The Syracuse Crunch ran their season-opening winning streak to three games before dropping Saturday night’s contest to the Cleveland Monsters, 4-2. A combination of solid goaltending and timely scoring have them off to one of their best starts in recent memory. Throw in a very productive power play (26.3%) and a stingy penalty kill (94.7%) and it’s no wonder they sit atop the North Division with 6 points after 4 games.
Hugo Alnefelt was stellar in his second start as he stopped all 35 shots he faced on Friday night and now has a .966 SV% and a 1.00 GAA at this early stage. Offensively the team is spreading things out with 13 different players having multiple points through 4 games. At the top of the stat board is Felix Robert with 4 goals and 1 assist. The Crunch may have made the signing of the year in Mitchell Chaffee who has 4 assists in 4 games. Scoring has never been a problem for the 25-year-old, who has 67 points (30 goals, 37 assists) in 91 career AHL games, it’s staying healthy.
With Pytor Kochetkov in Carolina, Evan Fitzpatrick was recalled from Orlando to make a start and he stopped 23 of 27. Goals from Robert and Shawn Element weren’t enough as Cleveland handed the Crunch their first loss of the season, 4-2.
It’s another relatively light week for Syracuse as they have homes games against Utica on Friday and Laval on Saturday.
Syracuse Crunch 5, Cleveland Monsters 0
Gabriel Dumont (Mitchell Chaffee, Sean Day) Power Play
Felix Robert (Gage Goncalves, Mitchell Chaffee)
Daniel Walcott (Gabriel Fortier) Shorthanded
Cole Koepke (Gabriel Dumont, Emil Lilleberg)
Max Groshev (Tristan Allard, Jack Thompson) Power Play
Cleveland Monsters 4, Syracuse Crunch 2
Felix Robert (Joe Carroll, Lucas Edmonds)
Shawn Element (Tristan Allard, Daniel Walcott)
