Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.

With just under three minutes remaining in the third period, knotted at one apiece with then-No. 13 Vermont, Syracuse returned to full strength despite squandering its third power play of the night. Then, everything went wrong for the Orange in the game’s closing minutes.

Twenty-six seconds after Kambel Beacom was released from the penalty box, Corrine McCool gave Vermont a 2-1 lead with just 1:52 left in the period. With the score and time on the Catamounts’ side, SU pulled Arielle DeSmet from the net in favor of an extra skater to help score an equalizing goal. Still, Syracuse couldn’t get anything going on offense, which led to Vermont scoring an empty net goal to win 3-1.

This season, Syracuse’s conference win percentage (.000 vs .667), goals per game (1.27 vs 2.67) and goals conceded per game (3.33 vs 4.36) are all significantly lower in its six games against ranked opponents. After some tough losses, Syracuse will look to take what it’s learned into its final conference slate.

Despite the loss, head coach Britni Smith felt her team had just played its best game of the season.

“In the locker room, I told them, ‘I think that’s the best 60 minutes we’ve played this season so far, and if we play like that, there’s not a team that can come in here and that we can’t compete with,’” Smith said. “So we’re very proud of our efforts tonight.”

With Penn State falling out of the top 15 teams in the country, Syracuse isn’t set to face another ranked opponent for the rest of the regular season. Ten of its last 11 games will be against teams in its conference.

Arlo Stone | Design Editor

“Out of conference games are usually really tough, so I think coming in with more confidence and believing in ourselves a little more, knowing that we can keep up with (our opponents) and (look to) get the momentum going,” Lauren Bellefontaine said following Syracuse’s loss to No. 10 Cornell.

As bad as Syracuse has been against ranked teams, it’s played well in its limited CHA action, going 4-2.

In SU’s first two CHA games against RIT, it outscored the Tigers 5-1 and won both of its games in wire-to-wire offense.

Bellefontaine got the Orange started early after winning a faceoff against Hana Solinger in the first period of the series, dishing the puck to Terryn Mozes. Mozes had an opening and took the shot, but it was blocked. However, reading the play all the way, Bellefontaine followed up for the rebound to give SU an early lead, and it didn’t look back for the rest of the weekend.

The following series, SU swept Lindenwood, outscoring it 8-4. Madison Primeau notched a hat trick in the first game of the series, helping the Orange cruise to an easy win, but the second game proved to be much tougher.

Heading into the final 20 minutes, Syracuse held a 3-2 lead before Sarah Davies tied the game up 4:25 into the third period. For the majority of the third, with the score still tied, it looked as if the game was heading to overtime. However, with under 10 seconds left in the period, Tatum White controlled the puck with open ice ahead of her.

Santiago Noblin | Presentation Director

With no defenders covering the middle, White skated to her left towards the opening. Keeping the puck on her left side, White fired to the bottom left corner of the goal and scored the game-winner for SU with 4.2 seconds remaining in regulation.

The wins against RIT and Lindenwood have proved to be the peak of Syracuse’s season, helping the Orange start conference play undefeated and giving SU its longest winning streak to date.

However, following its four-straight wins, Syracuse got swept by then-No. 15 Princeton the following weekend and lost its first two conference games of the season against then-No. 12 Penn State a month later.

After Kaira Zannon gave the Nittany Lions a 1-0 lead late in the first period of the two-game set, Penn State cruised the rest of the way. Over the weekend series, Penn State outshot Syracuse 79-36 en route to outscoring Syracuse 15-3.

With eight points across its six conference games, Syracuse currently sits third in the CHA standings. With four games against Mercyhurst and two against the Nittany Lions remaining, Syracuse has an opportunity to prove itself as a top-two team in the conference, but it will need to learn from its losses to top-ranked teams in order to do so.

“I think we’ve improved every single game. I don’t think we’re backtracking at all,” Bellefontaine said. “So I think that’s a huge positive and if we keep that up throughout the rest of the season, we’re going to be successful.”

Published on January 19, 2023 at 12:11 am

Contact Justin: justingirshon@gmail.com | @JustinGirshon