Syracuse, N.Y. -- Peter Budaj looks ready to play hockey again. Now the question becomes when, where and how often he'll do that for the rest of the season.

Budaj stopped 16 shots in goal for the Syracuse Crunch in that team's 2-1 loss to Hershey on Friday night in the War Memorial. It was his first game action since injuring his ankle playing for Tampa Bay in late December.

Budaj, the Lightning's No. 2 netminder at the time of his injury, wasn't tested much but he was sharp on several big saves when needed.

"Obviously, you (sit out) for two months, and then you do it, you feel timing-wise a little bit off,'' Budaj said. "But I felt pretty good out there. My ankle was holding up pretty good. Everything was going well. Obviously, we would have liked to get a win. It takes probably a couple games to get the timing correct. You can't practice timing in a practice. You've got to do it in a game. It's something that I've got to work on a little bit.''

Budaj is on rehab assignment with Syracuse and can only stay with the Crunch through Sunday. Syracuse hosts Rochester on Saturday and then visits the Amerks on Sunday. Eddie Pasquale is slated to start for the Crunch in that first game, meaning Budaj could get the net for Sunday's contest.

After Sunday, Budaj must be recalled by Tampa Bay. When he got hurt, the Lightning promoted Syracuse starter Louis Domingue to the No. 2 job. Now that Budaj is healthy again, Tampa Bay has three goalies (including No. 1 Andrei Vasilevskiy).

Teams typically don't carry a three-man goalie rotation, so there's some sorting out to do.

"I have no idea. You guys got to call the GMs and ask them. That's not my place to say,'' Budaj said of how things will shake out. "I have no idea what's going to happen. I'm just happy to be here, happy to get back on the ice after a long break, just enjoying it. Hopefully I get back out there to the big team as soon as I can.''

Syracuse was imprecise offensively in support of Budaj, losing its seven-game points streak. Mathieu Joseph potted Syracuse's only marker, even though the Crunch out-shot the Bears 30-18.

"I think offensively, we're not as sharp as we can be,'' said Crunch coach Ben Groulx. "It seems to me that when we're shooting, we're missing the net a lot, especially when we're in tight areas. We had golden chances tonight from the slot, and we missed by a lot. Or sometimes when it's time to shoot we're passing, or when it's time to pass we're shooting. So, I think offensively we can be better.''

Hershey's Aaron Ness provided the game-winner at the 13:22 mark of the third, trailing the play to open space on the left side and snapping a hard shot past Budaj's right arm.

The teams swapped power play goals in the second period to leave that stanza knotted at 1-1.

Joseph came up with the evener at the 7:56 mark. Mat Bodie slipped him a pass in the right circle, and Joseph had plenty of time to line up an opening past Hershey goalie Phoenix Copley's far side.

"The goalie was on his 'A' game tonight,'' Joseph said. "You've got to put pucks to the net, drive the net hard. We've got to find a way to win. Even though we battled, it's not enough.''

Hershey's Tyler Graovac struck first at the 2:51 mark, finding a rebound off the right side to tuck back in before Budaj could recover back to the post.