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Syracuse center Matthew Peca has given Crunch fans a lot to shout about this postseason.

(Stephen D. Cannerelli | scannerelli@syracuse.com)

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Syracuse Crunch first-year head coach Ben Groulx has been in the organization for about a year.

That's more than enough time for him to get an idea of what parent club Tampa Bay wants to see in its prospects.

When it comes to forwards, Groulx has to look no further than second-year standout Matthew Peca.

"I think he's got the Tampa Bay stamp style of hockey on him,'' Groulx said after practice Tuesday.

That label can mean many things. In the case of Peca, it means a tough, vertically challenged (5-9) center who skates like a sports car, battles on every shift and makes his teammates better.

But more specifically this season, it's focusing on two opposite attributes: his ability to stand out and his knack for fitting in.

The first talent has been of great aid to the Crunch lately. Peca is tied for the team lead in playoff scoring, with 12 points (4-8) in 13 games. The Crunch hosts Providence in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals Wednesday in the War Memorial.

"He's been competitive with a lot of consistency since the playoffs started. And he's been scoring big goals, timely goals,'' Groulx said. "Those important goals, it seems that they find him in the playoffs. And it's to his credit. It's about bringing that competitiveness with consistency that's going to make a difference for him.''

In the bigger picture it's also about that second skill, which stands to make a greater payoff for Peca and the Lightning long-term.

Peca was a seventh-round pick in the 2011 draft whose career rocketed during four seasons at Quinnipiac. As a rookie for the Crunch last year, he showed promise with eight goals and 35 helpers.

But promise often winds up as going no further than that.

Peca got his first test drive in the NHL with Tampa Bay this season, a 10-game stint that produced just one goal and one assist. But his points total wasn't a true gauge of the matter.

Many players understandably craft their games in the AHL and then struggle a bit to meld into an NHL niche. The question of whether they are true NHL players can take a season or more to resolve.

Not with Peca. His window was revealing enough to form the general hope and consensus that when he's finally ready for the NHL, his toolbox will set him up to immediately play his game to a greater and more effective extent than he has in the minors.

"He's a puck possession guy. He wants to make plays. And this is how Tampa wants to play. So, I'm not surprised that when he went up there he was competitive and he took his game to another level,'' Groulx said.

"I think you could chalk it up to a little bit of excitement. Maybe I had a little more legs my first couple of games up there. You get more confident when you have a couple good games,'' Peca said. "You're playing with NHL-caliber players. I was lucky enough to be put in situations to play. I didn't change much.

"Obviously, the American League prepared me well enough to go up there and be successful. But I just tried to approach the game like I normally did. It's a different style of game up there, too. It's a little more open. As a smaller-stature guy with speed, like myself, I think I kind of used that to my advantage and did well.''

Peca acts and plays beyond his 24 years. He's a former captain in college who has that title written all over him somewhere down the road in the pros.

He's looked at virtually every day at a pro rink as a chance to learn, describing himself as a sponge who processes the good and the bad in an effort to churn out the optimal result down the road.

"Different types of adversity and different types of situations are thrown at you throughout your first year. You try and take those experiences into your second year and hopefully not make the same mistakes. In that situation, I think players grow,'' Peca said. "You kind of start to find where you fit into a team and what works at this level. I think it's just all about learning the game, being a student and doing what makes you successful.''

That knowledge absorption is a reason why Peca's been such a clutch producer in the postseason. His breakaway goal eight seconds into the third period of Game 7 of the North Division finals against Toronto sparked a 6-3 Syracuse win and stands as one of the biggest Crunch tallies of the season.

"It's a different animal. It's a different atmosphere. And players have to rise to the occasion,'' Peca said of the playoffs. "Everybody has a role. Some guys got to score and some guys got to be more physical. And I think once playoff time rolls around, you buy into that a little more, whether you like it or not.

"So I think that playoff mentality is just something that you kind of flip a switch when it starts and everybody's kind of in it. Personally, for me I think that's probably one of the best things that could happen. Every game is a little bit more important and you're more in it. So, you've just got to show up every day and do your job.''

The product of that could be a Crunch playoff run that lasts well into June.

And, next fall, it could put a classic Tampa Bay forward into a Lightning jersey for good.

"It's definitely comforting that my style fits the Lightning. That stuff's always in the back of your mind,'' he said. "So, when you're paying your dues here, and you're working hard and you're trying to make it to the next level, you're not trying to change anything. Guys that aren't necessarily fitted to the style (of the parent club), it's kind of in the back of their mind do they have to get faster? Me, in my case, I've just got to work as hard as I can and get better, faster, stronger. Hopefully my opportunity will come, and hopefully it will be good.''