Calder Cup Finals (Best-of-seven series)
Game 1: (E3) Syracuse Crunch vs. (W3) Grand Rapids Griffins
7 p.m. at War Memorial Arena, Syracuse, N.Y.

The Syracuse Crunch open up their first Calder Cup Finals series in franchise history with Game 1 Saturday at the War Memorial againt the Western Conference champion Grand Rapids Griffins. The Crunch are 11-1 in the Calder Cup Playoffs, three more wins than any of their previous postseasons, defeating the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in five games for the Eastern Conference title. The Grand Rapids Griffins, seeded third in the Western Conference, are 11-7 in the playoffs, and have won two winner-take-all games, Game 5 in the first round vs. Houston and Game 7 in the Western Conference Final against Oklahoma City.

For aditional coverage of the Calder Cup Finals, visit The AHL's preview.

Coverage
Tickets are available for Saturday and Sunday by calling the Crunch office at 315-473-4444 or online at Ticketmaster. Time Warner Cable Sports Channel broadcasts tonight's game live at 7 p.m. with Dan D'Uva calling the play-by-play (Ch. 19, HD 813). Online video is available for free on AHL Live for every game of the Calder Cup Finals. Register for free access by using the promo code CALDER2013.

Listen to live play-by-play on The Score 1260 and iHeartRadio with pregame coverage starting at 6:45 p.m. The radio broadcast will also be carried by SiriusXM NHL Network (XM 92 & Sirius 207). After the game, join Dan D'Uva and a guest in the War Memorial basement for “The Shootout Show” airing on The Score 1260. For in-game updates on Twitter, follow @SyracuseCrunch and broadcaster @Dan_Duva. For post-game recap, visit SyracuseCrunch.com and join the conversation on Facebook. 

Scouting Report
The Griffins are led by left wing Tomas Tatar (11g-5a-16pts), right wing Tomas Jurco (7g-6a-13pts), and center Luke Glendening (5g-8a-13pts).  Jurco has goals in three straight games, and points in four-in-a-row. Regular season leading scorer, Gustav Nyquist rejoined the team after a playoff stint with the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL.  He has two points in four playoff games with the Griffins.  Grand Rapids also got Joakim Andersson and Danny DeKeyser from the Red Wings.  In goal, Petr Mrazek has played in all 18 games for the Griffins, posting an 11-7 record with a 2.18 goals against average and a .921 save percentage.  The rookie has four shutouts, including a pair in the Western Conference Final against the Barons.

With an 11-1 record this season, Cedrick Desjardins has set a new record for goalie wins in one postseason. 11 victories during the 2013 postseason is a Crunch franchise best. The previous best was 1996 when Syracuse was 8-8, losing to Rochester in the Conference Final, 4-1. Mike Fountain's eight victories in '96 was the previous mark.

With a win last Saturday, the Crunch moved to 43-42 in their Calder Cup Playoff history, and are above .500 during postseason play for the first time since their first postseason in 1996.

14 Crunch players had at least two points against the Pens in the Conference Finals. Mark Barberio led the Crunch with six points, including three assists in the Game 5 clincher. He's now second among defensemen in playoff scoring, with ten points.  Tyler Johnson has points in back-to-back games.  It's the first time he's registered points in two straight games since scoring points in six straight games to start the playoffs.

Vlad Namestnikov has a three-game scoring streak (2g, 1a) for the first time in his professional career. He scored his first playoff goal to open the scoring in ECF Game 3, May 29 in Wilkes-Barre. That marker stood as the game-winner, the first of Namestnikov's pro career. The rookie had 21 points (7g, 14a) in 44 regular season games.

With two assists in Game 5 against W-B/Scranton, Ondrej Palat extended his league lead in postseason scoring at 20 points. Palat's 15 postseason assists are also tops in the league.

Andrej Sustr also had three assists Saturday in Game 5, his first career three-point effort. A feat not accomplished since May 5, 2008 when Zenon Konopka registered three assists (and a goal), the 2013 Crunch have five times equaled the franchise record of three assists by one player in a playoff game: Palat, Apr. 27; Taormina, May 2; Palat, May 11; Barberio and Sustr, June 1.

ECF Game 5: Crunch blow past Penguins into the Calder Cup Final
Philippe Paradis registered a hat trick and Cedrick Desjardins posted his second shutout of the series as the Crunch beat the Penguins 7-0 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final. The win was the largest in Crunch playoff history and it sent them into the Calder Cup Final for the first time in franchise history, winning the series four games to one.

Vladislav Namestnikov started the scoring 16:04 into the first period, banging in a loose puck past Jeff Zatkoff.  Then just 52 seconds later, Radko Gudas wristed one from the right point that beat Zatkoff for a 2-0 lead. The Crunch would keep the pressure on the Penguins and Philippe Paradis would pot his first goal of the playoffs with a wrap-around goal in the second period. Then Dan Sexton and Ondrej Palat scored later in the period to bump the lead to 5-0.

In the third period, Paradis continued his offensive explosion by scoring his second of the game on a snap shot from the right circle. Less than five minutes later, he completed the hat trick with another quick wrist shot.  It was his first career hat trick and just his second profession multi-goal game. Cedrick Desjardins stopped 23 shots for his third shutout of the playoffs, and his second of the series, as the Crunch rolled to the 7-0 win and the Richard F. Canning Trophy as Eastern Conference Champions.