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SYRACUSE -- Dustin Jeffrey, Nick Johnson and Mark Letestu each had three points and John Curry stopped 24 of 26 shots as the Crunch fell to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins by a 5-2 count and dropped their third straight game Friday night at the War Memorial at Oncenter.
After the Crunch scored first on Tuesday night in Rochester, they were looking for the same start, but Wilkes-Barre/Scranton struck first in tonight’s contest while on the power play when Johnson recorded the first of his two tallies with the Crunch’s Tomas Kana in the box for hooking, beating LaCosta to the short side on a feed from Letestu at the 10:07 mark of the first.
The Crunch had a chance to get right back in the game when they were awarded a power play just 30 seconds after the Penguins scored.
Syracuse, however, could not take advantage and went down 2-0 when Jeffrey stuffed in a wraparound attempt for the shorthanded tally. The Crunch offense struggled, as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton had a two-goal lead before Syracuse could register a single shot.
Syracuse was given another power play when Ben Lovejoy was hauled off for hooking at the 14:26 mark, this time taking advantage of the opportunity.
Dylan Reese worked the puck down low on the left side to Alexandre Picard. Picard shoved a backhand pass through the legs of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton defender that Derek MacKenzie swatted past Curry to cut the deficit in half at 2-1.
Even though they were outshot 16-5 in the second period, the Crunch caught a break when David Liffiton’s pass hit off a Penguin player’s skated and right to Kana.
Kana released the disk quickly and beat Curry with a wrister over the left shoulder to knot the game at 2-2 with under six minutes remaining in the stanza.
Any momentum the Crunch may have gained from their late second period goal was dashed when Jeffrey scored his second of the game just 38 seconds into the third to put Wilkes-Barre/Scranton up 3-2.
Johnson notched his second tally just under eight minutes later to make it 4-2 before Luca Caputi’s wraparound goal squeezed through LaCosta’s pads with three minutes to go in regulation to extend the Penguins lead to 5-2.
CRUNCHABLES: In five games against the Crunch this year, Dustin Jeffrey now has 11 points (5g, 6a)…Five of Jeffrey’s seven goals on the season have been scored on Syracuse…In four games, Mark Letestu has nine points (9a) and Nick Johnson has six points (4g, 2a) against the Crunch…The Crunch have let up six third period goals in the last two games and have been outscored by a 39-23 margin in the third period this season…Bates Battaglia and Nick Holden both had their three-game point streaks snapped…Maksim Mayorov appeared in his 100th AHL and Crunch game…Alexandre Picard moved into sole possession of tenth place on the Crunch’s all-time list in games played (217).
Courtesy: Syracuse Crunch
