UPDATED: Nov. 5, 2017 at 12:22 p.m.

On Saturday, without fail, a Boston College fan yelled, “You know it’s coming!” towards the ice. No matter the situation, the shout rang down from the top row of the bleachers, advising each team that the Eagles were about to score and mount a comeback. By the time the game ended, the fan’s prophecy had been proved true.

For the second straight year, Syracuse took a 2-0 lead in the first period against a top-10 ranked Boston College team, only to see its lead vanish in a disastrous second period and eventually disappear for good. The Orange (1-7-1) experienced déjà vu against No. 2 Boston College (8-0-1) on Saturday at Tennity Ice Pavilion, scoring the first two goals of the game before getting outscored 4-1 the rest of the way to fall, 4-3. Almost 10 months ago, during an afternoon matchup in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, against the then-No. 6 Eagles, Syracuse suffered the same fate thanks to a second-period collapse. It’s been an all too familiar result for the Orange, which has struggled with finishing games this season.

“Close but no cigar, that’s the old saying,” head coach Paul Flanagan said. “We’re getting a little sick of that.”

Goals by Stephanie Grossi and Savannah Rennie, each player’s first of the season, spotted the Orange a 2-0 lead halfway through the first period. Syracuse nearly escaped the period unscathed, but with 1:35 left in the opening stanza, the nation’s leading scorer, Daryl Watts, put Boston College on the board. Watts, a freshman, entered today’s game leading the country in both goals and assists and didn’t disappoint against the Orange, tallying one each on Saturday.

Syracuse began the second period stronger than last year, scoring a goal off a Lindsay Eastwood rebound with 15:24 left. It took just 18 seconds for the Eagles to respond, notching a goal after a faceoff win to cut into SU’s lead and make the score 3-2. Nearly 10 scoreless minutes ensued, and it appeared that Syracuse had regained its hold on the game and its late-game woes. Then, the Orange lost control.

A Boston College power play that began with 7:13 left in the second period was almost thwarted thanks to a strong defensive effort by the Orange, but eventually the Eagles capitalized. Goalie Abbey Miller was faced with shot after shot as Syracuse struggled to clear the puck out of its zone, stopping six attempts in total through the first minute and 40 seconds of the power play. Boston College’s seventh shot ricocheted off Miller’s stick-side post before the following shot, its eighth of the advantage, found the back of the net. The goal tied the game at three, and just over a minute later the game was untied after Boston College’s third goal of the period.

“I thought we competed well,” Miller said. “We had a lot of passion on the ice. We did a good job getting a good jump on them early, but we’ve just got to be playing the full 60 minutes.”

The Orange, which Eagles’ head coach Katie Crowley told Flanagan was “the best team” Boston College had played this season, Flanagan said, fell behind 4-3, a deficit it would never recover from. Despite three power plays in the third period, Syracuse managed just three total shots on goal, and was held scoreless in the final 35 minutes of the game.

Struggles with holding onto a lead responding to an opposition’s comeback have plagued the Orange this year, and it may be a mental issue, Lindsay Eastwood said.

“We may get down on ourselves a little bit,” the redshirt sophomore defender said. “We just have to keep that energy the whole time, so we can bounce back when we get scored on.”

Whether the problem is mental, physical or just bad luck, Syracuse has a week to remedy it before it opens conference play against Penn State. Before the Orange figure things out, it might continue to lose close games it had a chance to win.

“There were good things today,” said Flanagan. “But more than anything, it’s just understanding that fine line, how close we really are. We have to move forward.”

This post has been updated with appropriate style.

Published on November 4, 2017 at 7:19 pm

Contact Eric: erblack@syr.edu | @esblack34