HARTFORD, C.T. (SYRACUSE CRUNCH) –
The Syracuse Crunch were downed by the Hartford Wolf Pack, 5-2, tonight at the XL Center.
The Crunch and Wolf Pack split the home-and-home weekend series as Syracuse moves to 8-4-0-2 on the season.
Crunch goaltender Hugo Alnefelt turned aside 24-of-28 shots. Louis Domingue stopped 18-of-20 in net for the Wolf Pack. The Syracuse power play was held to 0-for-4, while Hartford went 1-for-8.
The Wolf Pack were first on the board just 1:40 into the game. Adam Sykora’s wraparound attempt was stopped, but the rebound came out into the slot for Karl Henriksson to clean up.
Syracuse evened the score on a give-and-go play halfway through the middle frame. Mitchell Chaffee left the puck for Gabriel Fortier who immediately dished it back for Chaffee to grab and score from the left face off dot. Just 29 seconds later, Hartford regained their lead when Brett Berard got the puck behind the net and jammed it in between the goal post and Alnefelt’s skate. Matthew Robertson then sent in a long shot from the left point at 15:40 followed by a rebound goal by Alex Belzile while on the power play at 17:01 to make it a 4-1 Wolf Pack lead.
Bobby Trivigno added to the Hartford total when he hit the empty net at the 16:11 mark of the third period. Ilya Usau stole one back for the Crunch with 1:23 remaining in the game as he found the loose puck in the bottom of the right circle and sent it over the shoulder of Domingue, but Syracuse ran out of time to mount their comeback.
The Crunch will travel to face the Utica Comets on Wednesday.
