Lonny Bohonos returned to the Onondaga County War Memorial at Oncenter and picked up five points to lead Chicago to a 7-6 win over Syracuse on Wednesday night.
Bohonos scored three goals and added two assists for the Wolves, who are 15-2-1-1 in their last 19 contests. Bohonos played parts of his first four professional seasons with the Crunch, scoring 30 goals as a rookie in 1994-95 and 40 goals in 1995-96.
Tommi Santala added a goal and three assists and Kari Lehtonen made 40 saves for his 12th consecutive victory.
Steve Maltais recorded three assists, the first of which was his 500th career AHL point. He is the 71st player in league history to reach that plateau.
The night wasn’t all roses for Bohonos. Brad Moran picked up two goals and two assists for the Crunch to tie Bohonos as the franchise’s all-time leading scorer. Both Moran and Bohonos have posted 230 career points in a Syracuse uniform.
Syracuse coughed up leads of 2-0, 3-1 and 4-3, then rallied from down 7-4 to pull within a goal in the final minutes.
With the win, combined with Milwaukee’s overtime loss (see below), Chicago has a one-point lead over the Admirals for first place in the West Division. Syracuse remains in a three-way tie for fourth place in the North.
Elsewhere on Wednesday:
Joey MacDonald made 44 saves and Tomas Kopecky scored 1:59 into overtime as Grand Rapids edged Milwaukee, 4-3… Rene Bourque scored twice in the third period to lead Norfolk past Bridgeport, 4-2, before 10,869 fans at Nassau Coliseum… Colby Armstrong scored and Dany Sabourin made 31 saves as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton knocked off Hamilton, 1-0… Steve Valiquette made 33 saves for his seventh shutout of the season and Jeff Hamilton registered his 10th game-winning goal as Hartford beat Lowell, 1-0… Owen Fussey scored with 2:27 remaining in regulation to give Portland a 3-2 win over Hershey… Dan Cavanaugh recorded a goal and two assists as Houston beat Utah, 5-2.
