from Joel Vermin and ripping a shot glove side, right under the crossbar, past Desjardins with 8:58 remaining in the second period.

Head Coach Rob Zettler said that Paquette showed why he's one of the top players on the roster this season.



Once again, Hartford responded quickly to a Paquette goal. Danny Kristo's shot hit the post and Marek Hrivik was in front of the net to knock it past Vasilevskiy to tie the game at 3 with 13:25 remaining in the third period.

The tying goal led to Syracuse and Hartford getting their first taste of the new AHL overtime setup. After the first four minutes of 4-on-4 play were scoreless, the play moved to 3-on-3. Paquette said he doesn't think this is the correct solution to the overtime rules.



Overall, the Crunch finished with 32 shots and the Wolf Pack had 27. 

Syracuse now has five days to correct their opening weekend losses before another weekend of home games, starting with a rematch against season opener Springfield Friday Oct. 17, and a matchup with Binghamton on Saturday Oct. 18. Both games start at 7 p.m.