Unlike their NHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch are on a bit of a heater. With a 3-2 overtime win against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and a 4-1 win over Utica on Sunday, the Crunch ran their winning streak to five games. They now trail Laval by just three points, but have three games in hand. The Crunch will look to improve on their 4-1-1 record against the Rocket on Saturday when they meet for the final time in the regular season.
According to the league’s playoff primer, the Crunch’s magic number for a playoff spot is 8 and 30 to clinch the division title. Grand Rapids and Providence are the only teams to clinch playoff spots so far in the league.
Lucas Mercuri played the hero in Friday’s game, scoring on the power play at the 3:21 mark of overtime to give the Crunch the victory. On Sunday, Ryan Fanti stopped 27-of-28 shots for his 11th win of the season while Dylan Duke scored twice to run his season total to 29. Brendan Furry also scored to pick up his fourth goal in his last five games.
With 35 wins, the Crunch are just two away from matching their total from last year.
We also just noticed that it appears the Lightning submitted paper transactions for Conor Geekie and Charle-Edouard D’Astous as they assigned them to Syracuse and then recalled them. The two players will now be eligible to play for the Crunch in the playoffs.
Other Hockey News
Brandon Hagel fined by DoPS [Raw Charge]
Better than being suspended, we guess.
Things changing quickly for Lightning, suddenly in a playoff battle [Tampa Bay Times]
As Mr. Encina points out, 17 of the final 20 games are against teams that are currently in playoff position or within five points of a spot. Most projections still have the Lightning making the playoffs comfortably, but it would be nice if they start munching some more points.
Cooper talks gold medal game, father’s death [NHL.com]
It was an emotional journey for the Lightning’s head coach as he learned of his father’s sudden passing while flying back from Milan after Canada lost in the gold medal game.
A scouting report on every notable prospect moved at the NHL trade deadline [Daily FaceOff]
As has been noted by several folks, the Lightning made it through the deadline without further depleting their thin stock of prospects. Here’s a look at some of the younglings around the league that did have to submit a change of address form to the post office.
Tristan Jarry and teammates ‘getting into it’ at practice according to reports [Oilers Nation]
Seems things are going well for the defending Western Conference champions.
NHL Awards Watch [ESPN]
The latest edition of the Worldwide Leaders’ poll has some members of the Lightning leading the way in their respective awards race. Andrei Vasilevskiy (Vezina) and Jon Cooper (Jack Adams) are the current front-runners with Nikita Kucherov among the favorites for the Hart. Will their recent slide cost them?
Nazem Kadri didn’t come back for a specific role, he came back to win a Cup [Mile High Hockey]
The Lightning weren’t the only team playing the reunion card at the deadline. Colorado brought Nazem Kadri back into the fold as they chase another Stanley Cup.
