SYRACUSE, N.Y. —
Philippe Paradis redirected a Luke Witkwoski shot past Hartford netminder Mackenzie Skapski four minutes into the third period to give the Syracuse Crunch (9-4-3-0) a 5-4 win over the Hartford Wolfpack (8-6-2-0) tonight at the XL Center in Hartford.
The win is the club's fourth in a row and the eighth consecutive game the team has earned a point. Netminder
Andrei Vasilevskiy turned aside 16 of 20 shots faced for his third win of the season. Skapski recorded the loss stopping 14 of 15 shots in relief of
Cedrick Desjardins.
Crunch forwards
Mike Angelidis and
Yanni Gourde each scored twice in the first frame to give the Crunch a 4-2 lead after 20 minutes of play. Angelidis opened the scoring with his first goal of the game 16 seconds into the contest;
Henri Ikonen had the lone helper on the play.
On the following shift the Wolfpack evened the score on a shot from Mike Kostka form the right side. Kostka was assisted by Conor Allen and Chris Mueller.
Hartford took a 2-1 lead six minutes into the period on a goal from Justin Vaive. Vaive was assessed a roughing penalty on the scoring play after bowling over Vasilevskiy. Gourde scored his first goal of the period on the ensuing power play.
Jonathan Marchessault won a faceoff back to
Joel Vermin, who fed Gourde at the left wing circle for Gourde's sixth goal in as many games.
Capitalizing on traffic in front of the Hartford net Angelidis slid the rebound of a Paradis shot past Desjardins to give the Crunch a 3-2 lead 10:40 into the first period. A backhand pass from
Tanner Richard led to Gourde's second goal of the night and Desjardins being replaced by Skapski.
The Wolfpack scored the only two goals of the second period to tie the game 4-4 after 40 minutes of play. Allen converted a breakaway at the 8:06 mark of the period followed by J.T. Miller scoring on a rebound with less than a minute to play.
The Crunch travel to Adirondack for their first meeting with the Flames on Friday, Nov. 21 before returning home to host the Utica Comets in the Toyota Frozen Dome Classic at the Carrier Dome on Saturday, Nov. 22.
