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While the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins cruised to a pair of convincing victories in the first two games of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against the Syracuse Crunch, there&#8217;s a bit of a wild-card element in tonight&#8217;s Game 3.The best-of-five series shifts to Syracuse where the Penguins can clinch with a win over the Crunch. While the Penguins have outscored the Crunch 9-1 in the first two games, they may face a Syracuse team with an added advantage that comes from playing on the smaller ice surface at the Onondaga County War Memorial.&#8220;It&#8217;s a smaller arena and they&#8217;re probably more comfortable playing there then we are,&#8221; defenseman Danny Syvret said. &#8220;We have to be sharper because the arena is a little tighter. Decisions have to be made a little quicker.&#8221;Syvret said the Syracuse rink is comparable to the small ice surface in Binghamton - a place the Penguins visited four times in the regular season and only lost once.In Syracuse, however, the Penguins dropped both of their regular-season games against the Crunch.Still, head coach John Hynes expects a similar style of play in Game 3 to what the Penguins experienced in the first two matchups. Even though the finals scores in the first two games were lopsided, Hynes cautioned that both contests were competitive and tight.&#8220;There wasn&#8217;t a lot of free ice for us,&#8221; he said. &#8220;(In Syracuse) the rink is a little bit smaller so that time and space is slightly more limited. We&#8217;re aware of that.&#8221;Even veteran defenseman Taylor Chorney, who rejoined the team after Pittsburgh was eliminated form the NHL playoffs, said his teammates have told him they felt the first two games were tighter than what the final score indicated.Small arena aside, Chorney said there&#8217;s another element that could make Syracuse dangerous in Game 3 - they&#8217;re facing elimination.&#8220;They have a lot of playoff experience on that team and no matter what happened in the first two games they&#8217;re going to come out flying,&#8221; Chorney said. &#8220;It&#8217;s up to us to bring that intensity.&#8221;NOTEBOOK- Syvret scored his first postseason goal in Game 1. The 10-year pro said it was a long time coming, but so was simply getting to play in the postseason again. &#8220;I played a lot of games in the AHL and not many in the postseason,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That&#8217;s when the fun starts and I sort of missed out over the last few years. It was good to get a goal, but more importantly we won.&#8221;

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins hope to clinch 1st round tonight in Syracuse