WILKES-BARRE, PA -- The Syracuse Crunch scored two third period goals and Kevin Harvey tallied his second straight game-winner, as the Crunch won back-to-back games for the first time this season by defeating the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins by a 4-3 count Saturday night at Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton got on the board first in their own building just four minutes into the game after Harvey was called for a four-minute double-minor for high-sticking.
Luca Caputi went to the front of the net and took a one-time feed from Dustin Jeffrey from behind the goal line. Caputi was just far enough away from Mathieu Roy and snapped the puck to the top right corner to put the Penguins up 1-0.
As they did in last night’s shootout win over Houston, the Crunch came back to knot the game at 1-1 just over four minutes later after buzzing around the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton net.
Roy corralled the puck at the right point and threw a wrist shot on goal that Wilkes-Barre/Scranton goaltender Brad Thiessen had trouble handling.
The puck popped back out to the slot where Jared Aulin found it and chipped it past Thiessen for his fourth marker of the season.
The Crunch took their first lead of the game at the 4:38 mark of the second.
Pascal Pelletier came in down the right side, gained the zone and floated a cross-ice backhand pass that landed right on the tape of Bates Battaglia. Battaglia wasted no time and ripped a shot to the top right corner to give Syracuse a 2-1 advantage.
The Baby Pens came back to tie the score on a fluke goal just under six minutes later when they broke in on a 2-on-1 and Jeffrey’s feed from the left wing deflected off David Liffiton’s skate and past Lalande to make it 2-2.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton re-took the lead just 53 seconds into the third period with their second power play goal of the contest and second goal of the game from Jeffrey.
The Crunch showed resilience and knotted the score less than one minute later for the third time in the game when Battaglia set-up Dan Fritsche in the slot who one-timed the biscuit past Thiessen to make it 3-3.
Jonathan Sigalet took a delay of game penalty, the Crunch’s third in two games, when he flipped the puck into the stands in his own zone but were able to kill off that infraction and build momentum.
Syracuse took the lead for good when Jordan LaVallee-Smotherman took the puck end to end and ripped a slapshot that was blocked by a Penguins defenseman. The blocked shot came right to Harvey, who snuck a backhand along the ice through traffic past Thiessen to give the Crunch the 4-3 edge.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton pulled its goalie in the final minute, but could not score as the Crunch pulled out the 4-3 win, their second road victory this season.
CRUNCHABLES: Bates Battaglia tallied his first multi-point game as a member of the Crunch…Kevin Lalande started his fourth straight game…The opposing team scored first on the Crunch for the 14th time in 21 games…The Crunch have out-shot their opponent in four straight games and are 3-1-0-0 in those contests…Syracuse was out-shot in 16 of its first 18 contests.
Courtesy: Syracuse Crunch
