How to follow the Syracuse Crunch in the AHL playoffs

The hunt begins anew for the Syracuse Crunch’s first Calder Cup tonight.

Although Syracuse has home ice advantage thanks in part to their capture of the North Division championship last weekend, travel to St. John’s is complicated so the series is starting in Newfoundland. The team bused as a whole to Toronto this past Tuesday, and then different parts of the organization took two different flights to The Rock. They gathered back together as a group in time for an abbreviated practice Wednesday:

Practice in Newfoundland for #SyrCrunch. Three goalies and 23 skaters on the trip. Game 1 Friday at 6 p.m. ET. pic.twitter.com/dXjKJIpeqZ

— Dan D'Uva (@Dan_DUva) April 19, 2017

There’s many different ways that fans new and old can keep up with the Crunch during their time in St. John’s.

If you’re prepping for the game:

• You can’t miss Raw Charge’s own CrunchCast if you’re looking for our homegrown opinion of the series.
• Be sure to check out Brandon Curtis’ playoff preview article.
• Brandon also guest-starred over at Eyes on the Prize to answer some questions about the series from the Syracuse perspective (St. John’s is Montreal’s farm team).
• Speaking of Eyes on the Prize, their writer Scott Matla hopped on over here earlier this week to tell about the series from the IceCaps’ perspective.
• The Crunch’s SoundCloud has been filling up with all kinds of great stuff lately, including interviews with former Tampa Bay Lightning players Jake Dotchin and Gabriel Dumont.
• You can find coverage from the team’s beat writer and others, including our friend Brent Axe, over at Syracuse.com./

Team Comparison Chart:

The Crunch have been a much better team this season at controlling the game. They have a much higher share of the shots on goal than their opponents. If they get solid goaltending, they should be the better team in this series.

Game night essentials:

• First, be aware that St. John’s is ahead of EST, so game time is at 6 EST.
• The pre-game radio broadcast with Dan D’Uva will start at 5:45 EST on ESPN Syracuse. You can listen to the game in its entirety for free.
• AHL Live has special playoff pricing deals for every game of the AHL playoffs, as well as team-specific packages. There’s also a pay-per-view option.
• Be sure to follow the team on Twitter for updates if you’re away from other options. /

The 2016-17 season was one like no other, but now it’s time for the North Division champions to look forward towards another, bigger goal. Let’s #FIN15H what we’ve started!