CRUNCH OPEN WEEKEND SET IN CLEVELAND
 
The Crunch make their yearly trip to Cleveland for a two-game set, starting tonight against the Monsters at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
 
The teams will square off four times in 2023-24, with the Monsters coming to Syracuse once in December and once in January. Cleveland won last year's season series with three wins in four matches.
 
LAST TIME OUT
 
The Crunch knocked off the Bridgeport Islanders, 4-2, Saturday night in the Crunch's 30th home opener in franchise history.
 
Syracuse used the energy from the sold-out Upstate Medical University Arena to grab a 2-0 lead early on. Devante Stephens opened the scoring by accepting a pass from Felix Robert and ripping home a shot from the left circle for a 1-0 lead 9:09 into the first period. Five minutes later, Lucas Edmonds pounced on a rebound near the crease and jammed it home for a 2-0 lead.
 
The Islanders pulled within one on a Brian Pinho goal in the waning moments of the first period, and then they tied the game late in the second period on a rebound goal, making it 2-2 heading into the third.
 
Daniel Walcott broke the tie by firing home a shot on a breakaway, which was sprung by an Emil Lilleberg pass, at 8:06. Robert added insurance by scoring a power-play goal a few minutes later, and the Crunch held on for a 4-2 win.
 
ROBERT RETURNS TO CLEVELAND
 
Crunch forward Felix Robert is off to a hot start in his second season with the Crunch. He delivered the overtime game-winning in the season opener last Friday at Utica. For an encore, Robert added another goal and assist for his first multi-point game of the season in the team's home opener on Saturday. He leads the team with three points (2g, 1a) after two games.
 
The Lambton, Quebec native exploded out of the gates last season too with five points (2g, 3a) in their season-opening two-game series in Cleveland. That matched the team lead with Alex Barré-Boulet.
 
SCOUTING THE CRUNCH
 
The Joel Bouchard era is off and running in Syracuse. The new head coach guided the team to a pair of wins, giving the Crunch their first 2-0-0-0 start since 2016-17; that season was former head coach Ben Groulx's first year at the helm.
 
It's the seventh time in team history that the Crunch have begun a season with back-to-back wins. They have three previous starts of 3-0-0-0 or better (2008-09, 1996-97 and 1995-96).
 
The Crunch are one of four Eastern Conference teams without a regulation loss entering the weekend. They enter tonight's match with four points, sitting in second place in the North Division behind Rochester.
 
EDMONDS FINDS EARLY SCORING TOUCH
 
Lucas Edmonds potted goals in both games in Week 1, tying Robert for the team lead out of the gates. Edmonds whipped in a power-play goal against the Comets on Friday; he scored nine goals in eight games versus Utica last year. He then potted a rebound the next night against Bridgeport. 
 
As a rookie last season, Edmonds didn't score his second goal until Dec. 21 in the Crunch's 26th game. From that point forward, he scored the third-most goals (14) until the end of the regular season. He had 27 points (15g, 12a) in 49 games in 2022-23.
 
SCOUTING THE MONSTERS
 
The Monsters opened their season last week in Pennsylvania, splitting games at Lehigh Valley and Hershey. They defeated the Phantoms, 5-2, in their season opener on Saturday, but lost to the Bears by an identical score on Sunday.
 
Trey Fix-Wolansky, who finished last season as one of the league's most prolific scorers, has picked up where he left off. The winger collected five points (2g, 3a) in Cleveland's first two games to lead the team. He ended last season seventh in AHL scoring with 71 points (29g, 42a) in just 61 games.
 
Cleveland has its two goalies back from last season in Jet Greaves and Pavel Cajan. Greaves won his first start this season, while Cajan took a loss. Greaves was briefly recalled to Columbus earlier this week.
 
KOCHETKOV RECALLED
 
Goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov, who started the season opener in Utica last Friday, was recalled to Carolina Wednesday night in response to an injury to Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen. He made his NHL season debut in relief last night at Seattle.
 
Kochetkov stopped 31-of-34 shots in his one and only game with the Crunch this season, which improved his career AHL record to 31-7-4 over three season between Chicago and Syracuse.
 
Because of Carolina's transaction, the Crunch recalled Evan Fitzpatrick from loan to ECHL-Orlando. Fitzpatrick, who signed an AHL contract with the Crunch this summer, played half a preseason game for the Crunch before being loaned to the Solar Bears.
 
FAMILIAR SITUATION
 
Tonight is the fifth time that the Crunch have served as the home opening opponent for the Cleveland Monsters at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. It's the four time since 2019-20, including three straight years since 2021. 
 
The teams have split the previous four Cleveland home openers. The Monsters won in 2010-11 and in 2022-23, which was decided in a shootout. The Crunch prevailed in 2019-20 and 2021-22. The three previous openers have been two-game sets; the Crunch won both matches in 2019-20, the teams split in 2021-22 and Cleveland won a pair of shootout games last season.
 
ROAD READY
 
Following their win in Utica last week, the Crunch are in search of their first 2-0-0-0 road start since 2008-09.
 
That comes on the heels of the Crunch finishing last season with more road wins (18) than home wins (17) for just the third time in team history.