Jenn Gilligan was doing homework in her apartment on South Campus when she got an email announcing the lineup for Syracuse’s first game of the season.

She paused and nervously opened it. Instantly, she celebrated with her roommate and teammate, Dakota Derrer.

“We were jumping up and down all over the apartment,” Gilligan said.

For the first time in 19 months, she was a starting goalie.

Gilligan played two years of hockey at New Hampshire before taking a year off from the sport and coming to SU for this season. Now the junior has started the first two games of the year for the Orange after ending up at Syracuse (1-1) by chance.

As a freshman at UNH, Gilligan finished with the highest save percentage on the team and tied for the most wins with five.  In her second year, she won 10 of the 20 games she started — the most on the team — and had the highest save percentage.

But she and her head coach, Brian McCloskey, didn’t see eye-to-eye, Gilligan said.

“My coach basically said UNH wasn’t the right fit for me anymore,” Gilligan said.

So Gilligan stayed at the school, but didn’t play hockey to retain a year of eligibility. She still worked out and practiced on her own, but didn’t play with a team.

“Last year was a tough year for her, not being part of a hockey program,” said her father, Tim Gilligan.

And then Gilligan heard about Syracuse.

Her father coaches the Pacific Steelers of the Junior Women’s Hockey League. The Steelers were playing in Syracuse at the end of November last year.

Brendon Knight, an assistant coach for SU, was at a game to watch current freshman Emily Costales, who played for the Steelers at the time. He was talking to the head coach about Costales and some players on the team when the coach mentioned that his daughter was looking for a place to play hockey.

With two seniors about to graduate, Syracuse was looking for a goalie. After going through NCAA compliance protocol, Gilligan started talking to the team and soon visited.

“I guess if we could make trades and do things,” Flanagan said. “We were looking for a veteran goalie, so voila. What do you know? … It kind of fell right in our lap.”

In SU’s season opener, her first game for Syracuse and first since March 2012, Gilligan stopped 20 shots and nearly completed the shutout until Colgate scored on a rebound in the third period.

“I came into it thinking I had something to prove,” Gilligan said.

The second game against No. 3 Boston College didn’t go as well.  Gilligan saved 24 shots but let in seven goals before being removed after two periods.

But the result didn’t fall on goalie play. Boston College outmatched Syracuse in nearly every aspect of the game.

“I think we hung her out to dry, so to speak, on many occasions,” Flanagan said. “I thought she did a good job. It could’ve been a lot worse after two periods.”

Flanagan said he has no idea who the starting goalie will be for SU’s two games this weekend. But if she gets the start, Gilligan will get to face her old team and her old coach for the first time at home on Saturday.

She said she doesn’t care how many games she starts or plays in, though. She’s just happy to be part of the program at Syracuse and she’ll celebrate for whoever is in net.

But she still has one personal goal.

Said Gilligan: “I want to be that goalie that the coaches look to to win that big game.”

Published on October 8, 2014 at 12:03 am

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus