Syracuse, NY –The Syracuse Crunch edged the Hershey Bears 4-3 in front of a sold-out crowd at the War Memorial Arena tonight.
 
Crunch captain Mike Angelidis put the Crunch on the board first with a shorthanded goal at the 11:23 mark of the first period. Assisted by J.T. Wyman Angelidis was able to put the puck past Bears goaltender Braden Holtby despite the Crunch being a man down thanks to a Cory Conacher tripping penalty.
 
The Crunch doubled their lead thanks to a goal by Tyler Johnson at the 5:36 mark of the second stanza. Johnson's goal, his third in two games, was assisted by Conacher and Ondrej Palat.
 
The Bears clawed their way back into the game with two goals in the second period. Garrett Mitchell opened the Bears scoring with an unassisted, shorthanded goal at the 7:26 mark and Barry Almedia got the puck past Crunch netminder Riku Helenius with 5:17 remaining in the second stanza. 
 
Conacher sent the Crunch into the locker room with a one-goal advantage thanks to his second goal of the season. Conacher scored off a feed from defenseman Matt Taormina at the 18:44 mark of the second period.
 
Brett Connolly gave the Crunch a two-goal advantage five minutes into the third period with a power-play goal. Connolly's shot from the point made it through traffic and past Holtby for a 4-2 Crunch lead. Connolly's goal was assisted by Mark Barberio and Vladislav Namestnikov.
 
The Bears pulled within one with a goal from Jon DiSalvatore at the 13:04 mark but could not close the gap any further.
 
The Crunch travel to Albany, Binghamton and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for a three and three this coming weekend.
 
Crunchables: Crunch captain Mike Angelidis has two goals in two games…Tyler Johnson has scored three goals… Vladislav Namestnikov has points in two consecutive games…Mark Barberio and J.P. Cote wore A's for the second consecutive game.