Syracuse Crunch wins in shutout home opener
Syracuse Crunch wins in shutout home opener
The team is starting 3-0 for the first time since 2023.
The Syracuse Crunch defeated the Rochester Americans in its season home opener at Upstate Medical University Arena in a 3-0 shutout on Saturday night.
The team returned to the Salt City after two wins away against the Hershey Bears in Pennsylvania and was ready for a fight. Both the Crunch and the Americans played a very physical game.
Though the Crunch seemed to get the better of the Americans, they dished out multiple major hits, setting the tone for the game early in the first. That physicality fueled tensions to flare in the second, where a fight broke out between Crunch forward Cooper Flinton and Amerks defenseman Radim Mrtka, sending both to the box.
Syracuse opened up the scoring with two unanswered goals in the second period and tacked on No. 3 late in the third.
They did, though, leave multiple net front chances on the table, especially in the first period. Defenseman Matteo Pietroniro notched two of those goals for the Crunch.
Rochester was unable to score because of the excellent goaltending by Brandon Halverson, who got his first start of the season and finished with 31 saves. He had multiple impressive efforts, saving several high-danger scoring chances, which earned him the first star of the game.
Special teams were not a factor in Saturdayās game. Neither team could convert on their power play attempts. The Crunch failed to convert on three of their attempts, while the Amerks couldnāt on their two attempts.
Head coach Joel Bouchard said that for the rest of the season, the team needs to earn more chances to score in Power Play.
āWe had a few good looks that we like, scoring chances that we liked, just didnāt have enough of them,ā Bouchard said.
The Crunch will hit the road on Wednesday to play the Americans on the teamās home ice in Rochester at 7:05 p.m.
is a contributor for The NewsHouse.
is a contributor for The NewsHouse.