Ethan Gauthier’s Breakout Night Lifts Crunch Past Senators in 5-3 Win
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The Syracuse Crunch made the most of their home-ice advantage Friday night, outlasting the Belleville Senators 5-3 in a back-and-forth battle at Upstate Medical University Arena. Fueled by Ethan Gauthier’s first career two-goal performance and some timely scoring throughout the lineup, the Crunch improved to 25-16-3-1 on the season and evened their eight-game series with Belleville at two wins apiece.
Let’s start with the star of the night: Gauthier. The rookie forward has shown flashes this season, but this was the kind of game that can serve as a confidence catalyst.
His first goal came midway through the second period, a bar-down beauty off a slick centering feed from Milo Roelens. Then, with Syracuse clinging to a one-goal lead in the third, Gauthier struck again-this time on the power play.
His shot from the bottom of the left circle took a fortunate bounce off a Belleville defender and found twine, giving the Crunch some much-needed breathing room.
Jakob Pelletier was the engine behind much of the offense, dishing out two assists and driving play with his usual pace and vision. And the Crunch got balanced contributions across the board-Max Groshev, Lucas Mercuri, and Mitchell Chaffee each chipped in with a goal.
For Mercuri, it was a gritty finish in tight after a smart feed from Matteo Pietroniro late in the first period. Groshev opened the scoring less than two minutes into the game, snapping a wrister from the left faceoff dot off a setup by Brendan Furry.
Chaffee’s empty-netter sealed the deal after Belleville had clawed back within one.
In net, Jon Gillies stood tall for Syracuse, turning aside 29 of 32 shots. It wasn’t always pretty, but Gillies made the key stops when it mattered-especially during a tense stretch in the third when Belleville was pressing hard on the power play.
Speaking of special teams, that’s where this game had some real swing moments. Syracuse finished 1-for-4 with the man advantage, while Belleville went 2-for-4.
Both of Yakemchuk’s goals came from the point, and his second-early in the third-cut the Crunch’s lead to 3-2 and gave the Senators a surge of momentum. But Gauthier’s power-play tally just minutes later flipped the script again.
Belleville’s final push came with another power-play goal, this time off a pinpoint cross-ice pass from Xavier Bourgault to Arthur Kaliyev, who buried a one-timer from the right circle. That made it 4-3, but the comeback bid ended there. With the Senators’ net empty and time winding down, Chaffee iced it with a clean finish from distance.
The win extends Syracuse’s home point streak to seven games (6-0-1-0), and they’ve now won 11 of their last 13 at home. Groshev, meanwhile, is finding his scoring touch with goals in back-to-back games.
Next up: the Crunch and Senators head north for the back half of their weekend home-and-home series in Belleville. If Friday night was any indication, we’re in for another tightly contested matchup.