CRUNCH CLOSE OUT ROAD TRIP IN TORONTO
 
The Crunch play the final game of a five-game road swing today against the Toronto Marlies at Coca-Cola Coliseum.
 
It's the second of back-to-back games between the teams. The Crunch won, 6-3, last night to improve to 3-0-0-0 against the Marlies in the eight-game season series.
 
LAST TIME OUT
 
The Crunch scored four goals in the third period to break a 2-2 tie and defeat the Marlies, 6-3, yesterday at Coca-Cola Coliseum.
 
The Marlies opened the scoring at 6:43 of the first period as Joseph Blandisi scored directly off a faceoff to make it 1-0. The Crunch tied the score later in the first period on a double deflection goal. Gage Goncalves' shot was tipped first by Joe Carroll and then by Gabriel Dumont for a power-play goal at 14:40. The Marlies responded with a power-play goal of their own three minutes later to take a 2-1 lead into the second period. 
 
The Crunch tied the game at two in the middle stanza on a highlight reel tally by Jack Finley at 6:08. Matt Tomkins made 21 saves in the period to bring the game into the third all square.
 
Joe Carroll cashed in twice on a pair of 2-on-1 rushes less than two minutes apart to give the Crunch a 4-2 lead early in the third. After the Marlies pulled within one with less than six minutes to play, Cole Koepke scored twice - including an empty-net tally - to give the Crunch a 6-3 win.
 
SCOUTING THE CRUNCH
 
The Crunch rung in 2024 with their best offensive output since mid-November. The six goal performance marked the first time since Nov. 17 that they've scored at least five goals in a game. The Crunch had only scored at least three goals three times in the last 11 games prior to last night. The Crunch are now 16-0-1-1 when scoring at least three goals.
 
Joe Carroll helped spark that offensive surge with his first career two-goal and three-point game in the AHL.  They were his first two goals since the Crunch's last visit to Toronto (Dec. 2), snapping a personal seven-game drought. Carroll has 10 points (6g, 4a) in 23 games this season. 
 
Jack Finley notched his first multi-point game of the season with one goal and one assist. Finley's third career two-point game gives him five points (2g, 3a) in 15 games this season. 
 
Syracuse enters the final game of the weekend in second place in the North Division with 38 points (17-11-2-2).
 
SCOUTING THE MARLIES
 
The Marlies have dropped the first two games of 2024 and they have lost six straight overall (0-5-1-0). Their last win was Dec. 20 versus Providence which capped a five-game winning streak. The Marlies have slipped to fifth place in the North Division with 31 points (13-12-4-1).
 
Four of the six losses in this streak have been by just one goal, but after the 6-3 setback last night, the Marlies have been outscored 22-13 in this stretch. 
 
The Marlies have lost the first three games of their five-game homestand and have fallen to 0.500 on home ice this season with a 7-7-3-0 record in Toronto.
 
HITTING THE ROAD 
 
The Crunch finish a stretch of five straight road games this afternoon in Toronto. This is the longest stretch of road games all season for the Crunch. Syracuse will next play at home Jan. 12, a span of 19 days between home games (Dec. 23).
 
The road run began last Wednesday (Dec. 27) with a win in Rochester before the club lost twice in Laval last weekend. They are 2-2-0-0 so far during this string of road matches.
 
The Crunch have more wins on the road (10) than at home (7). Overall they are 10-7-0-1 on the road, making them one of four Eastern Conference teams with at least 10 wins on the road. They will make up for lost time with a six-game homestand beginning next week. 
 
HEAD-TO-HEAD
 
The Crunch swept a home-and-home series with the Marlies at the start of December to begin their eight-game regular season series. After last night's win, the Crunch are 3-0-0-0 so far this season against the Marlies; they are 6-2-1-0 in the last nine games at Coca-Cola Coliseum and 11-3-2-1 overall in the last five seasons.
 
Joe Carroll has goals in both games in Toronto this season and he is tied with Mitchell Chaffee and Gage Goncalves for the team lead with four points. Eight different players have scored the Crunch's 13 goals in the series so far.
 
Topi Niemelä picked up his fourth assist of the series, and he leads all Marlies skaters with four total points. Keith Petruzzelli has started and lost the two matches in Toronto. 
 
THOMPSON, LILLEBERG MAKE NHL DEBUTS 
 
Defensemen Jack Thompson and Emil Lilleberg made their NHL debuts with the Tampa Bay Lightning last night in Boston. That makes three players in the last two Lightning games to play their first NHL games as the two join Declan Carlile, who debuted Thursday in Minnesota.
 
Thompson, 21, leads all Crunch defensemen in scoring with 20 points (2g, 18a), including a team-leading 11 on the power play. Thompson, a third-round pick by Tampa Bay in 2020 recorded a shot and 11:39 of ice time over 14 shifts last night.
 
Lilleberg, 22, signed with the Lightning this summer and is in his first season in North American. The Norwegian has 12 points (1g, 11a) this season for the Crunch. He finished with 18 shifts and 11:48 of ice time for the Lightning.
 
Yesterday was the first Crunch game missed for both players this season.
 
HARPUR MAKES CRUNCH DEBUT 
 
Crunch defenseman Chris Harpur played his first American Hockey League game yesterday. The 27-year-old finished the game with one shot and a plus-1 rating for the Crunch after signing a professional tryout earlier this week.
 
Harpur has spent the previous two seasons in the ECHL with the Orlando Solar Bears; he hadn't missed a Solar Bears game since the start of the 2022-23 season before signing his PTO with the Crunch. 
 
The Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario native played five seasons for Niagara University from 2017 to 2022 before embarking on his pro career with the Solar Bears. Harpur also joined the Crunch on a PTO at the end of the 2022-23 season, but did not appear in a game.