They are the primary development affiliate of the National Hockey League's Tampa Bay Lightning.
[3] On November 25, 1998, the Crunch suffered their worst loss in team history to the Providence Bruins, with a 14–2 final score.
[5] On October 30, 1999, while playing against Rochester, goaltender Christian Bronsard scored the first and only Crunch goalie goal.
In the following 2001–02 season, the Crunch won their first division title in franchise history behind goaltender Jean-Francois Labbe.
In addition to the division title, they also were regular season Western Conference champions, with a conference-leading 96 points.
In the 2004 Calder Cup playoffs, the Crunch became the twelfth team to blow a 3–1 series lead when they lost to the Rochester Americans in the first round.
The Crunch were on home ice for game seven and forward Kent McDonnell missed an empty net when the Americans' goalie Ryan Miller was caught out of position.
Rochester then recovered with an odd-man rush and Norm Milley beat Crunch goalie Karl Goehring to win the game in overtime.
Andy Delmore won the Eddie Shore Award, scoring 72 points in 66 games, while also making the AHL First All-Star team at the end of the season.
The Mirabito Outdoor Classic took place at the Grandstand at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse.
Goaltender Kevin Lalande made 36 saves en route to the Syracuse victory.
The affiliation produced future NHL players such as Kyle Palmieri, Nick Bonino and Patrick Maroon.
The Crunch signed a multi-year affiliation deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning beginning with the 2012–13 season.
[12] The Crunch could not replicate the success of the previous season, finishing last place in the division, while missing the 2014 Calder Cup playoffs entirely.
The Crunch were able to initially roster future NHLers, such as Nikita Kucherov, Brett Connolly, and Vladislav Namestnikov.
They also played another double-overtime game in the 2017 Calder Cup Finals, a 6–5 loss in double overtime to the Grand Rapids Griffins, lasting 87 minutes and 2 seconds.
[15] The Crunch won their third division title in the Tampa affiliation, but were upset in four games by the Cleveland Monsters.
In 2000, as the Crunch became an affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Crunchman was replaced with Al the Ice Gorilla.
Al remained until 2012, when Dolgon found the new affiliation with Tampa Bay a good reason to return with Crunchman.
It is not retired, as it would later be worn by former United States Olympian Darby Hendrickson, Serge Aubin, Richard Panik, Justin Courtnall, Brandon Alderson, Mike McNamee, Kevin Lynch, Devante Stephens and most recently, Brandon Crawley.
This honors Reg Dunlop, the player-coach for the fictional Charlestown Chiefs, which Newman played in the movie Slap Shot.
Records as of the end of the 2023–24 AHL regular season Minimum 10 Calder Cup playoff games played