SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins’ seven-game winning streak came to an end at the hands of the Syracuse Crunch on Saturday night at Oncenter War Memorial Arena.
The Crunch downed the Penguins, 4-2, despite a valiant comeback effort in the third period by Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. 
Syracuse took a 2-0 lead by cashing in twice on a double minor penalty to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton during the first period. A redirect by Adam Erne at 11:31 gave the Crunch the game’s first goal, and then Tye McGinn’s wrap-around attempt beat Matt Murray 49 seconds later.
The Penguins cut the Crunch’s lead in half, 2-1, when Josh Archibald whistled a wicked wrister over the glove of Adam Wilcox at 17:39 of the opening period.
Shortly after Wilcox denied Wilkes-Barre/Scranton the game’s tying goal late in the first, Syracuse was able to reestablish their two-goal margin on a goal by Matt Blunden with 12.3 seconds left in the period.
Jean-Sébastien Dea pulled the Penguins within one, batting the puck out of midair and past Wilcox on the power play, making the score 3-2 with still 15:13 left to play in the third period.
The two teams continued to exchange man advantage opportunities as the game wore on, and despite a mighty press by the Penguins with Murray pulled in favor of an extra attacker, they were unable to tie the score and saw Tanner Richard pot an empty net goal. Richard’s empty-netter brought the game to its final score of 4-2.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton finished the game one-for-five on the power play, while Syracuse was two-for-seven with the man advantage.
Wilcox was named the game’s first star with 25 saves. On the other end of the ice, Murray finished the contest with 18 stops.

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