RECORD: 39-23-13-5, 96 points (22-11-7 home, 17-17-6 road), first place, Central Division
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS Wednesday, April 3 CRUNCH 3 Rochester 0
Friday, April 5 Crunch 4 OT ROCHESTER 3
Saturday, April 6 CRUNCH 3 OT Albany 2
Sunday, April 7 ALBANY 3 Crunch 1
WESTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPS!: The Crunch brought home their first-ever conference championship on Saturday night, April 6, when they defeated the Albany River Rats 3-2 in overtime at the War Memorial at Oncenter. David Ling scored with one second remaining to tie the game at two and then scored the game-winning goal with 59 seconds left in the overtime. Syracuse is assured home ice in the Western Conference for the Calder Cup Playoffs and a bye from the qualifying round.
RECORD BREAKING YEAR: The Syracuse Crunch set 14 team records, 9 individual records and 2 American Hockey League records during the 2001-02 season. The following is a complete list of records broken during the season:
AHL Records
Most Shutouts – Season: 13
Most Home Shutouts – Season: 8
Syracuse Crunch Team Records
Most Points – Season: 96
Most Wins – Season: 39
Most Wins Home – Season: 22
Most Wins Road – Season: 17
Fewest Losses – Season: 28
Fewest Losses – Home: 11
Fewest Losses – Road: 17
Most Ties – Season: 13
Most Shutouts – Season: 13
Fewest Goals Against – Season: 193
Least Shots – Game: 14 -- @ Norfolk – February 9, 2002
Least Shots Against – Period: 1 -- vs. Cleveland (2nd) – February 17, 2002
Most PIM Both Teams –Game: 286 -- @ Wilkes-Barre – March 17, 2002
Most PIM Against – Game: 162 -- @ Wilkes-Barre – March 17, 2002
Syracuse Crunch Individual Records
Most Goals, Defenseman – Season: 23 -- Derrick Walser
Most Shots – Game: 12 -- David Ling – November 24 @ Cleveland
Most PIM – Game: 45 -- Brad Wingfield – March 17 @ Wilkes-Barre
*Lowest GAA – Season: 2.18 -- J.F. Labbe
*Highest SPCT – Season: .928 -- J.F. Labbe< /p>
Most Shutouts – Career: 11 -- J.F. Labbe
Most Shutouts – Season: 9 -- J.F. Labbe *Tied an AHL Record
Most Consecutive Shutouts: 2 -- J.F. Labbe (3 times)
Longest Consecutive Shutout Sequence: 192:40 -- J.F. Labbe
* A minimum of 1590 minutes played in a season
PLAYOFF PICTURE: By winning the Western Conference the Crunch will play the lower seed that comes out of the qualifying round that begins tonight. Seventh seeded Chicago hosts tenth seed Cincinnati in a best-of-three series and eighth seeded Philadelphia hosts ninth seeded Rochester. Syracuse will begin the First Round of the Calder Cup Playoffs against either Philadelphia, Rochester or Cincinnati at the War Memorial at Oncenter late this week or early next week. Dates will be announced this week. The Crunch went 7-2-3 against Rochester during the regular season, 2-6-0 against Cincinnati and 2-1-1 against Philadelphia.
Tickets for the first two Calder Cup Playoff home games are on sale now and can be purchased by calling the Crunch’s sales office at (315) 473-4444, stopping by the Oncenter Box Office, located on the State Street side of the War Memorial or by calling TicketMaster at (315) 472-0700.
INJURIES/CALL-UPS BY THE NUMBERS: Syracuse lost 520 man-games due to injuries (301) and call-ups (219). Jeff Ware – 57, Paul Manning – 37, Andrej Nedorost – 34, Darrel Scoville – 29, Martin Spanhel 19, Matt Davidson – 16, Jeremy Reich & Paroulek– 15, Brad Moran – 12, J.F. Labbe – 11, Dan Watson – 10, Tim O’Connell – 9, Kent McDonell & Derrick Walser- 6, Blake Bellefeuille – 5, Brett Harkins -- 4, Andrei Sryubko – 3, Adam Borzecki, Trevor Ettinger, Jamie Heward, Paul Traynor & Duvie Westcott – 2, Mathieu Darche, Preston Mizzi & Jody Shelley – 1, represent the Crunch’s injury list this season.
CRUNCHABLES: The 45 players used by Syracuse this season tied the 1997-98 team for the most players to appear in a game for the Crunch in one season… David Ling led the Crunch with 14 multiple point games this season… Ten of the Crunch’s 13 shutouts came in their last 29 games.
PICTURED: Derrick Walser, above; J.F. Labbe, previous page.