The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins won their third straight game in defeating the Syracuse Crunch on Friday night at Onondaga County War Memorial at Oncenter and raised their perfect road record to 4-0-0-0.
After the Crunch battled back from a 2-0 deficit in the second period, the Penguins would strike in the first two minutes of the third. Nick Petersen started things off 51 seconds in when he took a touch pass from Brian Gibbons and whipped a shot past Crunch goalie Iiro Tarkki.
Exactly a minute later, Brandon DeFazio reestablished the Penguins' lead as he raced past a fallen Syracuse defender and beat Tarkki to make the score 4-2.
With Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on power play and looking to put the game away, it was Syracuse pulling within a tally as Jean-Francois Jacques converted shorthanded at 3:51 of the third.
Eric Tangradi would finally secure the victory for the Penguins on an empty-net goal with 12 seconds remaining. Brad Thiessen also notched his third win in a row with 35 saves on 38 shots.
The Penguins clicked on their first power play of the match to break the scoreless tie at 9:21 of the opening period. Traffic in front of Tarkki allowed a distance shot from Jason Williams to find the back of the net for his first of the season.
Geoff Walker helped up its Wilkes-Barre/Scranton lead to two with four minutes left in the period as he sped around a Syracuse defender and slid a pass to the far post that Colin McDonald fired home.
Syracuse got on the board midway through the second frame thanks to a 5-on-4 man-advantage. A bouncing puck ricocheted off traffic in front of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton crease and settled down for an open Peter Holland to lift a shot over the shoulder of Thiessen.
Holland then evened the match at two all six minutes later, taking advantage of a turnover behind the Penguins' net and wrapping the puck across the goal line.
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins complete a string of four consecutive road games on Saturday, October 29 at 7:00 PM versus the Manchester Monarchs.
