CRUNCH COME BACK TO DEFEAT BEARS

October 30, 2015

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Two quick Syracuse Crunch goals in the second period turned the tide on a game dominated early by the Hershey Bears, and the hosts went on to a 4-1 victory on Friday night at the War Memorial Arena.

The Bears came out flying after the opening faceoff, and thanks to a relentless forecheck, grabbed the game’s first goal just 2:46 in.  Rookie Madison Bowey would force a turnover behind the Syracuse net, and the puck popped out into the slot to an untouched Dustin Gazley.  The winger ripped the puck past the glove of Crunch netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy for his second of the season.

Syracuse would finally get some shots at goaltender Dan Ellis later in the frame on their only power play of the period, but the backstop was up to the task and made two point-blank stops on captain Mike Angelidis to send the Bears into the intermission with the lead.

The Crunch woke up from that opening period and turned the tide by scoring twice in a span of 16 seconds in the middle frame to take a 2-1 lead after two.  Matt Taormina would tie the game, sending a low slap shot through a screened Ellis at 11:36.  He would then send Matthew Peca and Anthony DeAngelo into the Bears’ zone two-on-one, a play that finished with DeAngelo sliding Peca’s pass behind Ellis at 11:52.

Early in the third period, at the expiration of a double-minor carry-over penalty to Connor Carrick, Jeff Tambellini redirected a Taormina pass inside the right post from the hash marks at 2:28.

Later, while a four-on-four situation was turning into a Syracuse power play, Mike Blunden emerged from the penalty box and collected a Dylan Blujus pass for a breakaway that he converted at 6:43.

Vasilevskiy made 27 saves on 28 shots and improved to 2-0-0 in his conditioning stint.  Ellis made a season-high 28 stops but fell to 2-2-0.  The Bears finished 0-for-4 on the power play and 4-for-6 on the penalty kill.

The Bears return home tomorrow, October 31 to host the St. John’s IceCaps.  Individual tickets for this and all Bears home games may be purchased at the GIANT Center box office, by calling (717) 508-BEAR or online at TicketMaster.com.

NOTES: ; The Bears scratched D Christian Djoos, C Zach Sill and LW Jakub Vrana… Chris Bourque is one point shy of 400 in his Hershey career, with 399 points (133 goals, 266 assists) in 399 games played…Madison Bowey’s assist extended his point streak to three games (1-2-3)…G Dan Ellis played his 199th career AHL game and is 93-88-7 in his career…Dustin Gazley appeared in his 150th AHL game.