AHL Syracuse Crunch

Syracuse Crunch Weekly

February 7, 2023 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Syracuse Crunch News Release


CRUNCH IN GOOD SPOT AT ALL-STAR BREAK

The AHL All-Star Break has come and gone with the Crunch in third place in the North Division following a 1-1-1-0 Week 17.

The Crunch kicked off the week in Utica to face the Comets last Wednesday. Syracuse scored three third period goals and eventually prevailed in a seven-round shootout to defeat the Comets, 4-3, for a third straight win. The Crunch came home for a weekend set against the Charlotte Checkers. The Crunch scored twice late in the third period to force overtime before falling in overtime in the opener, 5-4. They then saw the Checkers pull away in the third period the next night in a 5-3 loss.

The Crunch have just two regulation losses in the last 12 games (8-2-2-0) and they are 21-15-4-3 this season, good for 49 points.

TOP PERFORMERS

Crunch leading scorer Alex Barré-Boulet once again powered the team in Week 17. The two-time AHL All-Star netted six points, including a goal in all three games last week. He also factored on all four goals of the Crunch's 5-4 overtime loss against the Checkers on Friday.

Barré-Boulet has matched his career high with a goal in five straight games (also March 26-April 10, 2021). The longest streak by an AHL player this season is six games by Calgary's Jakob Pelletier in November.

His goal Saturday was the 100th in his AHL/Crunch career, becoming the third player with 100 goals in a Crunch sweater; the record is Mark Hartigan's 107. Barré-Boulet is third overall in scoring this season with 54 points (15g, 39a) in 41 games.

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Gabriel Dumont picked up three points over three games last week to finish second on the Crunch in Week 17. Dumont earned one assist in Wednesday's win over the Comets before grabbing another two in Friday's overtime loss versus the Checkers. That was just the second multi-point game of the season for the Crunch captain, who has nabbed at least one point in 11 of the last 14 games heading into the All-Star Break.

Dumont has 21 points (12g, 9a) in 30 games this season.

ALL-STARS SHINE IN LAVAL

The Crunch's three AHL All-Star representatives-Alex Barré-Boulet, Gabriel Dumont and Darren Raddysh-performed admirably at the AHL All-Star Classic in Laval Sunday and Monday.

The trio helped the Eastern Conference win the 2023 Rona AHL All-Star Skills Competition Sunday night. Alex Barré-Boulet won a 1-on-1 battle with T.J. Tynan in the Puck Control Relay. Darren Raddysh took home the hardest shot with a 102.0 miles per hour blast.

The moment of the night, however, was when Dumont's son, Mateo, took his dad's place in the Breakaway Relay and scored on San Diego's Lukas Dostal to earn a point.

In the All-Star Challenge last night, which featured a round robin tournament of 3-on-3 competition, Darren Raddysh tied for the North Division lead with two goals.

UPCOMING: LAVAL|ROCHESTER

The Crunch come out of the All-Star Break with a visit to where it was held-Laval-to square off against the Rocket. The Crunch, who lost a pair of games at Place Bell at the end of December, are 0-6-2-0 in their last eight regular season games at Laval. With a 5-2-2-1 record in the last 10 games, the Rocket occupy the final North Division playoff spot at the All-Star Break.

Syracuse returns home to complete the back-to-back when Rochester visits Saturday night. The Amerks snapped a three-game losing streak with a win in the last game before the break, but that has dropped Rochester to fourth place with 45 points. The Amerks have won four of six meetings with the Crunch this season, including two of the three in Syracuse.

WEEK 17 RESULTS

Wednesday, February 1 | Game 41 at Utica | W, 4-3 (SO)

Syracuse 0 0 3 0 1 - 4 Shots: 6-8-8-2-1-25 PP: 1/3

Utica 1 0 2 0 0 - 3 Shots: 6-12-10-2-0-30 PP: 1/6

3rd Period-Raddysh 12 (Unassisted), 2:20. Barré-Boulet 13 (Dumont, Smith), 5:11 (PP). Carrick 6 (Myers, Usau), 6:20. Shootout-Syracuse 2 (Goncalves NG, Dureau G, Smith NG, Ryfors NG, Barré-Boulet NG, Koepke NG, Edmonds G), Utica 1 (Clarke NG, Dugan NG, Stevens G, Thompson NG, Walsh NG, Senyshyn NG, Schmelzer NG). Alnefelt 12-5-1 (30 shots-27 saves) A-3,917

Friday, February 3 | Game 42 vs. Charlotte | OTL, 5-4

Charlotte 3 0 1 1 - 5 Shots: 13-13-15-1-42 PP: 0/3

Syracuse 1 0 3 0 - 4 Shots: 14-11-12-1-38 PP: 1/5

1st Period-Myers 5 (Barré-Boulet, Balcers), 12:27. 3rd Period-Barré-Boulet 14 (Dumont, Goncalves), 3:07. Ryfors 17 (Dumont, Barré-Boulet), 17:08 (PP). Goncalves 9 (Barré-Boulet, Smith), 19:21. . . . Lagace 8-7-5 (42 shots-37 saves) A-4,355

Saturday, February 4 | Game 43 vs. Charlotte | L, 5-3

Charlotte 2 0 3 - 5 Shots: 12-3-10-25 PP: 0/2

Syracuse 1 1 1 - 3 Shots: 10-8-15-33 PP: 0/3

1st Period-Barré-Boulet 15 (Ryfors), 2:05. 2nd Period-Ryfors 17 (Balcers, Koepke), 2:51. 3rd Period-Thompson 5 (Koepke, Usau), 16:04. . . . Alnefelt 12-6-1 (24 shots-20 saves) A-6,143

Category Average/Total AHL Rank (Prev)

Power Play 18.4% (26-for-141) 21st (22nd)

Penalty Kill 81.0% (141-for-174) 14th (16th)

Goals For 3.65 GFA (157) 4th (4th)

Goals Against 3.26 GAA (140) 21st (20th)

Shots For 31.44 SF/G (1352) 7th (8th)

Shots Against 30.65 SA/G (1318) 19th (18th)

Penalty Minutes 16.72 PIM/G (719) 3rd (3rd)

Category Leader

Points 54 Barré-Boulet

Goals 17 Ryfors

Assists 39 Barré-Boulet

PIM 89 Smith

Plus/Minus +25 Carlile

Wins 12 Alnefelt

GAA 2.34 Alnefelt

Save % .923 Alnefelt

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

1. Toronto 44 30 12 1 1 62 0.705 157 139 551 12-7-0-1 18-5-1-0 7-3-0-0 0-1-0-0 3-1

2. Utica 45 22 16 5 2 51 0.567 132 135 518 11-8-2-2 11-8-3-0 3-6-0-1 0-3-0-1 1-2

3. Syracuse 43 21 15 4 3 49 0.570 157 140 719 10-7-4-1 11-8-0-2 6-2-2-0 0-1-1-0 2-3

4. Rochester 41 21 17 2 1 45 0.549 129 141 414 11-9-1-0 10-8-1-1 3-6-1-0 1-0-0-0 1-1

5. Laval 45 18 19 6 2 44 0.489 159 164 543 10-5-5-2 8-14-1-0 5-2-2-1 1-0-0-0 1-2

6. Cleveland 42 17 20 3 2 39 0.464 135 163 523 8-10-2-0 9-10-1-2 4-5-1-0 0-1-0-0 3-2

7. Belleville 44 17 22 4 1 39 0.443 142 165 726 10-11-1-1 7-11-3-0 2-6-1-1 1-0-1-0 4-1

Check out the Syracuse Crunch Statistics



American Hockey League Stories from February 7, 2023


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