SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Syracuse Crunch lead for 53 minutes, but allowed four third-period goals and ultimately fell to the Utica Comets, 4-2, tonight at the War Memorial Arena.
 
Tye McGinn and Jeff Tambellini were the only Crunch goal-scorers, notching power-play tallies, while Adam Erne, Matthew Peca, Matt Taormina and Mike Blunden picked up helpers. The loss moves Syracuse to 10-7-2-1, while Utica advances to 10-9-2-1. The Comets own a 2-1 lead in the 10-game Galaxy Cup series this season.
 
Crunch goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis made 29 saves on 32 shots. Comets netkeeper Ryan Bachman allowed two goals on 20 attempts. Syracuse scored the contest's only power-play goals, as they went 2-for-4 on the man-advantage, and were successful on all four penalty kills.
 
While on the power play, McGinn scored the game's first goal on tic-tac-toe passing from Peca and Erne with 1:02 remaining in the opening frame.
 
Tambellini recorded a man-up goal at the 17:02 mark of the middle period to build a two-goal lead for the Crunch. After receiving a cross-slot feed from Taormina, Tambellini's wrist shot from the left circle snuck over Bachman's shoulder. Blunden picked up the secondary assist. 
    
It took Utica over 53 minutes to get on the board, but scored four times in the final six-plus minutes. Niklas Jensen solved Gudlevskis at the 13:47 mark the third, before Wacey Hamilton cashed in on a rebound just three minutes later.
 
Less than a minute after Hamilton's tally, Alex Friesen found his own rebound and gave the Comets the lead with his fourth goal of the season. Alexandre Grenier added an empty net goal with 17 seconds remaining in the game to top the Crunch, 4-2.
     
The Crunch travel to Albany tomorrow to face the Devils at 5 p.m.
 
Single game and season tickets are on sale now and can be purchased either in person at the Crunch Box Office located in the War Memorial on 800 South State Street in Syracuse or by calling the office at 315-473-4444. For the latest Crunch news, visit www.syracusecrunch.com or follow the club on Facebook (www.facebook.com/syracusecrunch), Twitter (@SyracuseCrunch) and Instagram (@officialsyracusecrunch) using #SyrCrunch and #BelieveInBlue.
 
Crunchables: The Crunch have scored a power-play goal in four consecutive games, while not allowing a power-play goal in three consecutive games …This is the first loss for the Crunch this season when leading after two periods. The team is now 6-1…Jeff Tambellini has a team-leading eight goals.