It’s Crunch Time! A December Review
By Monika Cook
Getting off to a rough start of the season, the Syracuse Crunch have worked some magic over the month of December, even with some major call-ups.
Starting off the month of December with a fresh new goal song, which is believed to be the main key on this month’s success, the Crunch are feeling much better about the season. The Crunch would also lose Cory Conacher to Tampa for good on December 1st.
Going on a streak of 10 games won up until December 17th, where they fell short of game 11 win by 2 goals to the Phantoms. In these 10 games, the Crunch participated in a remarkable 11 round shoot-out win against Belleville, Adam Erne getting a hat trick against Utica (in Utica) for a Crunch final of 6-1, blanking the Senators in a 6-0 win, and a 5-3 win over the Bruins.
All during this, the Crunch sent McBain to Tampa, back to Syracuse, and back up and down once again. They also loaned Shane Conacher and Ty Loney to Adirondack Thunder. Tampa would also then recall goaltender Louis Domingue forcing the recall of Nick Riopel to the Crunch, after Budaj suffered an injury in the game against Philadelphia Flyers
The Crunch would end December with a total of 10 wins out of 13 games played. Syracuse is currently on a 9 game win streak, despite not having their main goalie Domingue. Fans would also see the return of Jonne Tammela, a player that has been out on long term IR with knee injuries and surgery.