SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Syracuse Crunch allowed three third-period goals and suffered a 4-2 loss to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers Saturday at the War Memorial Arena in their regular season finale.
 
The Crunch finish the regular season 41-25-10-0, 92 points, and earn the Eastern Conference's fifth seed. The fourth-seeded Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins oppose the Crunch in the best-of-five first round of the Calder Cup Playoffs. The Eastern Conference Quarterfinals begin April 24 in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
 
Rookie Matthew Peca scored his first professional to open the scoring for Syracuse at 5:11 of the first period. Following a touch feed from Ikonen in the right circle, Peca spun in front of the net, avoided a poke check from goalie Stephon Williams, and lifted the puck on a forehand over Williams' right pad for the goal. Joel Vermin had the second assist. Peca has three points (1g, 2a) in his last two games and completed the regular season with four points in eight contests.
 
Bridgeport responded 1:46 later to even the score, 1-1, when Alan Quine whiffed on a shot but nubbed it to Dustin Jeffrey in front, who wristed it by Adam Wilcox. Syracuse has scored the game's first goal its last six contests, but surrendered the next goal in each of those games.
 
In a scoreless second period, the squads combined for 10 shots, six for Syracuse.
 
Kael Mouillierat started the third-period scoring for Bridgeport at 9:53 with a power-play goal, tipping home a deflected center-point slap shot from Ryan Pulock over Crunch netminder Adam Wilcox's catching glove. Colin Markison scored his first AHL goal at 15:19 with an assist to Johan Sundstrom who rushed down the ice to negate icing and flipped the puck to the crease.
 
Trailing 3-1 with four minutes remaining, the Crunch pulled netminder Adam Wilcox for an extra attacker. A charging call against Adam Pelech at 18:32 gave Syracuse its seventh power play of the game. A Dylan Blujus blast missed the net and rimmed around to the right wing where Jonathan Marchessault wired a pass back to Blujus on the left side. His second bid got through for his third power-play goal of the season and Syracuse's first of the night with 21.7 seconds remaining. Blujus finishes the regular season with four goals and 22 points. Marchessault ties a career high with 67 points.
 
Scott Mayfield gave the Sound Tigers their fourth goal at 19:56 with an empty net score. Wilcox made 15 saves and took the loss in his second start of the season. Williams earned his third win in four games with 31 stops.