Orange Overcome Jitters and Penalties To Win its Season Opener

Story and Photos by: Jonathan Kahn

Syracuse, N.Y. -

Orange 5-4-1 all-time against Raiders

The Syracuse Women’s Ice Hockey team earned its 5^th all-time win against the Colgate Raiders Thursday night with a penalty ridden 2-1 victory at Tennity Ice Pavilion. 

Penalties for both teams came early and often. The Orange (1-0-0) and Raiders (0-1-0) combined for six penalty minutes in the first five minutes of regulation.  In total the Orange were called for eight infractions and the Raiders six. Syracuse Head Coach Paul Flanagan said preparation was a big factor.

“I didn't think we were very well prepared early on,” Flanagan said. “We recognize we’ve got some work to do.”

After a scoreless first period it was sophomore forward Eleanor Haines who put the Orange on the board first. Haines said it was SU's aggressive forechecking that led to the goal.

“We kind of stole the puck from Colgate,” Haines said. “I saw the goalie was looking for it on the other side of the net, so I just tucked it in.”  

Flanagan described the game as physical and gritty and the players agreed. Senior forward Julie Knerr said hockey is a physical sport.

“You don’t want to lose your battles,” Knerr said. “We were trying to win all our battles and we got penalties.”

The penalty killers saw a lot of ice-time and were a perfect 8-for-8 of their penalty killing chances. The Raiders took 10 of their 21 total shots during power-play chances. Syracuse redshirt-senior defender Akane Hosoyamada said it came down to blocking shots.

“We were sacrificing our bodies,” Hosoyamada said. “We all tried to block shots, and that was our mentality on the PK.”

Syracuse 3-3-1 in season openers

The pace of play quickened as the third period went on, both teams adding a goal. Syracuse doubled its lead just less than 7 minutes into the period.  Freshman defender Megan Quinn found Knerr for the odd-man rush goal. But Colgate answered back less than 3 minutes later. Freshman Breanne Wilson-Bennett cut the Syracuse lead in half.

There were a few frantic moments in the final few minutes for the Orange. Despite not finding the back of the Raiders empty net Syracuse held on for the one-goal win.

“It would have been such a downer to play hard tonight, our home opener, to let them come back in and take the game from us,” Flanagan said. “I think the girls recognize, yeah we’ll take the W, it’s a good win in some respects. But we have a long way to go and a lot of things to correct.”

The Orange will face No. 3 Boston College on Saturday Oct. 4. Syracuse is 1-1-1 against the Eagles and upset them 4-1 in their last meeting.