After cruising to a 3-0 victory over Penn State last Saturday, SU head coach Paul Flanagan said his team would have to be fundamentally sound and consistent to beat a team like Mercyhurst.

Syracuse (14-11-2, 6-6-2 College Hockey America) failed to execute on either of those fronts, allowing No. 10 Mercyhurst (17-7-3, 10-3-1) to beat SU 3-2 on Saturday.

“We needed a good bounce on a late shot or a deflection off someone’s stick,” Flanagan said. “But you can’t hope for those things to happen, you have to make them happen.”

Syracuse got off to a slow start on Saturday, recording only one shot on goal in the first 11 minutes of play, and was outshot 12-7 in the first period. The Laker offense made quick work of the Orange defense, registering two goals within five minutes of each other midway through the first stanza.

Mercyhurst forward Christie Cicero swung a pass across the ice to defender Molly Byrne just in front of the blue line, who sent the puck ahead to forward Jenna Dingeldein in the scuffle in front of the net as Dingeldein flicked it past Syracuse goalie Jenesica Drinkwater.

Five minutes later, Mercyhurst forward Hannah Bale put a goal just past the right side of Drinkwater, who slammed her stick down in frustration as the horn blared.

“We had too many small mistakes today,” said senior forward Margot Scharfe. “And Mercyhurst is a good enough team where they’ll take advantage of you for that.”

Scharfe provided the only offensive spark for the Orange on Saturday when she tucked away a goal into the lower-right corner of the net on the powerplay for SU, cutting the Laker lead to 2-1.

The assist on the Scharfe goal went to Syracuse forward Melissa Piacentini, which extended her point streak to eight games. The eight-game streak has tied her for the longest point streak in program history.

When asked what her team needed to do against Mercyhurst that they just weren’t able to, Piacentini replied very candidly.

“Honestly, I wish I could tell you what to do to beat [Mercyhurst],” she said.

Five minutes into the third period, freshman forward Jessica Sibley had a momentary breakaway for Syracuse. She waited a spit-second too long to get a shot off and had the puck swatted away by the Laker defense.

“We’ve got to find a way to overcome the clutch mistakes,” Flanagan said. “The ones that make the difference in winning or losing a game.”

That play was representative of the way SU faired against Mercyhurst in six periods of action of Friday and Saturday.

Syracuse played another tight game on Friday, losing 3-2 to Mercyhurst. Piacentini collected her 13th goal of the season, and defender Larissa Martyniuk made it a one-goal deficit for the Orange with four minutes left in the game.

Flanagan called a timeout following the Martyniuk goal to try and rally his team, but the effort by the Orange fell short with a last-second wide shot by defender Nicole Renault as the buzzer sounded.

Syracuse called a players-only meeting following Friday’s loss, but failed to capitalize in its second game against the Lakers on Saturday. SU must now look ahead to a quick turnaround for its game on Tuesday against St. Lawrence.

“We’re not going to dwell on things for too long,” Flanagan said. “We’re still improving and now we turn our focus to St. Lawrence.”

Published on February 3, 2014 at 2:04 am

Contact Connor: cgrossma@syr.edu | @connorgrossman