Crunch face Senators for seventh time
The Crunch (25-14-2-2) return to the War Memorial Arena tonight to face the Belleville Senators (18-23-0-3). Syracuse is 4-0-1-1 against Belleville this season and has outscored the Senators 27-14 in those matchups. The teams last met Jan. 17 at Yardmen Arena, where the Senators snapped the Crunch's nine-game winning streak with a 2-1 overtime win. 
 
Last time out
Crunch rookies led Syracuse to a 3-2 victory over the Laval Rocket on Wednesday at Place Bell. The Crunch dressed a season-high 10 rookies, plus two players making their Crunch debut. The average age for the team was 21.5 years old. 
 
Rocket forward Nikita Scherbak opened the scoring in the first period with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle with under a minute to play in the period.
 
The Crunch scored three consecutive goals, beginning in the second period when Mitchell Stephens forced a turnover down low and found fellow rookie Dennis Yan in the slot. Yan went upstairs with a wrist-shot to tie the game with a 4-on-4 goal. Later in the period, with the Crunch on the power play, Stephens won a right-circle faceoff back to Mathieu Joseph, who ripped a shot on net that was kicked aside. Anthony Cirelli pounced on the rebound to collect his seventh goal of the year.
 
Just under three minutes into the third period, it was the red-hot Stephens again, tapping home a pass from a streaking Joseph. 
 
The Rocket cut the lead to one as Daniel Audette scored from the left circle with just 1:10 left on the clock.
 
Goaltender Connor Ingram stopped 22 of 25 shots for his 11th win of the season, snapping a three-game Crunch skid.
 
Scouting the Crunch
Mitchell Stephens recorded his second three-point game of the season Wednesday, scoring a goal and adding two assists at Laval. The rookie, who was named a North Division All-Star Thursday, has 14 points (9g, 5a) in his last 11 games. Stephens also leads the Crunch with 15 goals this season.
 
Mathieu Joseph had two assists in Wednesday's win at Laval, his sixth multi-point game this season. The 20-year-old had one point (an assist) in his previous four games. Joseph is second on the team with 28 points (8g, 20a) this season, but leads active players. Only Matthew Peca—currently with the Tampa Bay Lightning—has more points with 31 (8g, 23a).
 
Syracuse owns the best home record (12-5-1-0) in the North Division. The Crunch have lost twice in their last 12 home games dating back to Nov. 11. During that stretch, Syracuse is outscoring its opponents at home 45-30. Last season, the Crunch held the best home record in the North Division during the regular season (23-9-2-4). Syracuse also won 11 of its 12 home games during last season's Calder Cup Playoffs, outscoring opponents 54-27 in the process.  
 
Stephens named AHL All-Star
Rookie forward Mitchell Stephens was named an AHL All-Star yesterday to replace Crunch forward Matthew Peca, who is currently on recall with Tampa Bay.
 
Stephens is third among Crunch rookies and 16th overall among AHL rookies with 25 points (15g, 10a). After logging five points (2g, 3a) in the first 19 games of the season, the first-time AHL All-Star has 20 points (13g, 7a) in the last 23 games since Dec. 1. He is tied for the second-most points on the Crunch over that span.  
   
Scouting the Senators
Belleville enters Friday with a 18-23-0-3 record (.443 points percentage), good for sixth in the seven-team North Division. The Sens own the worst road record in the North Division at 7-12-0-3 (.386 points percentage). They started 4-4-0-1 on the road, but are 3-8-0-2 in their last 13 road matches. Belleville snapped a three-game road losing streak with a 4-1 win in Laval last Friday.
 
Jim O'Brien (10g, 13a) and Max McCormick (7g, 16a) are tied for the team lead with 23 points each. O'Brien has seven points (2g, 5a) in his last six games, while McCormick posted two points (1g, 1a) in the last meeting between the Crunch and Senators on Jan. 17. Belleville has scored the second-fewest goals in the Eastern Conference (109) while allowing the most goals in the AHL (163) so far this season. The next closest team, Laval, has allowed 150 goals this season.
 
The Sens lead the league with 818 penalty minutes; only two other teams (Syracuse, San Diego) have at least 700 penalty minutes this season, with no other team besides Belleville above 800 penalty minutes. Twenty different Senators have at least 24 penalty minutes this season. Belleville has averaged 28.33 penalty minutes during its first six games against Syracuse this season.
 
Special teams
The Crunch power play enters tonight's game 34-for-205, scoring on 16.6% of its opportunities, 16th in the AHL. Their 2-for-8 power-play performance in Laval on Wednesday gives them power-play goals in a season-high eight straight games, going 9-for-40 (22.5%). In 33 man-advantage opportunities against the Senators, Syracuse has buried nine goals (27.3%).  
 
Belleville's power play sits at next-to-last in the league, scoring on 23 of 181 opportunities (12.7%). The Senators have been unable to find the back of the net with the man advantage for five straight games, going 0-for-14. The Senators also struggle on the penalty kill, where their 76.0% success rate ranks last in the league.
 
While down a man, the Crunch have allowed 33 goals on 228 opposing power plays. Their 85.5% penalty-kill percentage sits at eighth in the league.
 
Lightning flash
The Lightning cruised past the Flyers, 5-1, Thursday in Philadelphia. The two points give Tampa Bay a league-leading 71 (34-12-3) heading into this weekend's All-Star Break. Yanni Gourde scored his 17th goal of the season, good for fifth on the team. The 26-year-old spent parts of four seasons with the Crunch and ranks seventh in franchise history with 157 points (67g, 90a) in 215 games.
 
Five Bolts, four of whom are Crunch alumni, represent the Atlantic Division—coached by Tampa Bay's Jon Cooper—in the NHL All-Star game. Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point, and Andrei Vasilevsky will suit up, while Victor Hedman sits out due to injury. No other team has more than three All-Stars.