Game 14: Syracuse Crunch (6-4-3-0) at Hershey Bears
7 p.m., War Memorial Arena, Syracuse, N.Y.
 
The Crunch look to secure points in their sixth-straight game tonight against the Hershey Bears at the War Memorial. The Crunch are 3-0-2-0 in their last five games, and have not lost in regulation since Oct. 31, 2014, two weeks ago, when Syracuse fell 3-0 at home against the Rochester Americans. Since the Rochester game, Syracuse has scored at least three goals in every contest.
 
Broadcast Coverage
Countdown to Crunch Time at 6:45 p.m. 
Radio: ESPN Radio 97.7 FM, 1200 AM Syracuse; 100.1 FM, 1440 AM Oswego | Listen Live | 
Mobile: Free audio on your mobile device with the TuneIn App 
Streaming: Pay-to-watch video on AHL LIve.com and on your mobile device with the AHL Live App
 
Last Time Out 
Tanner Richard's shootout winner propelled Syracuse to a 3-2 win in Albany on Wednesday night. The Crunch won the first game of the season against their new division rival. The win was the first for Syracuse in a shootout since November 6, 2013.
 
Albany opened the scoring just 1:06 into the first. Scott Timmins scored his fifth goal of the season off a feed from Paul Thompson. Timmins and Thompson are tied for the Devils' lead in points with thirteen a piece. Syracuse tied up the score 4:49 into the first. Yanni Gourde scored his third goal of the season unassisted. The Crunch took the lead 2:52 into the second. Joel Vermin potted his fourth goal of the season, with assists coming from Jake Dotchin and Jonathan Marchessault. Marchessault leads the team in points with twelve. It was Albany's turn to tie up the score 2:44 into the third. Tim Sestito fired in his third goal of the season off the helper from Reece Scarlett. The point was Scarlett's first of the season. The game remained tied up until the shootout, where Gourde and Richard scored the goals that proved to be difference.
 
Kristers Gudlevskis notched his fifth win of the season, stopping 20 of 22 Albany shots. Scott Wedgewood took the loss, stopping 23 of 25 Syracuse shots. The two teams next skate against each other on December 20th at the War Memorial.
  
Marchessault Rolling
Syracuse points leader Jonathan Marchessault extended his point streak to five games with an assist against Albany in Wednesday's 3-2 shootout victory. Marchessault has 12 points this season, five more than Joel Vermin, Yanni Gourde, and Cedric Paquette. The 5-9. 177 pound forward has points in 10 of the 12 games he's played so far in 2014-15.  Going back to last season, Marchessault has 20 points his last 19 games. 
 
Marchessault's five-game point streak is his Crunch career high and the fourth time in his four-season AHL career  the winger has had at least a five-game run. He has also had a six-game point streak, and a seven-game point streak in his career. Two seasons ago, Marchessault set his career high with points in seven-straight games from Jan. 6, 2013 – Jan. 20, 2013 while with the Springfield Falcons. Marchessault finished the season tied for fifth sixth in the AHL with 67 points.   

Smith Scoring Steady
Dalton Smith's big weekend, four goals in two games, moved him to the team lead for goals, six. It started Saturday night with two third-period goals in the Crunch's come-from-behind, 5-4 win against Norfolk. He followed up with two more goals in Wilkes-Barre, including the game-tying, power-play goal to force overtime.
 
Saturday night marked his first career multi-point and multi-goal game, and Sunday's repeat outburst moved him within three goals of the AHL lead.?Smith already has more goals this season than either of his first two as a pro. The 2010 second-round pick has the same number of goals his first nine games of this season that he had the previous two seasons combined (2g in 2013-14, 4g in 2012-13) in 69 games played.
Smith is facing two other top-ten goal scorers Friday in Hershey's Kris Newbury (8g) and Casey Wellman (7g).
 
Bear Hunting
Hershey is second in the East Division and seventh in the Eastern Conference at 7-5-1-0. The Bears have lost four of five November contests after a six-win October.
 
Kris Newbury leads Hershey and the AHL in points (18). He scored his seventh and eighth goals of the season in a 4-2 win Saturday against Hartford, helping the Bears to a plus-11 goal differential.
 
Pheonix Copley and Philipp Grubauer have split minutes for the Bears in net this season. Copley played in Hershey's most recent game against Hartford, a 4-2 loss. In five games this season, Copley is 3-2 with a 1.97 goals against average, and a .920 save percentage. Grubauer is 4-3-1 in eight games with a 2.39 goals against average, and a .908 save percentage.
 
The Bears play their tenth road game of the season Friday and are 4-4-1-0 on the season, scoring three goals per game on the road, and allowing opponents 2.6 goals per game. In 13 games, they've scored the first goal 10 times, and are 6-3-1 when scoring first. 

Special Teams
After an 0-7 effort Wednesday against Albany, Syracuse is 5-62 on the power play, 28th in the league (8.1%). Hershey is 10-58 on the power play, 14th in the league (17.2%). The Crunch are 44 for 55 on the penalty kill, 23rd in the league (80%).The Bears are 48 for 54 on the penalty kill, 3rd in the league (89%). Syracuse has allowed the most shorthanded goals in the league (5), while Hershey has allowed just one.