CRUNCH COME BACK TO DEFEAT BEARS

January 9, 2016

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Chris Bourque kept his offensive production rolling with his 14th goal of the season, but the Syracuse Crunch went on to score three unanswered goals in a 4-2 victory over the Hershey Bears on Saturday night at the War Memorial Arena.

Following up the rebound of a shot by Sean Collins, Bourque opened the scoring with his 14th of the season.  He headed to the net and chipped the puck underneath the poke-check attempt of Crunch netminder Adam Wilcox at 4:04.

Syracuse was given two power play chances in the opening period and made its second one count.  Jeff Tambellini unloaded a slapper off of a cross-ice feed from Matt Taormina from the top of the left circle, beating Justin Peters at 17:46 for the equalizer.

Christian Djoos would restore the Bears’ lead in the second period, moments after an abbreviated power play expired.  Getting open at the left point, Djoos stepped into a shot fed to him by Nathan Walker and clanged the puck off the right post and behind Wilcox at 7:19.

But a failed clear would keep the Crunch in the offensive zone, where Mike Angelidis took the puck to the net.  His first shot hit the post and bounced behind Peters, but he was able to find it before the Bears and hurry it into the net at 9:01 to tie the contest.

In the third, the Crunch took their first lead of the game when Tambellini headed toward the right post and deflected a shot by Tye McGinn into the upper-left corner of the net at 6:45, which stood as the game-winner.  Tanner Richard hit the empty net at 19:36 to finish off the scoring.

Peters made 23 saves on 26 shots but fell to 8-6-3.  Wilcox stopped 28 of 30 shots and improved to 3-4-4.  The Bears finished the night 0-for-2 on the power play and 3-for-4 on the penalty kill.

The Utica Comets make their first-ever regular-season visit to GIANT Center for the Bears’ next home game tomorrow, January 10.  Face-off is set for 5:00 PM.  All fans in attendance will receive a complimentary one-day pass to HERSHEYPARK, valid through July 31, 2016.  Tickets are available at the GIANT Center box office, by calling 717-508-BEAR or online at TicketMaster.com.

NOTES:  The Bears scratched D Mike Moore, C Cam Reid, D Bobby Shea, C Chandler Stephenson and LW Jakub Vrana...The Crunch scratched D Dylan Blujus, C Cameron Darcy, D Anthony DeAngelo and D Joey Mormina…Chris Bourque extended his point streak to five games (4-3-7) with his goal, and has produced (8-10-18) with points in 13 of his last 14 games…Garrett Mitchell (3-3-6) and Nathan Walker (3-4-7) extended their point streaks to four games, all in January.