After Syracuse’s demolishing of St. John’s, there was only one thing SU head coach John Desko couldn’t see in a positive light: his team’s futility at the faceoff X. That was the only area of discouragement on an otherwise successful day for SU.

‘I’m a little disappointed, I thought we could’ve won a couple more faceoffs,’ Desko said. ‘ … I think we adjusted, and some guys came in at the end of the game and did a pretty good job.’

In its 20-6 win over the Red Storm, the Orange struggled for much of the game in faceoffs. SJU was given a wealth of possessions and chances in the second quarter to try and put together a comeback, but the adjustments quieted any such attempt in the second half. Syracuse finished the game 12-of-28 at the X.

But it could have been a lot worse had Syracuse never found a way to shut down St. John’s faceoff specialist Jordan Rothman, who came into the game with a 49 percent success rate at the X.

Plus, Syracuse’s offense was too explosive to give St. John’s any real chance at making a comeback. SU opened the game with seven goals in the first quarter. And those goals came on just three faceoff victories out of 10 opportunities in the period. Orange faceoff specialist Jeremy Thompson was consistently beaten by the Red Storm’s faceoff specialist, Rothman.

Thompson finished the game 3-of-9 at the X. The three wins were enough for Thompson to feel he at least did a credible job against one of the best.

‘Coming in, we knew this guy was a good guy,’ Thompson said. ‘I came through a couple times on him, shutting him off and coming off with the ball so I was pretty happy about that.’

Starting off the second quarter, though, it looked as though SU’s inability to find success at the X was going to come back to haunt it. The Red Storm started off the period with three consecutive goals, pulling the team to within two goals of Syracuse.

The Orange tried different matchups against Rothman, looking for one that could work consistently, but struggled to reverse its lack of success in the X.

That was no easy task.

Josh Knight took the second faceoff of the second period for Syracuse, but lost to Rothman, giving St. John’s possession. Rothman sent the ball to attack Collin Keegan, who then dished it off to Keith Switzer for a Red Storm goal that got St. John’s to within three.

After the Red Storm’s three goals in the second quarter, Syracuse made some necessary adjustments and began to take control, scoring the final four goals of the second quarter to go ahead 11-5 at the half.

‘I think Coach Donahue used a number of people early, I think trying to see who could counter (Rothman) the best,’ Desko said. ‘I think once the guys got used to him, and Coach got used to who he was going against and what moves he was using, I thought we did a better job going down the stretch.’

In the second half, SU won 6-of-10 faceoffs. St. John’s head coach Jason Miller said Syracuse’s ability to adjust and to make up for inefficiency was a result of one significant advantage the Orange held: athleticism. As much as the Red Storm tried to keep up with SU’s adjustments, there was nothing he could do about Syracuse having better athletes at the X.

Miller said Syracuse started to keep Rothman from being able to push the ball forward. That meant he had to kick it behind him, and SU’s overall athleticism became apparent on the scramble for the ball.

‘We finished the day on the plus side, (above) 50 percent, which is great,’ Miller said. ‘I think they stopped allowing Jordan to push the ball forward, and created loose-ball situations. …I think they out-athleted us a little bit on the wings there.’

The outcome of the game certainly didn’t call for Syracuse needing any more success at the X despite its lack of success. But Desko still would have liked to see his team have some more scoring opportunities.

‘We could’ve won a couple more, we just missed some ground balls,’ Desko said. ‘It could’ve given us a couple more possessions.’

cjiseman@syr.edu

Published on May 6, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Chris: cjiseman@syr.edu | @chris_iseman