With the puck at the point and nine seconds on the clock, Syracuse defender Jessica Digirolamo drifted across the blue line. She wound up for a slapshot, but instead dished the puck to Savannah Rennie on her left, who fired a pass across the offensive zone to Abby Moloughney.

The sophomore’s one-timer toward the bottom right corner of the net was saved by a sliding St. Lawrence goaltender Lucy Morgan as the final horn blared, shutting the door on Moloughney’s shot and on the game.

But even if Moloughney’s shot had found twine, the Orange (5-13-1, 4-1-1 College Hockey America) would have still fallen to St. Lawrence (7-7-5, 2-3-2 ECAC), as an empty-net goal had put the Saints up 3-1 a minute prior. Syracuse’s line of Rennie, Moloughney and Anna Leschyshyn generated most of its offense Tuesday night, including the lone goal. During a nonconference game before a stretch of 14 CHA games in their final 15, the Orange continued their streak of solid goaltending and played with the urgency of a team not coming off a month-long break. Once again, though, they were sunk by a late third period goal.

“There were some correctable things,” Head Coach Paul Flanagan said. “But I thought that after a long layoff, and only three days of practice, we had pretty good tempo.”

With five minutes remaining in the final frame, Brittney Gout collected the puck at the Syracuse blue line and found her St. Lawrence teammate, Sophie Holden, rushing into the zone. Holden took the pass in stride and wound up for a slap shot as she drifted deeper into Syracuse territory. Holden hesitated. With no Syracuse player immediately pressuring her, she took a few extra strides toward the net and finally unleashed her shot.

When the puck ricocheted off the right post and past Syracuse’s Allison Small, the Saints broke the tie for good after 15 minutes of scoreless third period hockey. The scoreless stretches came from solid goaltending from the four goalies who appeared in the first game of 2020. The Saints split the three periods among their three active goalies, and the Orange only used Small. After starting 0-8, Small’s steadily improved in her first full season with Syracuse, seeing her season save percentage rise in each of her last five starts — a record of 2-2-1 in that time.

“I think it’s just like getting more comfortable in net, playing more games,” Small said. “I’m just kind of feeling like I’m settling in.”

The Saints opened the scoring after a mistimed Syracuse change left a St. Lawrence skater in all alone. Small fought the initial shot off her mask but the rebound fell to the trailing Saint who dragged the puck to her forehand exposing the wide-open net behind Small. The Orange goaltender reached back with her glove but with no SU defender around she was helpless.

St. Lawrence whacked at the puck once. Then, a second time. And after a third, the referee signaled the puck had crossed the line.

The Orange then took a bench minor with 10 seconds remaining in the first that resulted in a defensive zone faceoff. After Rennie won the draw, a Lindsay Eastwood pass behind the net that would seemingly end the period was instead stolen by a St. Lawrence winger. After the puck was thrown back out to the point, Saint defender Rachel Teslak wound up for a slapshot toward the top right corner. Instead of finding twine, however, it found the orange, S-shaped crest on Eastwood’s jersey, who had stepped in front of the net to save a goal and send the Orange into the locker room down only 1. 

If the 31 days since their last game had dogged the Orange in the first period, all the rust was shaken off by the second. Syracuse killed off the remaining penalty time, without even allowing the Saints to set up in their offensive zone, and outshot St. Lawrence 15-6 in the period.

With under two minutes remaining in the second, Amanda Backebo crossed the goal line and pushed the puck to Moloughney just outside of the crease. Moloughney leaned into a backhander that found its way to the top corner of the net to tie the game. Moloughney, along with usual line mates Rennie and Leschyshyn, generated one-third of the Orange’s shots on goal in the second period. The line buzzed around the ice all game, generating scoring chances at five-on-five and on the powerplay.

“We’re all very quick players,” Moloughney said. “We’ve been playing together for a while now, about two months, actually, so I think we’re starting to really click.”

Despite her line’s play, Moloughney’s goal would be the only the Orange would score. After Holden’s slapshot goal put the Saints up 2-1 in the third, and an empty netter a few minutes later, it became clear the Orange would drop their 12th loss to a nonconference opponent this season. 

But in the loss, Flanagan said, positives emerged that can be built upon heading into conference play. Starting Friday, they are the 14 games that will define Syracuse’s season.

Published on January 7, 2020 at 10:45 pm

Contact Mitchell: mbannon@syr.edu