Allie LaCombe lay face down on the ice, clutching her head as the Lions raced the other way.

Syracuse was up by two with just four minutes and left in the game when a Lindenwood player crushed the SU forward as she skated through the offensive zone.

Lidenwood forward Sarah Bobrowski closed in on SU goalie Jenn Gilligan before SU defender Megan Quinn dove from behind and tripped her.

On the bench, Paul Flanagan was irate, screaming, “Do your job,” to the referees.

“That should have been a whistle, our power play, and ten seconds later, they’ve got a penalty shot,” Flanagan said. “That’s just, that’s poor officiating.”

The penalty shot was the last chance the Lions would get. Syracuse scored three unanswered goals and held on to defeat Lindenwood, 3-1, at Tennity Ice Pavilion on Saturday. The Orange dominated in front of its opponents crease, scoring three rebound goals, which proved to be the difference.

“Tonight, we were more determined to get to that gray areas to get loose pucks, and that made a huge difference,” Flanagan said. “… If you had an imaginary box around the net, that’s where we have to play.”

Lindenwood capitalized on the only goal of the first period when Tigers forward Jordyn Constance beat Gilligan with a shot that hardly even left the ice.

In the second period, though, Syracuse piled on 11 shots and plenty of chances.

SU defender Akane Hosoyamada took a slapshot from the point that bounced off Lindenwood’s goalie, Nicole Hensley. Piacentini connected with the puck in mid-air and sent it home to knot the game at one.

On the bench, SU defender Nicole Renault wrapped her arms around forward Eleanor Haines, who was standing next to her.

“Lindenwood has a really good goaltender, so it’s tough to get goals by her,” Piacentini said. “I thought we did a good job of crashing the net and playing tough in front.”

Just one minute into the third, Hensley saved SU defender Kaillie Goodnough’s initial shot from the point, but the puck caromed out to SU defender Larissa Martyniuk, who buried a one-time slapshot in the back of the net on the power play to put SU ahead, 2-1.

Less than five minutes later, SU forward Emily Costales positioned herself in the crease and pounced on a rebound that sent Hensley to the ice. Costales lifted a defender’s stick and slid the puck through the goalie’s legs.

Gilligan smacked her stick on the ice in celebration as she skated over to the bench to congratulate her teammates.

“That’s something we’ve really struggled with throughout the season and I think today we were just able to capitalize on it,” Costales said of rebound goals. “We could do more, but it was pretty good today.”

As Bobrowski stood at center ice to take the penalty shot, late in the third, Gilligan said to the referee explaining penalty shot rules to her, “Just get the girl to skate toward me.”

Gilligan lunged forward with her stick to poke check the puck away, but missed. Gilligan stretched out her right leg as Bobrowski fired a shot, and stopped the puck with her pad.

With a minute left, LaCombe returned to the ice and the crowd roared as she nearly scored on the empty net.

After the game, Flanagan was still upset with the play at the end of the game, but Gilligan’s defense and the SU offense made that point moot.

“A lot of goalies get a little nervous for penalty shots,” Gilligan said, “and those are situations that I live for.”

Published on February 14, 2015 at 6:56 pm

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus