SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Darren Haydar notched his first hat trick as a member of the Grand Rapids Griffins, but a five-goal second period propelled the Syracuse Crunch to a 6-5 win at the Onondaga County War Memorial at Oncenter on Friday night. The Griffins scored four times in the third period, but fell one goal shy of the comeback.

Haydar now has four goals and nine points during a four-game point streak, while Garrett Stafford, Ryan Oulahen and Mattias Ritola all recorded multiple points in the loss. Jimmy Howard started the game and stopped 19 shots, while Daniel Larsson turned aside eight of the 10 shots he faced in net for the Griffins (34-15-6-5). Dan LaCosta made 22 saves for the Crunch (28-26-3-2).

Syracuse jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Craig MacDonald jammed the puck between Howard’s pads from in close during a power play 7:50 into the game. Haydar evened the score on a power-play goal of his own with 7:30 remaining in the opening period. After LaCosta made the initial save, Haydar’s second chance deflected off a defender and into the net.

In the second period, Grant Clitsome put the Crunch back up by one 5:05 into the stanza. But the Griffins came right back and tied the game again with a Cory Emmerton goal 4:03 later. The Griffins forward launched a shot from the right side during an odd-man rush with Ritola.

Alexandre Picard put the Crunch up for a third time when he swiped a bouncing puck past Howard with 4:04 remaining in the middle stanza. Another bouncing puck went Syracuse’s way 42 seconds later, as a pass jumped over the stick of a Griffin defender and onto the stick of Brian McGuirk, who swept the puck into a net. Howard was hurt on the goal and Larsson entered the game in relief.

The Crunch continued to pour it on when the rebound of a Nick Holden shot bounced off Stafford’s leg and into the Grand Rapids net for a power-play goal with 2:18 left in the period. Trevor Frischmon handled a long bounce off the end-boards and beat Larsson 1:10 later to cap off the second period with Syracuse holding a 6-2 lead.

Five minutes into the third period, Oulahen backhanded a shot past LaCosta to cut the Syracuse lead to 6-3. The lead shrank to 6-5 when Haydar completed his hat trick with back-to-back goals over a span of 2:13. The first goal came during a 5-on-3 advantage and the second was an even-strength goal that came via an Evan McGrath pass from the left side.

Three Stars: 1. SYR Frischmon (GW goal, assist); 2. GR Haydar (Hat trick); 3. SYR Holden (Goal, assist)