Riku Helenius (Syracuse Crunch Facebook)

They may have a new name, new city, and new jersey but the Lightning’s AHL affiliate picked up exactly where they left off last season. Shortly after winning the Calder Cup earlier this year as the Norfolk Admirals, the Bolts moved their minor league team to New York. The Syracuse Crunch have started their preseason on the road this week and so far the song remains the same.

The Crunch faced off against the St. Johns Icecaps on Thursday and Friday night. Thursday night’s game saw the Crunch win 4-1. Cory Conacher, Philip-Michael Devos, Richard Panik and Alex Killorn scored for Syracuse. Both Dustin Tokarski and Riku Helenius saw time in net.

Friday night’s game saw the Crunch saw goals from Brett Connolly and Matt Taormina in regulation. The game was tied after three periods and a scoreless overtime sent the proceedings to a shootout. Ondrej Palat, Brett Connolly and Tyler Johnson all had shootout goals. Riku Helenius turned aside all three St. Johns shooters to secure the victory.

The final game of the series is set for 12:30 pm tomorrow. That is probably 11:30 EST since Newfoundland has their own time zone. Just go with it.

The team shared this video about the importance of team building in early road trips: