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AHL Syracuse Crunch

Syracuse Crunch Weekly

January 29, 2019 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


LAST WEEK

Fri., Jan. 25 - Crunch vs. Springfield - W, 6-1

Sat., Jan. 26 - Crunch vs. Rochester - W, 4-3 (OT)

THIS WEEK

Fri., Feb. 1 - Crunch vs. Utica - 7 p.m.

Sat., Feb. 2 - Crunch vs. Cleveland - 7 p.m.

CRUNCH PUSH WIN STREAK TO FOUR

The Crunch entered the AHL All-Star Break on a four-game winning streak after collecting two wins in Week 17. It's the third time this season that Syracuse has gone on a winning streak of at least four games; the Crunch's season-long winning streak is seven games (Nov. 11-24).

The Crunch opened Week 17 with a 6-1 win over the Springfield Thunderbirds Friday night at the War Memorial Arena. Syracuse scored four goals in the third period to run away with the win and win the season series against the T-Birds with three wins in four games. Saturday's match with the Rochester Americans pitted the top two teams in the North Division. The Crunch trailed 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2, but Carter Verhaeghe's hat trick led them to a 4-3 overtime win for their first win of the season against the Amerks.

Syracuse concludes a six-game homestand this weekend with matches against Utica and Cleveland.

TOP PERFORMERS

After being held scoreless in Friday's 6-1 win over Springfield, Carter Verhaeghe was the catalyst in the Crunch's comeback, overtime victory over the Rochester Americans Saturday night. The 23-year-old scored a goal late in the first period to tie the game 1-1 and assisted on Jan Rutta's goal in the third period to make it 2-2, but his heroics came late. He forced overtime with an equalizer at 18:33 of the third period and then completed his first career hat trick nine seconds into overtime to give the Crunch a 4-3 win.

The hat trick was a part of his first career four-point game and gives Verhaeghe 20 goals for the first time in his career. His 48 points in 41 games match his career-high, set in 58 games last year, and place him second overall in the AHL in scoring. In 21 home games this season, Verhaeghe has 32 points (16g, 16a).

It was the first Crunch hat trick since Gabriel Dumont's three-goal performance against Rochester in Game 1 of the North Division Semifinals April 20, 2018.

***

Jan Rutta made his Crunch debut last week and logged four points (2g, 2a) over two games, which included a pair of multi-point efforts. He scored a goal in the first period Friday against Springfield by first making a defensive play in the Crunch's zone and then leading a rush up ice before firing home a right circle shot; the goal stood as the game-winning goal. The next night the 28-year-old tied the game 36 seconds into the third period and then picked up the primary assist on Carter Verhaeghe's tying goal later in the third.

The defenseman was acquired by the Tampa Bay Lightning Jan. 11 from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Slater Koekkoek. The righty-shooting defenseman has eight points (3g, 5a) in 10 AHL games this season between Syracuse and Rockford. He also has 26 points (8g, 18a) in 80 NHL games-all with the Blackhawks-over the last two seasons.

***

ALL-STAR REPS

Cory Conacher, Connor Ingram and head coach Ben Groulx helped lead the North Division All-Star team to its second-consecutive All-Star Challenge championship. Conacher registered four shots on goal and Ingram made 12 saves on 15 shots during the 3-on-3 tournament. In the championship game, Ingram turned aside three of four Atlantic Division shootout attempts to earn the win for the North.

UPCOMING: UTICA, CLEVELAND

The Crunch wrap up a six-game homestand with two North Division matches out of the All-Star Break in Week 18.

First up for the Crunch is the seventh head-to-head match with the Utica Comets. The Comets have won four of the six matches so far, including three straight-all in Utica-following a 10-1 Crunch win over the Comets Dec. 28 in the last meeting between the clubs in Syracuse. The teams are separated by two points in the North Division, with Syracuse ahead of Utica despite playing five fewer games than the Comets. The Comets (23-18-3-2) are led by AHL All-Star Reid Boucher, who has 41 points (19g, 22a) in 34 games; six points (1g, 5a) have come in six games against the Crunch.

The Crunch finish off the homestand with their final regular-season matchup against the Cleveland Monsters. The teams split a weekend set in Cleveland Nov. 30-Dec. 1 and the Monsters downed the Crunch in a shootout in Syracuse Jan. 11. The Crunch have collected a point in all three games (1-0-1-1) against Cleveland this season. The Monsters (21-17-4-1) sit in fifth place in the North Division with 47 points; they trail Toronto by three points for the final playoff spot. Cleveland comes out of the All-Star Break with a four-game road trip. The Monsters are in Wilkes-Barre Friday night before traveling to Syracuse Saturday. A two-game set in Charlotte follows next week.

WEEK 17 RESULTS

Friday, January 25 | Game 40 vs. Springfield | W, 6-1

Springfield 1 0 0 - 1 Shots: 7-11-11-29 PP: 1/6

Syracuse 2 0 4 - 6 Shots: 9-8-10-27 PP: 1/5

1st Period-Katchouk 7 (Dumont, Raddysh), 4:18. Rutta 2 (Unassisted), 11:38. 3rd Period-Raddysh 12 (Katchouk, Dumont), 4:17. Volkov 11 (Conacher, Brassart), 10:30. Barré-Boulet 21 (Conacher, Rutta), 11:31 (PP). Brassart 2 (Volkov, Pasquale), 16:10 (SH). . . . Pasquale 14-8-3 (29 shots-18 saves). A-5,111

Saturday, January 26 | Game 41 vs. Rochester | W, 4-3 (OT)

Rochester 1 1 1 0 - 3 Shots: 13-8-4-0-25 PP: 1/4

Syracuse 1 0 2 1 - 4 Shots: 6-4-20-1-31 PP: 0/3

1st Period-Verhaeghe 18 (Gaunce), 19:28. 3rd Period-Rutta 3 (Barré-Boulet, Verhaeghe), 0:36. Verhaeghe 19 (Rutta, Gaunce), 18:33. Verhaeghe 20 (Unassisted), 0:09. . . . Ingram 10-5-0 (25 shots-22 saves). A-6,257

Category Average/Total AHL Rank (Prev)

Power Play 23.0% (44-for-191) 3rd (3rd)

Penalty Kill 82.2% (166-for-202) 11th (10th)

Goals For 3.76 GFA (154) 1st (1st)

Goals Against 2.76 GAA (113) 3rd (3rd)

Shots For 29.05 SF/G (1191) 20th (19th)

Shots Against 28.44 SA/G (1166) 10th (11th)

Penalty Minutes 14.27 PIM/G (585) 8th (9th)

Category Leader

Points 48 Verhaeghe

Goals 21 Barré-Boulet

Assists 29 Conacher

PIM 74 Andreoff

Plus/Minus +16 Gaunce

Wins 14 Pasquale

GAA 2.49 Ingram

Save % 0.918 Ingram

Single game tickets and packages for the 2018-19 season are on sale now and can be purchased in person at the Crunch office located inside the War Memorial Arena at 800 S. State St. in Syracuse, by calling the office at 315-473-4444 or online through Ticketmaster. For the latest Crunch news, visit www.syracusecrunch.com or follow the club on Facebook (www.facebook.com/syracusecrunch), Twitter (@SyracuseCrunch) and Instagram (@syracusecrunch) using #SyrCrunch.

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