First Period Lifts Penguins Over Crunch

2-0 Loss

Syracuse, NY – The Syracuse Crunch were blanked by the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 2-0 tonight at the War Memorial Arena.

Two first-period scores carried the Penguins past the Crunch and dropped Syracuse's overall record to 24-28-4-6. The Penguins now lead the season-series 6-2-0-1. Syracuse failed to score on its only man advantage while the Crunch penalty kill allowed one Penguins power-play goal on eight chances. Penguins netminder Peter Mannino shut out the Crunch, stopping 16 shots. Syracuse goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis turned aside 26 of 28 shots faced.

Spencer Machacek grabbed a loose puck along the Crunch goal line and slipped it past Gudlevskis for a 1-0 lead at the 7:38 mark of the opening frame. The goal was assisted by Andrew Ebbett and Brian Dumoulin.

The Penguins doubled their lead with a power-play goal from Adam Payerl with 2:21 to play in the first period. Payerl took a cross-ice feed from the left wing and faked Gudlevskis to put home his third goal of the season. Assists went to Denver Manderson and Anton Zlobin.

The Crunch host the Albany Devils for Shapiro Motors 'Turn Back the Clock Night' on Saturday, March 22 at 7 p.m.

CRUNCHABLES: This is the seventh time this season the Crunch have been shut out… It's the first time the Crunch have been shut out in back-to-back games since Feb. 11-12, 2011 … Evan Rankin dropped the gloves for the third time this season and now has four career AHL fights.

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