Abby Moloughney charged at a loose puck with a St. Lawrence defender trailing right behind her. Moloughney was second to the puck, but as she tried to chop the puck, she collided with a St. Lawrence defender. She fell to the ice in pain, clutching her arm. Already down to 10 forwards for the game, Syracuse was now down to only nine. She did not return.

Syracuse (2-11, 1-2 College Hockey America) ran out of steam and lost in the opening seconds of overtime 4-3 to St. Lawrence (5-4-3, 2-1-1 ECAC Hockey). Goalie Ady Cohen and forwards Brynn Koocher and Marielle McHale were battling injuries and could do nothing as their team lost for the 11th time this season. The Orange only had 10 forwards, seven defenders and one healthy goalie, while the Saints had all 12 forwards, seven defenders, and three goalies to work with. 

Down one goal with only half a period left, defender Jessica DiGirolamo picked up the puck in her own zone. DiGirolamo then lasered a stretch pass right onto the tape of forward Savannah Rennie’s stick. Rennie was one of the players who had to log more minutes than usual to make up for the shortened bench.

Rennie entered the offensive zone with a full head of steam. One-on-one with the goalie, she roofed the puck to tie the game at three.

Fast forward into overtime and Rennie was on the ice again as St. Lawrence picked up the puck on a three on two. She tried to skate back, but it was too late as a wide open player on the Saints buried the game winner just 20 seconds into overtime. Another loss piled on, but the injuries could have more of an impact on SU going forward.

“I think it always hurts when we’re missing part of our team,” said Rennie. “Everyone is here for a certain role, a certain purpose and when someone’s out it’s obviously going to hurt us.”

Defender Lindsay Eastwood is used to logging big minutes for the Orange. Eastwood and the defense had to face four lines of the St. Lawrence attack compared to SU’s three lines by the end of the match. The Orange did not have enough forwards to play a fourth line. Eastwood agreed with Rennie that the injuries hurt the team. 

“It sucks when we are down a couple people,” said Eastwood. “We have a short lineup to begin with.”

When healthy, the Orange have just enough players to have four forwards lines and seven defenders and would not have healthy scratches. SU head coach Paul Flanagan confirmed postgame that Cohen, Koocher and McHale all missed the game because of undisclosed injuries suffered prior to Saturday’s game. 

“She’s (Cohen) been out two weeks and the target date I heard is the 19th which is Tuesday,” said Flanagan. “The other two that’s totally up in the air I have no idea.”

St Lawrence had four more players than the Orange. The Saints took advantage of the numbers advantage midway through the game as they switched goalies. Syracuse did not have this option, with Cohen out injured. Despite being undermanned, Flanagan does not attribute the loss to injuries. 

“That would be an excuse,” said Flanagan. “We got enough kids.”

Published on November 16, 2019 at 6:57 pm

Contact Gaurav: gshetty@syr.edu