Lindsay Eastwood stepped out of the box as the puck hit her stick and skated across the neutral zone. Turning and cutting into the Robert Morris end, Eastwood slid a pass to Abby Moloughney on her right. Uncovered, Moloughney stepped into a wrist shot that beat Colonials goalie Raygan Kirk in the top right corner of the net.

As Eastwood, Moloughney and the SU bench celebrated, Robert Morris’ bench erupted. They argued Eastwood was still in the box when she accepted the pass. Head coach Paul Colintino opened the Colonial’s bench door and yelled at the referees. RMU associate head coach Logan Bittle stood, pointing toward the penalty box repeatedly.

For the Colonials, Saturday’s game mattered. If a win had coupled with a Mercyhurst loss, they would’ve moved atop the College Hockey America standings and secured the regular-season league championship along with home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs. For the Orange, it meant nothing in the standings. Win or lose, they’d play Lindenwood on Thursday in the first round.

But what Moloughney’s game winner did — aside from infuriating the Colonials (19-11-4, 13-5-2 CHA) bench and lifting SU (13-19-2, 11-7-2) to a 4-2 victory — was prove the Orange could beat even the top teams in the conference. It pushed them into the CHA playoff on a high and sent the eight graduating seniors out of Tennity Ice Pavilion with one last win.

“This is one of those games that you’re gonna remember, probably for the rest of your life,” senior Savannah Rennie said. “I’ve been here for four years, hockey’s been a part of my life for like 18 years. So I’m going to remember the score, I’m going to remember what happened, I’m gonna remember beating RMU and kicking their butt. I’ll keep that till the day I die.”

It became clear early the Orange would not bow to Robert Morris. SU drew two quick penalties and outshot the Colonials 14-6 in the first period. But, like they have all conference play, Syracuse struggled to turn the shot and possession advantage into goals.

In the second half of the game, though, the Orange’s strengths they’ve relied upon — consistent penalty killing, strong goaltending in conference play and late-game scoring — reappeared. After blocking a shot in front and slouching at the side of Allison Small’s goal, Shelby Calof looked up to see Madison Beishuizen darting down the ice after the cleared puck. Beishuizen beat her defender, but fighting off stick checks with minimal space and time she could only swipe at the puck that somehow found a way into RMU’s net.

With the faces of Syracuse’s seniors adorning the glass behind her, Small stared down the RMU shots. On a two-on-one, Robert Morris forwards passed the puck back-and-forth before dishing it to their trailing teammate, Jaycee Gebhard, who wired a wrist shot that Small swallowed into the logo on her jersey. All afternoon, Small controlled RMU’s shots and limited rebounds or second chances.

With Penn State leading Mercyhurst 2-0, leaving the door open for the Colonials to take the top seed, Robert Morris began to push back. They tied the shot total halfway through the third, and 6:23 into the final frame, Anjelica Diffendal tipped the puck under a sprawling Small to tie the game, too.

But after two clean penalty kills — featuring Rennie intercepting passes and blocking shots, Lauren Bellefontaine pinning the puck in the offensive end and Jessica DiGirolamo chasing down RMU forecheckers to win back possession — Eastwood stepped out of the box, accepted a pass and slid the puck over to Moloughney for the game winner.

“You can take that momentum that we garnered this afternoon and pack it on the bus on Wednesday knowing full well there’s a good chance we can play these guys again,” coach Paul Flanagan said.

Published on February 29, 2020 at 8:37 pm

Contact Mitchell: mbannon@syr.edu