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Misericordia men’s basketball beats DeSales for second straight conference title

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Beyond the Byline: Not too many balloons, please

<p>Wilkes-Barre/Scranton&#8217;s surge on Friday didn&#8217;t carry over to Saturday.</p><p>Twenty-four hours after storming past Rockford with six goals in a home win, the Penguins couldn&#8217;t keep up with the Syracuse Crunch, falling 3-1 on the road.</p><p>Alexander Volkov and Anthony Cirelli scored less than three minutes apart in the third period to break a 1-1 tie and give Syracuse its fourth straight win.</p><p>Wilkes-Barre/Scranton fell to 31-16-4-1 on the season and now trails first-place Lehigh Valley by 10 points for the Atlantic Division lead, though the Penguins have five games in hand. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Providence remained tied in the points column (67) for second place.</p><p>The Penguins were outshot 17-4 in the first period but managed to own the lead after 20 minutes thanks to a goal by speedy winger Freddie Tiffels in the opening five minutes. It was the second AHL goal of the season for Tiffels, who has played most of the year with ECHL Wheeling.</p><p>But when the Penguins had a chance to add to their lead on the power play early in the second period, Syracuse struck back.</p><p>Gabriel Dumont, recently reacquired on waivers from the Ottawa Senators, tied it up on a shorthanded goal, and the Crunch never trailed again.</p><p>Volkov and Cirelli both beat backup goalie Anthony Peters in the third to take control of the contest, with Cirelli converting on the power play with Joseph Cramarosssa in the box for hooking.</p><p>Peters finished with 33 saves on 36 shots faced. Connor Ingram stopped 26 of 27 for the Crunch.</p><p>The Penguins&#8217; three-in-three weekend concludes Sunday when they host Hershey at 3:05 p.m. at Mohegan Sun Arena.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @TLsports</p></shirttailMeta></div>

WBS Penguins’ momentum halted with loss at Rochester