SYRACUSE -- Dan Taylor, making his first home start all season, stopped 41 shots and the Syracuse Crunch received a power play goal each from Maksim Mayorov, Tom Sestito and Tyler Murovich en route to a 3-1 victory over the AHL-leading Hershey Bears Tuesday night at the War Memorial at Oncenter. The win marked the first against Hershey in six tries this season.
The Crunch got on the board first at the 15:21 mark of the first period when Mayorov found a loose puck on the left side of the crease off a shot from Murovich and roofed it from in close past Braden Holtby to give Syracuse the 1-0 lead. The goal gave Mayorov his first tally and first point in 16 games.
The Crunch made it 2-0 at the 16:33 mark of the second stanza when Tom Sestito found his own rebound on a centering feed from Mayorov and slid the puck by Holtby on the second effort into the back of the net.
The score stayed that way until just past the midway point of the third period when Murovich corralled a pass from Mayorov, flew in down the right side and let a wrister go that ticked off Holtby's pads and through the Hershey netminder's five-hole to give the Crunch a 3-0 cushion and Murovich his first professional goal and third point in three games as a member of the Crunch.
The Crunch shut down the AHL's leading offense for almost 58 minutes, until Zach Miskovic's wrister beat Taylor with 2:10 remaining to spoil his shutout bid and an otherwise perfect night.
The Crunch close out their season with home games this weekend against Hamilton on Friday, April 9 and Rochester on Saturday, April 10. Both games start at 7:30 p.m.
CRUNCHABLES: The Crunch tied a season-high with three power play goals…Syracuse's power play was 2-for-31 over the previous eight games coming into the contest…The Crunch moved their home record to 18-18-1-1.
Courtesy: Syracuse Crunch
