As the Tampa Bay Lightning continue to push toward the playoffs, their American Hockey League (AHL) counterpart, the Syracuse Crunch, are doing the same. They currently sit in second place in the North Division with 63 points. The Crunch are five points behind the division-leading Cleveland Monsters, with a game in hand, and find themselves with the fourth-best record in the conference. There have been some standout performers on the Crunch this season, with a few of them even seeing some action with the Lightning.
With the Lightning dealing with injuries and players that are not meeting expectations, a few young talents, like Emil Lilleberg, have made the jump to the NHL and have been able to stay afloat. With how things are going in Syracuse, there is reason to believe that there might be a few more prospects that can do the same. By all accounts, this has been a great season for the Crunch, both in their on-ice performances as well as their ability to help prospects become NHL-caliber players.
Season Overview
As previously mentioned, the Crunch are in second place in their division and look primed for the playoffs. How have they been in the first two months of the new year? In January, they went an impressive 8-2. They started the month off strong with back-to-back wins over the Toronto Marlies in the form of 6-3 and 4-3 victories, respectively. The Springfield Thunderbirds bested the Crunch on Jan. 12, but they did not lose again until Jan. 27. During that time, they were able to obtain five straight wins. What is even better is that they were able to beat the conference’s third-best team, the Monsters, and the second-best team, the Providence Bruins. After having their winning streak snapped on Jan. 27, the Crunch quickly bounced back with a 2-1 win over the Rochester Americans on Jan. 31.
February was not quite as strong, as the Crunch finished the month with a 5-5 record. The Belleville Senators had their way with the Crunch and beat them on back-to-back nights at the start of the month. They also handed them an additional loss on Feb. 14, which means that three of the five losses the Crunch had in the month of February were at the hands of the same divisional opponent. On a much better note, they picked up three wins over the Americans last month, who are also divisional opponents. The other two wins were a 2-1 win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Feb. 17 and a 2-1 victory against the…
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