CRUNCH BEGIN THREE-GAME WEEKEND

The Crunch head north of the border for their first three-in-three weekend of the season. Tonight, they face off against the Laval Rocket for the first of back-to-back contests at Place Bell.
 
Syracuse raced out to a 2-0-0-0 mark with a pair of wins last week. The Crunch aim for a second straight 3-0-0-0 record to begin the season.
 
Laval enters its home opener with a 1-1-0-0 record with a win at Providence and a loss at Springfield.
 
LAST TIME OUT

The Crunch earned a 2-1 shootout win over the Belleville Senators Saturday in their 31st home opener.
 
The Senators grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first period when Jan Jenik fired home a shot from in the low slot at 16:57. 
 
The Crunch broke through for their first tally to tie the score at one at 9:28 of the second period. Moments after a Crunch power play expired, Lucas Edmonds set up Joel Teasdale for his first goal of the season. 
 
Goaltenders Matt Tomkins and Mads Sogaard held the fort through the rest of regulation and overtime, sending the game into the Crunch's first shootout of the season. Jaydon Dureau scored the lone goal for either team to earn the Crunch the win.
 
SCOUTING THE CRUNCH

The Crunch are searching for their second straight 3-0-0-0 start to a season. They picked up a pair of wins in Week 1, allowing only one total goal and outscoring opponents 7-1.
 
Including last season, the Crunch have four previous starts of 3-0-0-0 or better (2023-24, 2008-09, 1996-97 and 1995-96).
 
Four players—Dyllan Gill (2g), Joel Teasdale (1g, 1a), Max Groshev (1g, 1a) and Jesse Ylonen (2a)—earned more than one point last week. Eleven different players grabbed at least one point for the Crunch. 
 
In net, Brandon Halverson and Matt Tomkins allowed one total goal on 57 shots, good for a .982 save percentage through two games.
 
THIS LOOKS WEIRD

The Crunch are poised to face off against their all-time leading scorer for the first time. Alex Barré-Boulet, who racked up 302 points in 294 games with the Crunch beginning with his rookie season (2018-19), signed as a free agent with the Montreal Canadiens this summer. After starting the season with the Habs, Barré-Boulet was waived and assigned to Laval earlier this week.
 
In addition to holding the Crunch's franchise record for points, he also has the most goals (113) and assists (189) in team history. He also has the single-season franchise record for points (84) and assists (60), set during the 2022-23 campaign. 
 
Since making his AHL/pro debut with the Crunch on Oct. 6, 2018, Barré-Boulet has logged the fourth-most points in the AHL.
 
FLIPPING SIDES

Alex Barré-Boulet is not the only player who will see this Syracuse-Laval rivalry from a different perspective this weekend.
 
The Crunch have three players making their returns to Laval for the first time. Jesse Ylonen played four seasons in the Canadiens organization, including three years with the Rocket from 2020-23. His 85 points (34g, 51a) over 120 games put him fifth in Rocket history in scoring. 
 
Tobie Bisson also spent three seasons with the Rocket from 2020-22 and 2023-24. Last season, Bisson had a career-best nine goals and 27 points while logging a plus-21 rating. He skated in 152 games for the Rocket, ranking sixth in team history.
 
Joel Teasdale is one point behind Ylonen in Rocket history with 84 points. Teasdale spent four seasons with the Rocket, but he missed the entire 2019-20 season due to injury. He potted a career-high 23 goals in 2022-23 before leaving for the Iowa Wild last season.
 
All three spent a season playing for current Crunch head coach Joel Bouchard when he was the head coach of the Rocket. Bouchard will be opposed, in part, by new Rocket assistant coach Dan Jacob, who was an assistant coach for the Crunch last season and has served in that capacity with Bouchard for many years.
 
SPOILING THE PARTY

Tonight is the second time this season that the Crunch will serve as the opponent in a their opposition's home opener.
 
The Crunch have won three straight games as the road team in a home opener dating to last season. They have earned two wins over Utica and one against Cleveland in the span. The Crunch have picked up two straight 5-0 wins in such contests (Oct. 20, 2023 at Cleveland and Oct. 11, 2024 at Utica). 
 
The last time Syracuse was an opponent in a Canadian team's home opener was 2017-18, when the Crunch spoiled the Belleville Senators inaugural home game with a 4-3 shootout win.
 
HEAD-TO-HEAD  

The Crunch posted a 5-3-0-0 record against Laval last season to win the season series against the Rocket for the first time since 2018-19.
 
Gage Goncalves led the Crunch in goals (5) and points (10) in eight appearances against the Rocket. Philippe Maillet led the Rocket with six points in the series; he signed in Switzerland this summer. 
 
Matt Tomkins and Brandon Halverson went a combined 3-2-0 against the Rocket. Jakub Dobes appeared in six of the eight games for Laval, posting a 2-2-2 record.
 
SCOUTING THE ROCKET

Despite an above 0.500 record last year (33-31-6-2), the Rocket are looking to rebound after a last place finish in which they fell six points shy of the playoff cutoff in the North Division.
 
The Rocket opened this season with a 1-1-0-0 trip to New England to begin new head coach Pascal Vincent's tenure behind the Laval bench. Vincent most recently served as the head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Vincent is in his sixth season as an AHL head coach; he spent five years leading the Manitoba Moose (2016-21) and had three winning seasons.
 
Vincent's squad is led in scoring by defenseman Logan Mailloux (2g, 2a) and rookie Filip Mesar (1g, 3a). Mailloux was named to the AHL All-Rookie Team at the end of the year and represented Laval as an AHL All-Star. He played in all 72 games for the Rocket last year, adding 47 points (14g, 33a).