Up one goal against Northeastern with just 11 minutes remaining, Syracuse was on its way to an upset and first win on the year.

Momentum started to shift, though, when senior Amanda Hoppner was charged with a high sticking penalty, giving Northeastern a seventh power play.

When Northeastern came out with the puck following a miscued Syracuse pass, the mismatch finally caught up with the Orange as the Huskies netted an uncontested long-range shot to equalize.

“It is discipline,” said junior Emma Polaski. “We have consistently struggled with that. It definitely hurts us and tires players out when we have a penalty kill and it completely changes the momentum of the game. We have to be better.”

Syracuse (0-4) lost a back-and-forth contest to No. 3 Northeastern (2-0), 2-1, in a game where penalties were the downfall of the Orange. Syracuse went toe-to-toe with the Huskies for the majority of the game, but as penalties began to mount, the Syracuse defense tired and lost a late lead. SU committed eight penalties for a total of 19 minutes in the box, almost a third of the game.

Junior goaltender Allison Small did an impressive job of limiting the Huskies’ damage on the power play, saving 13-of-14 shots, but when the Huskies equalized, the Orange fell apart. Syracuse committed its eighth and final penalty just a few minutes later and despite a successful kill, a fatigued defense gave up a go-ahead goal with just 23 seconds left.

As an underdog, Syracuse relied on maintaining possession and limiting counter attacks, which led to success early on. Coming into the meeting, Syracuse had never held a clean-sheet after 20 minutes, but after 40 minutes against the Huskies, it was yet to allow a goal. Logan Hicks played a significant part in limiting the damage during the first 40, recording six blocked shots and an emergency clear late in the second period.

“She has been playing a little tentative at times this year but she stepped it up tonight,” said head coach Paul Flanagan. “For her to really pay attention to detail in the penalty kill is really important to us.”

On Syracuse’s first penalty kill, Small made two saves to keep the game tied and the crowd applauded the effort when the team regained full strength. Later on in the period, another five of Northeastern’s shots were stopped on a power play, which had Small reaching for her water bottle after the sequence. After the buzzer ended the first period, several defenders gave their goaltender a pat on the back for keeping the score level.

“Small was unreal today,” said senior Logan Hicks. “I have never seen her play that well. She was everywhere. She was tracking the puck really well and it really helped us.”

In the second, the Orange spent half of the period on penalty kills and went two players down towards the end of the period following a five-minute major penalty for kneeing. They were able to kill the penalty despite the deficit, but the stretch drained the Orange heading into the final period.

“A lot of the kills in the second period really started to wear us down,” said Flanagan. “A lot of the same kids were killing penalty after penalty and having to constantly battle really wore us down. Right at the end we broke.”

Syracuse scored its only goal midway through the third period on a shot to the top right corner by junior Kristen Siermachesky, but an SU penalty minutes later killed the momentum. Throughout the remainder of the third period, the Huskies dominated possession against a winded defense and with just under 30 seconds remaining in the game, the Orange broke.

A Northeastern forward took advantage of a tired defender and wrapped around the Syracuse goal, passing it to the center of the ice for a one-timed finish by an uncovered attacker. A once raucous crowd inside Tennity Ice Pavilion fell silent and the match was lost.

“We just have to get over the hump,” said Flanagan. “We have to have a short-term memory and come in here tomorrow and get after it from the beginning.”

Published on October 12, 2019 at 12:14 am

Contact Eli: efjarjou@syr.edu