SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Portland Pirates (31-22-3-1) scored three goals in the first and held off the Syracuse Crunch (33-16-8-0) to win, 5-2, Friday at the War Memorial Arena. The Crunch remain atop the Northeast Division, four points ahead of Springfield.
 
Mike Angelidis opened the scoring 9:45 into the first by tipping a goal in from his usual spot in the net mouth. Charlie Dodero recorded his third assist of the season when he fired a point shot on net for the captain to find. Dylan Blujus recorded the secondary assist, his 12th this season. Angelidis tied his point output from last season with his 33rd point (17g, 16a). He's scored on a career-high 19% of his shots.
 
Portland responded with three goals in eight minutes, starting with Darian Dziurzynski who tied the game, 1-1, 30 seconds after the captain's goal. Dylan Reese snapped a wrister glove side on Kristers Gudlevskis 16:19 into the first, and Brendan Shinnimin increased the Pirates lead to 3-1 with two minutes remaining in the opening frame.
 
Cody Kunyk pulled the Crunch within one on a breakaway 15:53 into the second period, when he flicked a puck past the outstretched Mike McKenna for his ninth goal this season. Slater Koekkoek fed Kunyk the outlet pass and recorded his sixth assist in as many games.
 
"Their defense was pinching, so I just blew the zone and when I received the puck it bounced up on me, so I was lucky to get it down," Kunyk said about his breakaway goal in the second period. "The goalie saw that I had my head down, thank God I moved at the last second, or probably would have had a couple blown out knees. Thankfully it went in."
 
Within a minute of Kunyk's goal, Portland once again responded with haste. The Samuelsson brothers combined to give Portland a 4-2 lead. Philip found brother Henrik for the younger's 11th goal of the season.
 
"We were down 3-1, things aren't going that well, we score, and 40 seconds later it's in the back of our net," Zettler said about Portland's quick response to both Crunch goals. "There was a lack of coverage in the d-zone that ended up costing us."
 
Jordan Martinook added an empty net goal in the final minute.
 
Neither team capitalized on the power play as Syracuse blanked on five attempts, and the Pirates were fruitless in six opportunities. McKenna won his 21st game of the season, fifth most in the league, with 22 saves on 24 shots. Gudlevskis faced 24 shots in the loss, dropping his record to 18-10-2 this season.
 
Syracuse has its only Saturday of the regular season off, then travels to Binghamton on Sunday. The Crunch have defeated the Senators in four of six contests this season.