Nine minutes and 35 seconds was the cumulative time Syracuse was down a player against Bemidji State. Nine minutes and 35 seconds spread over nine separate occasions Bemidji State held an advantage. In that time, Syracuse didn’t allow a single puck to cross the goal line.

The Orange’s (0-2) success on the penalty kill proved a significant aspect of its 3-0 loss to the Beavers (2-0) on Saturday afternoon at Tennity Ice Pavilion. While SU’s offense struggled to generate chances, its defense got beat only when both teams were at even strength.

“Anytime you’re successful in any area, it’s a positive,” Syracuse head coach Paul Flanagan said about his team’s penalty kills. “The downside is we’re in the box a lot.”

The first penalty kill came 5:15 into the first period after forward Sarah Stuehr was called for hooking and placed in the box for two minutes. Bemidji State had its first shot on goal during a power play. Three more penalty kills took place in the first period, including one at 12:40 after Alysha Burriss was called for tripping and one at 15:51 through the period when Emily Costales was called for tripping. The most active penalty kill also took place in the first quarter, 13 minutes, 10 seconds in. Bemidji State had four shots on goal in the 1:30 it had the upper hand.

The other power plays came 3:20, 5:20 and 11:38 into the second period and 2:25 and 4:25 into the third period.

Flanagan attributes their ability to stop the power play to both the defense and forwards Jessica Sibley, Stephanie Grossi, Morgan Blank, Emily Costales, Burriss and Heather Schwarz (27).

“We have a lot of good veterans who know what they’re doing,” SU defender Megan Quinn said.

Quinn was one of the eight Syracuse players to find themselves in the penalty box during the game. The penalty, called for kicking, came with only two minutes left in the third period and was the final penalty of the night.

Between the both sides, there was a total of 19 penalties, seven in the first and third periods and five in the second. Syracuse had 10 of them and Bemidji had the other nine.

“It’s tough to get the flow going where there are a lot of whistles, but we just kind of got to control what we can,” SU defender Larissa Martyniuk said.

Six of the nine times, Syracuse was down five players to four. The other three, Syracuse was outnumbered four to three.

“It’s hard to get into the game when it’s not five-on-five,” Quinn said. “Its really hard to get into the groove of things when its five-on-four or four-on-three and back and forth and back and forth.”

The Orange has gone 0 for 16 (0-7, 0-9) in the past two games in goals let in versus penalty kills, keeping all 18 shots on goal out.

Published on October 1, 2016 at 10:33 pm

Contact Kaci: klwasile@syr.edu