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AHL Syracuse Crunch

Syracuse Crunch Weekly - Vol. 31, No. 19

February 18, 2025 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


CRUNCH FINALLY HOME AFTER ROAD TRIP

The Crunch return home following four straight road contests over eight days. The journey took the Crunch to four cities and finished with three games in four days in Week 19. The Crunch went 1-1-1-0 last week and were 2-1-1-0 on the trip.

Syracuse visited Toronto on Wednesday for a school field trip contest against the Marlies. The Crunch dug out of a 4-1 hole with less than 10 minutes left in regulation to earn a valuable standings point but lost to the Marlies, 5-4, in overtime. They traveled to Rochester on Friday and thumped the Americans, 5-1, for their 20th win of the season. Their three-game point streak was snapped with a 4-2 loss the next night against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

The Crunch, who have only won at least two straight games on four occasions this season, will play their next four at home. They enter the week with a 20-17-7-4 record and 51 points, which is good for fifth place in the North Division.

TOP PERFORMER

Forward Gage Goncalves returned to the Crunch from the Lightning while the NHL is on pause for the 4 Nations Face-Off. He earned a point in all three games in Week 19 to extend his AHL scoring streak to five games. He had four points (1g, 3a) last week and has eight points (3g, 5a) during the five-game streak, which sandwiches a successful recall to the Lightning.

Goncalves, 24, has 18 points (5g, 13a) in 14 Crunch games this season. He has earned a point in 11 of his 14 appearances in the AHL. He picked up five assists in the last six games for the Lightning prior to the break.

***

Jack Finley recorded four points to tie for the Crunch lead in Week 19. The third-year-pro notched his first career three-point game (1g, 2a) to help the Crunch rally to earn a standings point Wednesday at Toronto. He earned an assist on their first goal and then scored a goal to make it 4-3 before earning the primary assist on the tying strike by Conor Geekie.

Finley added the first goal in Friday's win in Rochester before having his four-game scoring streak snapped Saturday at Lehigh Valley. Finley has picked up 12 points (5g, 7a) in 21 games this season.

CRUNCH RETURN HOME FOR SPECIALTY JERSEY NIGHTS

The Crunch begin a four-game homestand with back-to-back games featuring specialty jerseys. The Crunch will wear their annual Pride jerseys on Friday against the Marlies. They will then celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice game with Team USA inspired jerseys worn by the Americans en route to winning the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics.

UPCOMING WEEK

Friday, Feb. 21 vs. Toronto | 7 p.m.

The Crunch return home to face off against the Toronto Marlies on Friday following their four-game road trip. One of the stops during the trip was to Toronto last Wednesday when the Crunch rallied from a three-goal deficit to earn a point in an overtime loss to the Marlies.

The Marlies split a weekend set against Belleville and defeated Laval yesterday. They are 27-13-2-5 this season and are in third in the division. They have won two of the first three games against the Crunch.

Saturday, Feb. 22 vs. Laval | 7 p.m.

The Crunch host the AHL-leading Laval Rocket on Saturday in the first meeting between the clubs since the Crunch swept a two-game set in Laval after Christmas. The Rocket have won 13 of 17 (13-3-1-0) since that series against the Crunch and they are 31-13-2-1 this season.

Saturday's match in Syracuse will be Laval's fifth game in seven days. The Rocket won in Rochester on Sunday, lost in Toronto on Monday and then will play home games Wednesday and Friday before traveling to Syracuse. The Rocket are 4-2-0-0 against the Crunch (2-2-1-1) this season.

WEEK 19 RESULTS

Wednesday, Feb. 12 | Game 46 at Toronto | OTL, 5-4

Syracuse 0 1 2 0 - 4 Shots: 9-7-11-1-28 PP: 1/3

Toronto 2 1 1 1 - 5 Shots: 9-9-7-3-28 PP: 0/1

2nd Period-Fortier 10 (Crozier, Finley), 0:27. 3rd Period-Carlile 5 (Bisson, Goncalves), 10:20. Finley 4 (Sheary, Fortier), 15:08. Geekie 1 (Finley, Sheary), 16:39 (PP).. .. Halverson ND (11 shots-8 saves), Tomkins 7-9-4 (17 shots-15 saves). A-7,401

Friday, Feb. 14 | Game 47 at Rochester | W, 5-1

Syracuse 1 2 2 - 5 Shots: 9-12-7-28 PP: 0/4

Rochester 1 0 0 - 1 Shots: 10-5-9-24 PP: 0/3

1st Period-Finley 5 (Walford, Fortier), 6:43. 2nd Period-Duke 14 (Brown, Ylonen), 5:57. Sheary 12 (Goncalves, Pouliot), 19:26. 3rd Period-Brown 6 (Ylonen), 11:25. Brown 7 (Ylonen, Walcott), 17:56 (EN).. .. Tomkins 8-9-4 (24 shots-23 saves) A-5,846

Saturday, Feb. 15 | Game 48 at Lehigh Valley | L, 4-2

Syracuse 1 0 1 - 2 Shots: 4-5-9-18 PP: 1/4

Lehigh Valley 1 1 2 - 4 Shots: 6-6-10-22 PP: 0/1

1st Period-Pouliot 7 (Geekie, Goncalves), 19:38 (PP). 3rd Period-Goncalves 5 (Crozier, Pouliot), 18:45.. .. Halverson 12-8-7 (21 shots-18 saves) A-7,014

Category Average/Total AHL Rank (Prev)

Power Play 14.7% (25-for-170) 31st (30th)

Penalty Kill 82.2% (139-for-169) 17th (18th)

Goals For 2.71 GFA (130) 29th (31st)

Goals Against 2.65 GAA (127) 4th (4th)

Shots For 27.50 SF/G (1320) 28th (28th)

Shots Against 27.46 SA/G (1318) 9th (9th)

Penalty Minutes 11.48 PIM/G (551) 24th (23rd)

Category Leader

Points 39 Pouliot

Goals 14 Duke

Assists 32 Pouliot

PIM 52 Crozier

Plus/Minus +11 Huuhtanen

Wins 12 Halverson

GAA 2.31 Halverson

Save % .913 Halverson

North Division GP W L OTL SOL PTS PCT GF GA PIM HOME ROAD LAST 10 STREAK S/O

1. Laval 47 31 13 2 1 65 0.691 145 124 778 15-5-1-1 16-8-1-0 8-2-0-0 0-1-0-0 3-1

2. Rochester 48 30 14 3 1 64 0.667 167 133 541 10-8-2-1 20-6-1-0 7-3-0-0 0-1-0-0 3-1

3. Toronto 47 27 13 2 5 61 0.649 148 128 493 14-6-0-3 13-7-2-2 5-3-0-2 2-0-0-0 2-5

4. Cleveland 48 26 14 4 4 60 0.625 149 149 575 12-7-2-3 14-7-2-1 4-2-3-1 2-0-0-0 2-4

5. Syracuse 48 20 17 7 4 51 0.531 130 127 551 8-7-4-4 12-10-3-0 3-5-2-0 0-1-0-0 2-4

6. Belleville 44 21 16 3 4 49 0.557 127 138 595 12-8-1-2 9-8-2-2 5-3-2-0 3-0-2-0 3-4

7. Utica 46 17 23 4 2 40 0.435 118 148 624 8-10-2-2 9-13-2-0 4-4-2-0 0-2-1-0 0-2

Check out the Syracuse Crunch Statistics



American Hockey League Stories from February 18, 2025


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