CRUNCH BATTLE SENATORS
 
The Crunch return home for the middle game of a three-in-three weekend as they play host to the Belleville Senators tonight at Upstate Medical University Arena.
 
Tonight is the fifth meeting of the season between the clubs. The Senators have won all four, including three wins in February.
 
LAST TIME OUT
 
The Crunch grinded out a 2-1 win over the Utica Comets last night at the Adirondack Bank Center. 
 
After a goalless first period, which marked the third straight game the Crunch have been held off the board in the opening 20 minutes, the teams combined for all three goals in the second period.
 
Joe Carroll opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 3:10 of the frame. All five players touched the puck in mere seconds, starting with Declan Carlile. His pass to Gage Goncalves led to a string of feeds to Jack Finley, Gabe Fortier and eventually Carroll who hammered the shot from the right circle for his 11th goal of the season.
 
The Comets tied the score at 14:38 of the period when Max Willman took a pass at the bottom of the right circle and roofed his 11th goal. The Crunch went back in front with 1:10 remaining in the second. Phil Myers set up Carlile, who ripped a shot off the post and in for a goal that stood as the game-winning tally.
 
Matt Tomkins made 24 saves, including one in the waning seconds to preserve his 10th win.
 
SCOUTING THE CRUNCH
 
The Crunch went 2-1-0-0 over three games on the road to improve to 28-15-3-2 overall this season. Syracuse has 61 points and sits in second place in the North Division.
 
Joe Carroll scored his 11th goal of the season last night for the Crunch to snap a seven-game goal drought. The former Belleville Senator, who collected five points (3g, 2a) in nine games for Belleville last season, has 20 points (11g, 9a) in 39 games for the Crunch this season. It was his third power-play goal of the season and it gives the Crunch a power-play goal in consecutive games for the first time since they scored in three straight games Jan. 6-12. 
 
Last night also began a string of 11 straight matches against the North Division. Going back to Jan. 20, 20 of 21 Crunch games are against the North with the lone contest against the Atlantic coming last weekend against Lehigh Valley, a 2-1 Crunch win.
 
SCOUTING THE SENATORS
 
The Senators have won the first two games of this three-game road trip. They picked up a pair of wins in Rochester on Wednesday and last night. The Sens are 25-20-2-3 and have 55 points, tying with the Amerks for third place in the North Division. They trail the Crunch by six points in the standings.
 
AHL All-Star Angus Crookshank leads the Senators in scoring with 38 points and 19 goals. He had a six-game scoring streak snapped last night after scoring the game-winning goal Wednesday in Rochester. Crookshank eclipsed the 100-point mark in his career earlier in the week; he has 101 points (50g, 51a) in 133 AHL games for Belleville.
 
Mads Sogaard is 4-0-0 against the Crunch this season and is 13-7-2/2.45/.919 overall. He left last night's game due to an apparent injury and was replaced by Kevin Mandolese (7-8-2/3.30/.897) who made 11 saves to earn the win.
 
HEAD-TO-HEAD
 
The Crunch are in search of their first win this season against the Senators. Belleville has won all four previous matches with three of the four being decided by a goal. Two of the previous four have gone into overtime.
 
Seventeen different skaters have logged a point for the Crunch, led by Cole Koepke with four (3g, 1a). Jack Finley had a goal and assist in last week's loss at Belleville and he is one of two active Crunch players with more than one goal in the series.
 
Angus Crookshank (2g, 2a), Jiri Smejkal (2g, 2a) and Egor Sokolov (4a) are all tied for the Belleville lead with four points.  
 
FINLEY SKATES IN 100TH AHL GAME  
 
Jack Finley skated in his 100th AHL game last night at Utica, notching an assist. The second-year-pro has racked up a team-leading 17 points (6g, 11a) in 17 games since the start of January. He has seven multi-point outings in that span. He has 20 points (7g, 13a) in 30 games this season. He is one point shy of matching last season's point total, which he set in 67 games.
 
The youngest player on the roster, Finley has 41 points (19g, 22a) in his first 100 career games. He skated in 191 career WHL games with Spokane and Winnipeg, tallying 127 points.
 
CARLILE STREAKING 
 
Defenseman Declan Carlile extended his scoring streak to a career-best five games with the game-winning goal last night. The 23-year-old has 20 points (6g, 14a) in 48 games this season.
 
The Merrimack College product, who signed as an undrafted free agent on March 16, 2022, has skated in 127 of a possible 135 games since debuting with the Crunch on April 1, 2022. The Hartland, Michigan native also made his NHL debut with the Tampa Bay Lightning earlier this season on Jan. 4 at Minnesota.
 
CROZIER, MASSICOTTE ON THE MOVE 
 
The Tampa Bay Lightning recalled defenseman Max Crozier this morning. The rookie has skated in 32 games for the Crunch this season, collecting eight points (1g, 7a). Crozier has also skated in seven games for the Lightning, contributing two assists.
 
Syracuse recalled Zachary Massicotte from Orlando. The rookie has seen action in 11 games for the Crunch and an additional 26 games for the Solar Bears.
 
In the last two days, the Crunch have also signed forward Austin Magera and defenseman Darian Skeoch to PTOs from the South Carolina Stingrays and Adirondack Thunder respectively.