SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Syracuse Crunch were downed by the Laval Rocket, 6-1, this afternoon at Place Bell.
 
Max Groshev scored the lone goal for the Crunch early in the game on the power play. Tomas Kralovic earned his first professional point with an assist on the play, while Clark Bishop tallied his first Crunch point with the secondary helper. The Crunch are 1-1-0-0 after their opening weekend in Laval.
 
Crunch goaltender Olivier Rodrigue turned aside 27-of-32 shots. Jacob Fowler earned the win stopping 23-of-24 shots between the pipes for the Rocket. The Syracuse power play went 1-for-4, while Laval converted on 3-of-5 opportunities.
 
The Crunch were first on the board with a power-play goal seven minutes into the game when Groshev sent in a long-wrister from the blue line.
 
The Rocket rattled off three goals in the middle frame to steal the lead. Just 47 second into the period, Reilly Walsh skated the puck down the right side and fired in a wrister from the bottom of the circle to even the score. Laval went on top with a power-play goal at the 4:31 mark when Sasha Pastujov potted a wrister while left all alone in the right circle. Halfway through the frame, Brett Berard grabbed the puck in the neutral zone, sped down the slot and scored from the left faceoff dot.
 
Laval tallied three more in the third period. Pastujov scored his second power-play goal of the game at 15:10 while he was down low to jam in the rebound. Just over a minute later, Alex Belzile hit the empty net. Samuel Poulin rounded out the scoring with another goal on the man-advantage late in the period to give the Rocket a 6-1 win.
 
The Crunch are back in action on Friday when they travel to face the Rochester Americans before returning to Syracuse for the Home Opener on Saturday, Oct. 10.
 
Single game tickets and ticket packages for the 2026-27 season are on sale now and can be purchased in person at the Crunch office located inside the Upstate Medical University Arena at Onondaga County War Memorial at 800 S. State St. in Syracuse, by calling the office at 315-473-4444 or online through Ticketmaster. For the latest Crunch news, visit www.syracusecrunch.com or follow the club on Facebook (www.facebook.com/syracusecrunch), X (@SyracuseCrunch) and Instagram (@syracusecrunch).
 
Crunchables: Tomas Kralovic recorded his first professional point with an assist this afternoon…The Crunch power play scored power-play goals in both games in the opening weekend.