Victoria Klimek cut to the middle of the zone. After several rebounds, she cradled the puck and flicked her wrist for another Syracuse shot. It found the back of the net.

Klimek’s goal was the culmination of a game-long attack by the Orange, which totaled 51 shot attempts. It gave Syracuse a 2-1 lead it wouldn’t relinquish. Syracuse dominated the control of the puck, keeping possession in Ottawa territory for most of the game. After 35 minutes, the Orange found itself down 1-0. Then, on its 33rd shot of the game, Syracuse broke through.

“(Alysha) Burriss hit me with a nice pass … we had a lot of chances before that though, so it was just kind of a build-up, and finally the puck went in the net,” said Allie Munroe, who put the Orange on the board with a goal in the second period. “It was our first game, so obviously it was just kind of getting used to everyone and getting used to playing.”

One of those freshmen was Klimek, who, in her first collegiate game, scored off a feed from Lindsay Eastwood in the middle of penalty-depleted zone.

The Brampton, Ontario, native was aggressive from the outset, sending three shots toward the net in the first period. She didn’t attempt her fourth and final shot until the third period, but then, for the first time in her college career, her attempt hit the target.

“We kept getting puck possession because of (the shots),” Klimek said, “so I thought it helped because we kept … getting shots, and eventually one of them was gonna go in, just happened to be mine.”

Syracuse never stopped attacking. As the Orange shots were sent away one after another, Syracuse responded with even more, including 18 in the decisive third period.

“I thought we did a good job,” head coach Paul Flanagan said. “Because early on they were sending two forwards and trying to pressure our defensemen, trying to frustrate us on the breakout. I think our team did a good job moving the puck, and if they didn’t have an outlet, or someone to pass to, they did a good job of getting their feet moving and just made good decisions through the middle of the zone.”

With only a week of practice under its belt entering today, Syracuse will have totaled less than two weeks of preparation before its regular season opener on Friday at Bemidji State.

“It was good for us,” Flanagan said. “It does give us something to go on now. You could really see the positives that we came out with today.”

Published on September 24, 2017 at 6:40 pm

Contact Eric: erblack@syr.edu | @esblack34