SYRACUSE, N.Y. ­­– The Utica Comets opened scoring, but the Syracuse Crunch responded with seven consecutive goals on their way to a 7-1 win today at the Upstate Medical University Arena.
 
Fourteen different players recorded a point for the Crunch lead by Ryan Lohin with two goals and a helper. The win puts the Crunch on a five-game winning streak and advances the team to 15-8-1-0 on the season. Syracuse is now 4-4-0-0 in the 14-game season series with Utica.
 
Crunch goaltender Spencer Martin turned aside 29-of-30 shots in victory. Joel Hofer stopped 9-of-14 in net for the Comets before being relieved by Evan Fitzpatrick in the second period. Fitzpatrick went on to stop 4-of-6. Syracuse went 1-for-3 on the power play and a perfect 4-for-4 on the penalty kill.
 
The Comets were first on the board 4:53 into the game when Sven Bärtschi beat Martin on the breakaway.
 
Syracuse responded less than two minutes later and proceeded to take the lead off back-to-back Lucas Carlsson slap shots from the top of the right circle just 1:14 apart.
 
The Crunch made it a two-goal lead at the 4:15 mark of the second period. Peter Abbandonato dug the puck out of the right corner and centered it for Henry Bowlby to send in a close-range wrister from the slot. Andreas Borgman fired in a slap shot from the right point halfway through the frame to put Syracuse up, 4-1.
 
The Crunch offense continued to light the lamp with two more goals in the middle frame. At 14:44, Lohin grabbed a loose puck down low and chipped it in while on the power play. Just seven seconds later, Cole Koepke scored his first pro goal with a one-timer from the right circle.
 
Lohin scored his second of the game at the 9:39 mark of the third period when he grabbed the puck along the right-side boards, skated in and beat Fitzpatrick with a quick wrist shot.
 
The Crunch and Comets will face each other again on Wednesday in Utica.
 
Ticket packages for the 2021-22 season are on sale now and can be purchased 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 (@syracusecrunch) using #SyrCrunch.
 
Crunchables: Boris Katchouk is on a 14-game points streak (10g, 14a)…Lucas Carlsson recorded his first career multi-goal game tonight…Henry Bowlby has goals in back-to-back games…Ryan Lohin recorded his first career multi-goal game tonight. He now has three goals in his last two games.