SYRACUSE -- Former Crunch left wing and all-time penalty minutes leader Jeremy Reich scored twice to sting his old club, including the game-winner, as the Syracuse Crunch were edged 3-2 by the Bridgeport Sound Tigers Friday night at the War Memorial at Oncenter.

The Crunch came out with a sense of urgency in the biggest game of the year to date from the opening face-off and controlled the early action, outshooting Bridgeport by a 13-7 margin in the game’s first 20 minutes.

That momentum carried over into the second, as Chad Kolarik picked up his sixth goal in eight games as a member of the Crunch to give his team the 1-0 advantage on a carry-over power play just 24 seconds into the second period after taking a centering pass from Brent Regner and burying the puck into the open side past Scott Munroe.

Bridgeport’s Michael Haley tied the score just 1:46 later when he corralled a pass down the left wing from Matt Martin and fired a sharp-angle wrister that beat Kevin Lalande inside the far post to make it 1-1.

Tomas Kana re-gained the lead for the Crunch at the seven-minute mark of the second when he took a pass at center ice from Dan Fritsche and flew down the right side into open ice.  With the Bridgeport defense backing in, Kana sniped a shot through the pads of Munroe to give the Crunch a 2-1 lead.

Former Crunch left wing and all-time penalty minutes leader Jeremy Reich tied the game again just under four minutes later when he broke in short-handed and let go a slapper, again from a sharp angle, that eluded Lalande to knot the contest at 2-2.

Reich wasn’t done, as he wound up with what proved to be the game-winner at the 15:50 mark of a high-scoring second stanza after burying a centering feed from Jesse Joensuu to the top right corner to make it 3-2 Bridgeport.

The Crunch outshot Bridgeport 13-9 and hit two goal posts in the final minutes, but could not get the tying goal even with Lalande pulled for the extra-attacker.

CRUNCHABLES: Six former Crunch players suited up for Bridgeport tonight (Mark Flood, Greg Mauldin, Brett Motherwell, Mike Radja, Jeremy Reich and Mark Wotton)…Kevin Lalande has started 20 of the Crunch’s last 23 games…Brendan Bell was scratched from the lineup tonight due to illness.

Courtesy: Syracuse Crunch