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Trailing by one with roughly three minutes left in the third period, Syracuse needed to put something together fast. Lauren Bellefontaine, who was skating just left of the net, received a pass from Hannah Johnson, but her shot missed just wide to the right. 

About a minute later, Bellefontaine had another opportunity as she received the puck skating down the right side of the rink after a beautiful pass by Sarah Marchand, but she was knocked down to the ice and lost the puck on the Orange’s last opportunity to tie the game.

With one minute left and the Orange in desperation time, they pulled Arielle DeSmet from the goal. Fourteen seconds later, Anna Segedi controlled the puck near the center of the ice and with no defenders or goalie in site, she glided the puck to the back of the net to put the game out of reach.

The empty net goal from Segedi cemented a dominant effort from SLU throughout the game. In Britni Smith’s home debut, Syracuse (1-3-0, 0-0 College Hockey America) fell to St. Lawrence (2-3-0, 0-0 Eastern College Athletic Conference) 2-0. Throughout the game, the Saints were always in control of the puck and they played tough defense, which made it difficult for the Orange to get anything going. St. Lawrence ended up outshooting Syracuse in every period (17-8, 37-11, 21-8). SU goalie Arielle DeSmet made 43 saves against the Saints.

“St. Lawrence is a strong team,” Smith said. “You’re going to have to weather storms. We were expecting that, that wasn’t anything we weren’t ready for.”

After Bellefontaine was called for body checking just over three minutes into the game, the Saints fired off four shots on the ensuing power play, but DeSmet saved all four. In the first period, DeSmet saved 10 of SLU’s shots, but she wasn’t perfect.

With just over six minutes remaining in the opening period, the Saints’ relentless shot-taking finally paid off. After receiving the puck in space, Katina Duscio fired off a shot that missed just left of the goal. The puck proceeded to deflect off the board and right to Kiley Mastel, who was right in front of the net, burying a short shot to give St. Lawrence an early 1-0 lead after.

The Saints continued their pressure into the second period, having a golden opportunity to add to their lead. Rachel Teslak skated down the right side of the rink and slapped a shot that was saved by DeSmet, but the puck ricocheted right to Hillary Sterling. Sterling had a one-on-one opportunity to score, but like DeSmet had done so many times in her career, she made the stop, notching her 1,500th collegiate save.

“I knew it was coming, but it still kind of caught me off guard. It’s always crazy to hit a milestone like that, so it was really exciting,” DeSmet said. “It wasn’t something that I was actively thinking about during the game, but it’s always a boost of confidence during the game when you hear something like that.”

Even though the Orange surrendered three power plays, DeSmet stood strong in front of the net, only allowing Mastel to score.

But throughout the game, Rayla Clemons (four) and Mae Batherson (two) were the only SU players to have two or more shots. While they had 13 shots, a lack of puck movement made it easy for the Saints’ defense and goalie Lucy Morgan to shut out the Orange. 

“When I have the puck I’m just thinking get the puck deep, but if I have the opportunity to beat a few girls, I’m going to try and do that to keep possession,” Clemons said.

Despite being stagnant on offense for most of the game, SU was able to find a rhythm in the last 10 minutes of the game. Even though they weren’t able to score, Syracuse’s offensive attack looked much more fluid as they started moving the puck around more easily and maintaining possession on St. Lawrence’s side of the ice. 

With about three minutes remaining, Syracuse had chance after chance in the crease area, but better defense by the Saints kept the Orange off the scoreboard. At first, Marchand skated by her defender but she was quickly met by three defenders once she tried getting her shot off. After a scramble for the puck, Tatum White retrieved it and got a shot off, but again the Orange were stuffed by Morgan.

“Possession time definitely (can be) balanced out a little bit. So we can build off that now,” Smith said. “It’s finding ways with that possession to get the scoring areas to create a little more offense for ourselves,”

Published on October 6, 2022 at 11:32 pm

Contact Justin: justingirshon@gmail.com | @JustinGirshon