SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Vladislav Namestnikov wasted little time in his Crunch season debut, scoring a power-play goal early in the first period and adding two assists in a 6-5 Syracuse win Friday night against the Hartford Wolf Pack.

The Crunch opened the scoring early and netted five first period goals, the first time they've scored that many goals in a period since Oct. 28, 2013 against Bridgeport in a 6-0 win, all five goals came in the second period of that contest. 

Hartford slowly chipped away at the Crunch lead and pulled the game within two heading into the last 20 minutes of play. Danny Kristo scored a power-play tally 2:52 into the third to make it a one score game.

Mike Angelidis gave the Crunch some breathing room at the 6:11 mark of the third, when he scored his second of the game, from his back in front of the net, to give Syracuse a 6-4 lead. Namestnikov got his third point of the game (1g, 2a) on the captain's marker.

"I fell and tried to pull the puck wide and everyone kept missing," the Crunch captain said. "I took a quick whack and it went over [Desjardin's] shoulder and into the net." 

The advantage was short lived as Hartford pulled back with one at the 7:50 mark of the third when Chris Bourque scored a power-play goal.

The high-scoring affair started when Namestnikov found his way to the front of the net and tipped a rebound by Mackenzie Skapski 59 seconds into the game.

It was the Russian center's first goal in a Syracuse sweater since April 11 against W-B/Scranton. Namestnikov made his Crunch season debut after being sent down Wednesday by Tampa Bay.

"I was a little out of breath at first," Namestnikov said. "Once I got a couple shifts in, I was pretty good. I was just trying to go out there and help the team. It's nice to get that goal and boosts the confidence a lot."

The Crunch added two more goals, 18 seconds apart, and chased Skapski from the net. Mike Angelidis netted the first on the backhand after Yanni Gourde weaved through three defenders and found the captain. The second marker came from Joel Vermin, who redirected a Nikita Nesterov shot from the point.

Namestnikov tallied his second point of the game on the Vermin goal, and Dalton Smith moved his season total to three assists on the Angelidis marker.

Former Crunch goalie Cedric Desjardins took the net for Hartford after Skapski gave up three goals in less than three minutes, but the Crunch offense kept coming. Jake Dotchin netted his first professional goal with a power-play slapper from the point 13:34 into the first.

Exactly three minutes later, Gourde carried over his November hot streak with his team-leading 10^th goal, and 21^st point of the season, tied with Jonathan Marchessault who added two assists Friday night. Tanner Richard gathered the puck behind the net and found his teammate on the hottest line in the AHL for the tally. The other member of the trio, Philippe Paradis got the second assist on the goal.

It was the tale of two periods as the Wolf Pack scored three goals in the second period to close the deficit to two.

Marchessault said he was disappointed with the let down after a huge opening period.

"We have to keep it tighter on defense and limit their opportunities to score," the Cap-Rouge, Quebec native said. "At the end of the day we're lucky that we came out with the two points." 

Ryan Haggerty gave Hartford its first goal, 1:55 into the second period on a power-play. Chad Nehring knocked a puck out of the air two minutes, and Ryan Malone scored his first goal in a Wolf Pack uniform halfway through the second period to make it a 5-3 game with 10:23 remaining in the second.

Desjardins stopped 23 of 26 shots after entering the game less than four minutes into the first period. Kristers Gudlevskis made 30 saves on 35 shots in his seventh win of the season. 

Both teams finished 3-for-6 on the power-play, the Crunch got power-play goals from Namestnikov, Vermin and Angelidis. 

Even though the Crunch added two points to the season total (27) and remained fourth in the Eastern Conference, head coach Rob Zettler said he wasn't satisfied with the lackadaisical play down the stretch.

"I don't know [how to prevent that letdown]," Zettler said. "I told them after the first, I told them after the second that this is way too loose, way too casual, and they continued to play that way. I don't know what the answer is."

The Crunch take their two points tonight and welcome I-90 rival Rochester to the War Memorial Saturday night for the second matchup of the season between the two foes. The Amerks won a Halloween night contest, 3-0. The two teams will face off six more times after Saturday.