CRUNCH END TRIP IN BRIDGEPORT
 
The Crunch (15-10-2-0) cap off their four-game, eight-day road trip tonight against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (10-15-3-1) at Webster Bank Arena.
 
After earning a split in Charlotte over the weekend, the Crunch are 2-1-0-0 on this road trip ahead of tonight's third meeting against the Sound Tigers. It's their first of two trips to Bridgeport this season.
 
LAST TIME OUT
 
The Crunch bested the Charlotte Checkers in a seesawing 5-4 win at Bojangles' Coliseum Saturday night.
 
Alexander Volkov's power-play marker started the scoring in the first period, but the Checkers fought back with three straight goals to go up 3-1.
 
Gemel Smith's deflection of Cameron Gaunce's point shot with 8:17 remaining in the second stanza ignited Syracuse's own three-goal response. Chris Mueller continued that run by speeding up the left wing and deking around Anton Forsberg to tie the game at three 4:13 into the third. The Crunch took their second lead of the night less than 90 seconds later when Ross Colton buried a no-look, backhanded centering feed from Boris Katchouk.
 
Katchouk, skating in his 100th AHL game, wasn't finished. The Checkers tied the game at four on a shorthanded marker with 6:14 left in the third, but Katchouk rifled home a slapshot from the left circle to put Syracuse in front for good with 2:31 to go.
 
The win came in Mike Condon's first start and win in a Crunch sweater. The veteran netminder had been battling a hip injury and last started a game Nov. 9, 2018.
 
SCOUTING THE CRUNCH 
 
Syracuse has won four of its last five outings, which includes two of three on its latest road trip and a 5-1 victory over the Sound Tigers at the War Memorial Arena Dec. 7. The Crunch sit in sixth place in the North Division with 32 points, just one point behind the Belleville Senators and Utica Comets.
 
Cory Conacher is riding a six-game point streak coming into Wednesday night's matchup in Bridgeport. He's added eight points (3g, 5a) in that stretch, which marks his longest scoring streak since his 12-game run between Nov. 3 and Dec. 7 last season. The thirty-year-old forward ranks third on the team with 20 points (8g, 12a) and leads the Crunch with 82 shots.
 
Veteran goaltender Mike Condon returned to action Saturday for the first time since Nov. 9, 2018 after battling back from a hip injury. He saved 26 of 30 Checkers shots en route to his first win in a Crunch sweater. Fifth-year pro Spencer Martin leads the Crunch with a .901 save percentage and 2.63 goals-against average in 12 appearances this season.
 
SCOUTING THE SOUND TIGERS 
 
Bridgeport enters tonight's tilt in last place in the Atlantic Division. The Sound Tigers hold the division's lowest points percentage (0.414) and the league's worst goal differential (-35). Bridgeport is 2-5-1-0 in eight faceoffs against North Division opponents, including two regulation losses to Syracuse.
 
Second-year-pro Kieffer Bellows has found his offensive stride of late. After scoring just one goal in his first nineteen outings this season, the Minnesota native has lit the lamp in six of his last eight games. That includes one tally in each of his last three games, good for the second-longest goal-scoring streak of Bellows' 100-game AHL career. The 21-year-old winger's 10 points (7g, 3a) tie him for fifth on the Sound Tigers in scoring.
 
Matt Lorito didn't find the scoresheet in Bridgeport's 5-2 loss to Hershey Saturday night, but prior to that, he was riding a six-game point streak. The Canadian winger tallied eight points in that stretch (3g, 5a), including one assist in the Dec. 7 loss to the Crunch. His 16 points on the season (7g, 9a) tie him with defenseman Sebastian Aho for the team lead in scoring.
 
Veteran netminder Jared Coreau leads the Sound Tigers with 13 appearances this season. He's earned a 3-7-1 record to date, including a start in Bridgeport's 5-1 losing effort to the Crunch Nov. 1. Rookie Jakub Skarek stood between the pipes in Bridgeport's 5-2 loss to Syracuse on Dec. 7, and he's allowed five goals in each of his last three outings.
 
SPECIAL TEAMS 
 
The Crunch have scored a power-play goal in five consecutive games, going 5-for-21 since the streak began Dec. 6. It's the team's longest stretch of games with a power-play goal since an eight-game stretch last year Nov. 11-30. The run has nudged their success rate from 18.3% to 19.2%, which ranks 11th in the AHL.
 
The Sound Tigers feature a league-worst 8.3% power play entering tonight. They've scored just 10 power-play goals, which also ranks last in the league, and they have converted just once (1-for-39) in the last nine games since Nov. 24.
 
The Crunch gave up three power-play goals in the two-game set in Charlotte over the weekend, dropping from second in the AHL to sixth in the league at 85.5%.
 
Bridgeport has allowed at least one power-play goal in six straight game—tied for their worst stretch of the season—and in eight of the last nine outings. The Sound Tigers rank 16th in the league at 81.2% on the penalty kill.
 
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
 
Forward Gemel Smith paced the Crunch with five goals in Week 11. He started the week with a hat trick—the second on his AHL career—against Providence, where he played for the Bruins last season. Smith scored the game's first goal in Friday's loss to Charlotte and then started the Crunch's comeback with another tally Saturday night, giving him a three-game goal scoring streak.
 
For his efforts, the 25-year-old was named CCM/AHL Player of the Week. It's the first time the Toronto native has been recognized as the league's player of the week. He is the first Crunch player to win it since Carter Verhaeghe did so for the week ending Feb. 3, 2019. After the Crunch went back-to-back seasons without a player of the week, Smith's award makes it three straight seasons at least one Crunch player has been recognized by the league.
 
TAKING ON THE ATLANTIC
 
Tonight marks the fifth of five straight games against Atlantic Division competition, a run which started with a home match against Bridgeport. Syracuse is 3-1-0-0 thus far during the stretch to improve its record to 6-5-0-0 against the Atlantic Division; the Crunch are 1-3-0-0 against the Charlotte Checkers and 5-2-0-0 against the rest of the division.
 
The Crunch will play a total of 20 games against the Atlantic division; including tonight they have two matches remaining with Bridgeport, Springfield and Lehigh Valley and one left against Hershey, Providence and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
 
STRINGING TOGETHER ROAD WINS
 
The Crunch wrap up their four-game road trip tonight searching for their third instance of back-to-back road wins. They are 7-6-1-0 on the road this season, but they have only won consecutive road games Oct. 11-12 in Cleveland and Nov. 30-Dec. 11 at Binghamton and Providence.
 
Although out of reach tonight, Syracuse last won three straight road games was Feb. 26 to March 6 last season, with wins in Binghamton, Rochester and Utica. That was tied for the Crunch's longest road winning streak last season; they won three straight road games three times in 2018-19.