AHL Syracuse Crunch

Syracuse Crunch Weekly

Published on January 31, 2023 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


CRUNCH STAY HOT ON THE ROAD

The Crunch capped off their three-in-three weekend with dominant back-to-back road wins in Week 16.

After dropping the opening game of the weekend at home against the Utica Comets, 1-0, the Crunch hit the road and collected a pair of wins. Saturday, the team shook their scoring funk with a 7-3 win over the Hartford Wolf Pack for the Crunch's fifth straight win at the XL Center. The next afternoon in Providence, Hugo Alnefelt made 51 saves in a 4-0 shutout win over the Bruins, their third straight win in Providence.

The Crunch have won their last five road games, and have seven wins in the last nine games (7-1-1-0) to vault into third place in the North Division. They have 46 points with a 20-14-3-3 record.

TOP PERFORMERS

Goaltender Hugo Alnefelt earned AHL Player of the Week honors for his two stellar outings in Week 16. He allowed one goal on 30 shots in a 1-0 loss to the Comets Friday. He then made a career-high 51 saves en route to a 4-0 shutout win over the Bruins. The 51 saves are the most ever made by a Crunch goaltender in a shutout performance, one better than Pascal Leclaire's 50-save blanking of Manitoba on March 6, 2004.

His 80 saves on 81 shots (.988 save percentage) over the two games resulted in his second shutout of the season. Since Dec. 10, Alnefelt is 7-1-0 with a league-best 1.51 goals-against average and .953 save percentage.

In 18 appearances this season, the Danderyd, Sweden native is 11-5-1 with a 2.20 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage.

***

Defenseman Phil Myers posted back-to-back multi-point efforts to end the week. He picked up a goal and an assist Saturday versus Hartford and then repeated that performance the next day in Providence. His goal against the Bruins was his second shorthanded goal of the season. He is the first Crunch defenseman in team history to score at least two shorthanded goals in a single season.

Myers, who turned 26 last week, has 15 points (4g, 11a) in 20 Crunch games this season. He has also skated in 11 games for Tampa Bay, adding three points (1g, 2a).

***

Gabe Fortier gobbled up four points in three games last week, highlighted by his first career three-point game Saturday at Hartford. Fortier started his night with a first period goal, which gave the Crunch a 3-1 lead. He then added a pair of assists in the second period as the team pulled away from the Wolf Pack. He followed that with a primary assist Sunday in Providence.

Fortier has 20 points (9g, 11a) in 37 games this season with nine points (3g, 6a) coming in the last 10 games.

GEARING UP FOR ALL-STAR

The AHL All-Star Classic takes place in Laval at the end of this weekend. Alex Barré-Boulet, Darren Raddysh and Gabriel Dumont will represent the Crunch, starting Sunday with the skills competition.

As the break approaches, Barré-Boulet ranks fourth in the AHL with 48 points (12g, 36a). Darren Raddysh ranks second among defensemen with 43 points (11g, 32a). Gabriel Dumont, who missed over a month with an injury, has 12 goals and 18 points in 27 games.

UPCOMING: UTICA|CHARLOTTE

After meeting four times in 12 days, the Crunch and Comets go head-to-head again tomorrow to begin Week 17. Syracuse won the first four meetings of the season series, but Utica has won the last two, including a 1-0 win in Syracuse last week. The Crunch won their only previous visit to the Adirondack Bank Center, 2-0, Jan. 20.

The Crunch head into the All-Star Break with a back-to-back set at home against the Charlotte Checkers. The Checkers (23-15-2-2), who just completed a two-game sweep at Rochester last week, have won three straight to move into third place in the Atlantic Division. The teams split a two-game set in Charlotte in November, capped by Hugo Alnefelt's first career shutout.

WEEK 16 RESULTS

Friday, January 27 | Game 38 vs. Utica | L, 1-0

Utica 0 1 0 - 1 Shots: 9-17-4-30 PP: 0/3

Syracuse 0 0 0 - 0 Shots: 11-8-4-23 PP: 0/4

Alnefelt 10-5-1 (30 shots-29 saves) A-5,960

Saturday, January 28 | Game 39 at Hartford | W, 7-3

Syracuse 3 4 0 - 7 Shots: 10-10-4-24 PP: 0/0

Charlotte 2 0 1 - 3 Shots: 8-1-6-15 PP: 2/4

1st Period-Raddysh 11 (Koepke, Edmonds), 7:26. Finley 7 (Thompson, Goncalves), 10:25. Fortier 9 (Carrick, Myers), 15:05. 2nd Period-Dumont 11 (Barré-Boulet, Fortier), 2:19. Edmonds 3 (Smith, Koepke), 5:40. Myers 3 (Smith, Balcers), 14:42. Barré-Boulet 11 (Fortier), 18:35. . . . Lagace 8-7-4 (15 shots-12 saves) A-6,780

Sunday, January 29 | Game 40 at Providence | W, 4-0

Syracuse 3 1 0 - 4 Shots: 13-9-10-32 PP: 1/5

Providence 0 0 0 - 0 Shots: 21-18-12-51 PP: 0/6

1st Period-Smith 13 (Thompson, Ryfors), 2:07. Dumont 12 (Barré-Boulet, Carrick), 5:25 (PP). Barré-Boulet 12 (Fortier, Myers), 16:23. 3rd Period-Myers 4 (Finley), 2:47 (SH). . . . Alnefelt 11-5-1 (51 shots-51 saves) A-8,735

Category Average/Total AHL Rank (Prev)

Power Play 18.5% (24-for-130) 22nd (16th)

Penalty Kill 80.4% (131-for-163) 16th (T-17th)

Goals For 3.65 GFA (146) 4th (5th)

Goals Against 3.18 GAA (127) 20th (21st)

Shots For 31.40 SF/G (1256) 8th (6th)

Shots Against 30.53 SA/G (1221) 18th (17th)

Penalty Minutes 17.15 PIM/G (686) 3rd (3rd)

Category Leader

Points 48 Barré-Boulet

Goals 15 Ryfors

Assists 36 Barré-Boulet

PIM 85 Smith

Plus/Minus +24 Carlile

Wins 11 Alnefelt

GAA 2.20 Alnefelt

Save % .929 Alnefelt

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

1. Toronto 42 29 11 1 1 60 0.714 150 131 534 11-6-0-1 18-5-1-0 8-2-0-0 0-1-0-0 3-1

2. Utica 42 22 14 5 1 50 0.595 125 123 487 11-7-2-1 11-7-3-0 5-5-0-0 0-1-0-0 1-1

3. Syracuse 40 20 14 3 3 46 0.575 146 127 686 10-6-3-1 10-8-0-2 7-2-1-0 2-0-0-0 1-3

4. Rochester 39 20 16 2 1 43 0.551 121 132 373 11-9-1-0 9-7-1-1 3-6-1-0 0-2-0-0 1-1

5. Laval 43 17 18 6 2 42 0.488 151 157 522 10-5-5-2 7-13-1-0 4-3-2-1 4-0-2-1 1-2

6. Cleveland 40 16 19 3 2 37 0.463 131 159 502 7-9-2-0 9-10-1-2 3-5-2-0 0-1-0-0 3-2

7. Belleville 42 16 22 3 1 36 0.429 133 157 669 9-11-0-1 7-11-3-0 3-6-0-1 0-2-0-0 4-1

Check out the Syracuse Crunch Statistics



American Hockey League Stories from January 31, 2023


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