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Near the blue line on Lindenwood’s side of the ice, Sarah Thompson gained control of the puck. As she skated down the right side of the ice, Thompson opened up a lane for herself and attracted the defender towards Hannah Johnson after faking a dump off to her. 

With room to operate, Thompson skated around Teagan Heaslip, and as she approached the crease, Natalie Ferenc and Chloe Corbin instantly swarmed her. With the defense primarily focussed on Thompson, Madison Primeau had a wide open lane to skate towards the middle of the crease. At the last second possible, Thompson backhanded the puck to a now wide-open Primeau, who easily scored her third goal of the night. 

“She buried it,” Thompson said. “In our celebration after she was like, ‘I just drive the net. That’s what I do.’”

Led by the first hat trick of Primeau’s collegiate career, Syracuse (4-7-1, 3-0 College Hockey America) defeated Lindenwood (0-7, 0-3 CHA) 4-1 in the first game of a two game weekend series. SU opened conference play with three straight wins. The Orange now ride a four-game winning streak dating back to their shootout victory against Holy Cross.

“(Primeau) was moving her feet and kept her game simple. Two of her goals were rebounds, so she is just getting herself in positions to find those pucks,” Syracuse head coach Britni Smith said. “(She’s) a big strong body, so finding those areas to get into on the ice is crucial.”

SU started the game off a strong, something that the coaching staff has put a major emphasis on after struggling in the first period to start the season. Less than five minutes into the game, Heaslip was called for body checking giving the Orange their first power play opportunity of the night. Three seconds later, Johnson gave the Orange an early 1-0 lead. 

As the start of the period approached, SU looked to add on another goal. Although the Orange squandered an attack from Kambel Beacom and Thompson, Syracuse was able to maintain control of the puck on Lindenwood’s side of the ice. After Thompson attempted a pass to Terryn Mozes, the puck ricocheted off the boards and ricocheted again off of Madilynn Hickey’s stick. 

With the puck free, Primeau darted down the left side of the ice. With Ferenc heavily protecting the left side of the goal, Primeau gathered the puck and on a one-timer, scored shooting on the wide open right side of the goal. 

“I’m always on my toes getting ready,” Primeau said. “You never really know where the puck is going, so just anticipating, using my hockey sense and putting myself in areas that I think will help the team.”

After Kaitlin Finnegan cut the Orange’s lead in half toward the end of the second period, SU looked to itself a more comfortable lead. With about five minutes remaining in the period, Lauren Bellefontaine gained control of the puck and moved the puck from Syracuse’s net.

After Mik Todd received the puck skating down the right side of the rink, she got a shot off, but it was saved. But Ferenc couldn’t control the puck, and the Orange kept the puck on the Lions’ side of the ice. The Lions did a good job preventing the Orange from moving the puck until Thompson gained possession in the far right corner of the rink.

As she skated toward the goal, Thompson flicked the puck towards the middle of the ice in the vicinity of Erin Brousseau and Primeau. Initially, the puck deflected off of Brousseau’s stick and tricked over to Primeau, who had her back towards the goal. Once Primeau gained possession, she turned her body to the right and got into a possession to get a shot on goal. After moving the puck around two Lions defenders, Primeau ripped off a perfect shot toward the bottom left corner of the goal and gave the Orange a 3-1 lead. 

“She’s a goal scorer. You saw tonight, puck gets on her stick, it’s going in the back of the net. If I can just get pucks on net, she’s usually there to bury them,” Thompson said.

Published on November 4, 2022 at 11:14 pm

Contact Justin: justingirshon@gmail.com | @JustinGirshon