SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Syracuse Crunch rallied past the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 5-2, tonight at the Upstate Medical University Arena.
The win advances the Crunch to 35-19-4-2 on the season and the team completes the four-game season series against the Penguins with a 2-2-0-0 record.
Crunch goaltender Brandon Halverson stopped 24-of-26 shots in victory. Joel Blomqvist turned aside 30-of-33 in net for the Penguins. Syracuse was held scoreless on four power play opportunities, while Wilkes-Barre/Scranton went 2-for-5.
The Penguins opened scoring with a power-play goal late in the first period. Xavier Ouellet fired a wrister from the blue line that was tipped in by Austin Rueschhoff.
The Crunch evened the score just 1:04 into the second period. Félix Robert was in front of the net to redirect Phil Myers’s right-point shot. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton went back on top six minutes later when Joona Koppanen fired in a wrister from the top of the left circle while on the man-advantage. At 13:09, Myers netted a shot from the high slot to tie the game, 2-2.
Syracuse took over the lead 7:43 into the final frame. Cole Koepke skated the puck down the left side before centering a feed that bounced up off a defender, ricocheted off Waltteri Merelä and past Blomqvist. Gabriel Fortier and Alex Barré-Boulet then added a pair of empty-net goals in the final minutes to secure the Crunch win.
The Crunch travel to face the Springfield Thunderbirds tomorrow.
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