ROCHESTER, N.Y. (SYRACUSE CRUNCH) –

The Syracuse Crunch defeated the Rochester Americans, 7-2, tonight at Blue Cross Arena.

Seven different Crunch players scored, while 14 different players recorded at least one point in the victory. The win advances Syracuse to 5-2-0-0 on the season.

Crunch goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov recorded his third consecutive victory stopping 19-of-21 shots. Devin Cooley turned aside 21-of-27 before being relieved by Michael Houser in the third period. Houser went on to stop 4-of-5. The Syracuse special teams continued to have success going 2-for-3 on the power play and a perfect 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.

Syracuse opened scoring 7:09 into the first period. Declan Carlile sent a slick feed down to Lucas Edmonds out in front of the net. His redirection was stopped by Cooley, but he found his own rebound and sent it into the back of the net. Rochester evened the score off some quick passing at 16:37. Ryan Johnson fired a shot wide that Michael Mersch grabbed along the goal line and centered for Brett Murray to chip in.

The Crunch added three consecutive goals in the middle frame to build up a 4-1 lead. The power play converted just 1:13 into the period. Gage Goncalves carried the puck into the left circle and sent a feed into the slot for Felix Robert to redirect in. Three minutes later, Joe Carroll came in on an odd-man rush with Cole Koepke. Koepke’s left-side shot was stopped, but Carroll was there to clean up the second chance on the back door. At 15:28. Max Groshev sent a lead pass for Daniel Walcott who was speeding down the slot. Walcott got a stick on the puck and sent it up and over the netminder.

The Amerks stole one back with just 22 seconds remaining the second period to make it a 4-2 game. Matthew Savoie set up Jiri Kulich for a quick one-timer from the slot.

Syracuse closed out the game with another three-goal period to secure the victory. The first came at the 5:57 mark when Gabriel Dumont was down low to backhand the puck in during a scramble while on the man-advantage. Two minutes later, Groshev forced a turnover in the corner and centered the puck for Devante Stephens to fire in and chase Cooley from the game. Goncalves rounded out the scoring when he chipped in the rebound of Emil Lilleberg’s left-circle wrister halfway through the frame.

The Crunch return home to host the Amerks on Saturday.