Crunch Clinch Playoff Berth

Colgate Drops Sunday Finale to Boston U

Crunch Clinch Playoff Berth

The Syracuse Crunch defeated the Hershey Bears, 5-3, tonight at the Giant Center and clinched a berth in the 2022 Calder Cup Playoffs.

The Crunch swept the weekend’s three-in-three collecting all six possible points on their way to building a 39-25-7-2 record on the season. Syracuse also won the four-game season series against Hershey, 3-0-0-1. Hugo Alnefelt recorded the win in net for the Crunch turning aside 31-of-34 shots. Pheonix Copley stopped 21-of-25 between the pipes for the Bears. Syracuse went 1-for-3 on the penalty kill, while Hershey was 1-for-6.

After a scoreless first period, the Bears opened scoring on the power play 4:57 into the middle stanza when Mike Sgarbossa centered the puck for Brett Leason to send in out front. Nine minutes later, the Crunch evened the score. Gage Goncalves dug the puck out from along the end boards to Simon Ryfors to grab and send home.

Syracuse took the lead just 1:52 into the third period off a rocket of a one-timer from Charles Hudon in the right circle while on the manadvantage. The team built up a two-goal lead at 5:10 when Remi Elie picked the far corner with a shot from the left faceoff dot.

Hershey responded at 8:41 when Garrett Pilon cut across the slot and waited out Alnefelt before chipping the puck over the sprawled out netminder. Just 24 seconds later, Gemel Smith shoveled in a backhander to regain the two-goal lead.

The Bears pulled within one again at 15:54 with a long point shot from Jake Massie, but Elie soon potted his second of the night into the empty net to secure a Crunch win.

The Crunch return home to host the Wilkes-barre/scranton Penguins on Wednesday.

Colgate Drops Sunday Finale to Boston U

Colgate’s offense came to life but Boston University scored in each of the last six innings to fend off the Raiders, 137, Sunday afternoon in the series finale at Eaton Street Field.

The Raiders had 11 hits on the day, including three from Jillian Herbst who led the offense. Morgan Farrah belted her first home run of the season as part of a three-rbi day, while Steph Jacoby drove in a pair of runs. Kara Fusco and Rachel Carney each registered two hits.

Boston U struck first with two runs in the top of the second. Jen Horita scored on a groundout and Bella Gargicevich-almeida followed with an RBI single up the middle to give the visitors an early 2-0 advantage.

Bailey Misken ended the top of the third with her second strikeout of the inning, but not before the Terriers padded their lead with three runs. Boston U added another in the top of the fourth before Farrah hammered a two-run homer in the home half to cut the deficit to 6-2.

Farrah’s homer was the 22nd long ball of her career. She took the first pitch and launched it over the fence in leftcenter to get the Raiders on the board.

Colgate staged a three-run rally in the fifth, capped off by an RBI single by Farrah. Jacoby and Fusco added RBI knocks in the frame, sparked by a single from Carney and a double by Herbst, to trim the deficit down to 7-5.

Unfortunately the Terriers halted Colgate’s momentum and regained control with a big top of the sixth inning, scoring four runs on four hits to rebuild their lead to 11-5. The teams traded two runs apiece over the final two innings and the visitors held on for the 13-7 final.

UP NEXT

Colgate (17-20, 7-5 Patriot) wraps up nonconference action with a doubleheader at Cornell on Tuesday starting at 3 p.m. The Raiders are back on the road next weekend for a key three-game series at Lehigh on Saturday and Sunday.