The Syracuse Crunch’s solid defensive start to the season continued as they split a home-and-home series with the WBS Penguins over the weekend. Brandon Halverson picked up his second shutout of the season in their 2-0 win on Friday, while they fell just a goal short on Saturday in a 3-2 loss. They finish off the first month of the season with a 4-3 record and in third place in the North Division, five points behind Toronto, who have yet to lose in regulation.
With all of the new faces in the line-up it’s a little surprising that their defense has been as staunch as it has been early on in the season. Through seven games their 1.71 goals against ranks second in the league while Halverson’s 0.34 GAA in three games played leads the league. It’s such a hot start for him that he actually has more shutouts (2) than goals allowed (1) early in the season. Matt Tomkins has been solid as well with a 2.72 GAA and .908% SV% in his four starts.
The goaltending prowess has helped offset an offense that is still trying to find itself. The Crunch are averaging 2.57 goals per game, which is 21st in the league at this point. They have been led by a couple of rookies as Dylan Duke has 6 points (3 goals, 3 assists) in his first 7 games while Gabriel Szturc has 5 assists in his 7 games. Duke is proving to be exactly what he was in college, a feisty forward who is going to score the bulk of his goals from within five feet of the net.
The sight of Duke picking himself up off the ice following a goal will become awfully familiar to Crunch and Lightning fans as his career progresses.
Going into the season, the question of where the goals were going to come from was the biggest one for Syracuse. They had 85 goals walk out of the door in free agency over the summer and were relying on some very young players to replace that offense. Add some injuries to the mix early on and it’s not surprising that scoring goals has been a little bit of an issue.
There is a little sunshine hiding behind those dark clouds, though. First off, they’ve managed to pick up six points in games where they’ve scored two or fewer goals. Having listened to Jon Cooper talk about three goals being the magic number for wins over the last decade, the fact that the Crunch have been able to secure points in three of the five games where they didn’t hit that mark could be huge for them later in the season. It’s going to be a tough sludge through the North Division (as usual) and getting those points in games will pay off later.
Second, they are starting to get healthy. While they didn’t pull off the win on Saturday against the Baby Penguins, there were two welcome faces in the line-up. Gage Goncalves (who returned to action on Friday) and Logan Brown both skated for the Crunch. A few days later, Gabe Fortier was placed on waivers by the Lightning, indicating that he is healthy enough to return to the line-up. While he hasn’t appeared in a game just yet, Conor Sheary was also added to the roster after he cleared waivers last week.
All of those players should help boost the offense once they’re comfortable in the new line-up. With the addition of forwards, Gemel Smith was released from his PTO on Monday. The veteran had been on the top line to start the season, and had 4 points (1 goal, 3 assists) in 7 games, so hopefully that performance will allow him to sign a deal with another team. It is kind of surprising that he would be released at this point considering his production and the style of game he plays.
There will likely be a few more moves over the next week or so, as Joel Bouchard figures out his best combination of players. There are still a few players waiting to return as Jack Finley remains on injured reserve in Tampa while Gabriel Dumont and Daniel Walcott are still about a month away from their scheduled return.
The Crunch are still finding their identity, but early on they are showing themselves to be a hardworking team who is going to have to give a full effort every night to pick up victories. They’ve really only had one truly bad game so far this season – the Alex Barré-Boulet revenge game – so with all things considered, it’s a pretty good start for them.
Syracuse will be home for the weekend as they welcome in Hartford (3-2-0-1) and Belleville (3-1-0-2) on Friday and Saturday.
