In a period that Paul Flanagan called the best of the season, Syracuse dominated Robert Morris en route to clinching a bye in the first round of the College Hockey America tournament.

Following a lackluster first period in which the Orange couldn’t seem to find a rhythm in all three zones and fell down 1-0, the team came flying out of the gate to start the second period.

“We had to start getting pucks by them, “ said Flanagan, the SU head coach. “Any chance you get … get pucks on net, generate some rebounds. Make their D work. We weren’t making their D work.”

The Orange exploded for six goals in the second stanza on its way to a 6-1 win over the Colonials (14-12-5, 6-7-4 CHA) on Friday night at Tennity Ice Pavilion. Six different players scored for SU (15-13-3, 11-4-2 CHA) since its highest scoring output on Oct. 21 against the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Flanagan stressed avoiding getting shots blocked and not getting “cute” with the puck. Just get pucks in deep on offensive zone entries and move your feet, he said, while making sure to clear the puck cleanly when on defense.

This system worked almost flawlessly, as Syracuse was able to score six times in the middle frame from all different parts of the ice.

Jessica Sibley, who has scored several overtime winners in the last month, was part of that balanced effort and felt that transferring the energy from the locker room to the ice was key in helping Syracuse win the second period and the game.

“Our whole team is feeling it, everyone’s going,” Sibley said. “That’s exactly what we need going into the last couple of weekends here. Coach said during the break that you need to bring that type of energy out on the ice, and I think we did that exactly.”

After Nicole Ferrara scored during a scrum in front of Robert Morris goalie Jessica Dodds 1:35 into the second period, Emily Costales scored 52 seconds later to give Syracuse a 2-1 lead it wouldn’t relinquish. Following a broken play in which a failed clear by Robert Morris deflected off the chest of Morgan Blank, Dodds was left out of position and Costales had a wide open net to tap the puck into.

“I’ve been really lucky lately,” said Costales. “So hopefully that carries on going forward.”

Exactly five minutes later Syracuse would score right off a faceoff won by Sibley. Nicole Renault received the puck at the point from the draw, took two steps in and ripped it into the net to give Syracuse a 3-1 lead.

Less than three minutes later at the 9:54 mark of the second period Syracuse would strike again on a greasy goal by Heather Schwarz. As Schwarz came around the net and tried to find a teammate coming down the middle, she attempted the pass and instead banked it off Dodds’ pads to give Syracuse a 4-1 lead.

Allie Munroe scored a power-play goal at the 15:25 mark of the period on a rush in which she saw an open lane in the defense, used speed and quickly snapped a rocket top-shelf on backup goalie Elijah Milne-Price to give the Orange a commanding 5-1 lead.

“They maybe took it for granted and gave me that lane,” said Munroe. “The goalie was kind of in her crease and I just tried to find the open net so it was good.”

The Orange coasted to the final buzzer and heads into Saturday’s back end of the weekend series without the same stakes.

Robert Morris will look to avenge a five-goal loss but Syracuse is already sitting comfortably in the safe zone atop the CHA standings.

“The big thing for us is getting the monkey off our back and getting the bye,” Flanagan said. “You move the pressure off these kids and see how they respond. That will be the big challenge for us tomorrow.”

Published on February 13, 2016 at 12:12 am

Contact Jake: jafalk@syr.edu