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Syracuse Crunch

After Condra named new Crunch captain, Syracuse falls to Utica

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By Steven DiOssi | @StevenDiOssi | Like us on Facebook
March 17, 2017

Tye McGinn scored for the fifth consecutive game but the Syracuse Crunch dropped a 4-3 decision to the Utica Comets at the Utica Memorial Auditorium on Friday.

After falling behind 3-1 in the third period, the Crunch scored twice in a span of 30 seconds to tie it. But that wasn’t enough, as the Comets took the lead and held on for the victory.

Henri Ikonen and Mike Halmo also tallied goals for the Crunch, who have wins in five of their past 10 contests and are now 31-21-6-5 on the season. Their 73 points lead the North Division and are two more than the second-place Albany Devils with just 13 games remaining in the regular season.

Mike McKenna made 19 saves while Utica goaltender Thatcher Demko stopped 35-of-38 shots in the winning effort. The Crunch went 1-for-3 with the man advantage and held the Comets to one power play goal in four chances.

The Crunch outshot the Comets 13-9 in the opening period but trailed by a goal after Utica forward Borna Rendulic opened the scoring at 13:22.

Utica took a two-goal lead after Pascal Pelletier beat McKenna with just 5:18 left in the second period. The Crunch answered minutes later, when Ikonen tallied his third goal of the year at 17:44. While on the power play, Adam Comrie controlled the puck on the left boards in the offensive zone and fed a pass to Ikonen who was skating in on Demko alone near the slot. Ikonen deked Demko and put the puck between his legs and into the net to cut the Utica lead to one goal. McGinn also added an assist on the goal.

As time expired in the second period, the Crunch held a combined 21-14 lead in shots but were down 2-1 in the contest.

Ben Thomas was called for boarding four minutes into the third period, setting up the Comets’ fourth power play of the game. Just four seconds into the man advantage Utica made it count, as Darren Archibald tallied his 20th goal of the season to take their second two-goal lead.

The Crunch battled to score two goals in a span of 30 seconds to even things up.

Ikonen held the puck in the right corner and sent a pass out to Mike Halmo just above the crease. Halmo tapped it past Demko for his 16th goal of the season at 6:31. Slater Koekkoek also added an assist on the goal. Halmo is third on the Crunch in goal scoring, behind only Byron Froese (26) and Yanni Gourde (22) — both of whom are not part of the active roster as they are currently playing with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Just 30 second later, McGinn tallied his seventh goal of the season to tie the game. Erik Condra sent a backhand pass from the top of the right circle down low to McGinn. The puck was bouncing but McGinn sent it towards the net, beating Demko to register his ninth point in 10 games this season. Condra, who was named the 20th captain in team history earlier on Friday, now has 12 goals and 26 assists in 43 contests.

The tie was short-lived, however, as the Comets regained the lead on Mike Zalewski’s fourth goal of the season at 8:15 — one that Utica was able to preserve despite being outshot 17-9 in the final frame.

The Crunch return to action in an important divisional matchup against the Devils at War Memorial Arena on Saturday.

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