Just over a minute after the puck dropped, Kelli Rowswell stepped in front of the Princeton forward as she tried to maneuver deeper into the zone. Rowswell broke up the play, but the puck slid just out of her reach, falling back to the Princeton defense.

As Rowswell and the other Syracuse skaters pressed, trying to get the puck out of their end, Princeton’s Maggie Connors controlled the puck along the blue line, barely keeping the play alive. Connors looked up, and with two Syracuse skaters in her face, managed to find Carly Bullock wide open, with only the goalie to beat. 

Left. Right. Back to left. Connors slid the puck along the goal line after dekeing out goalie Allison Small. 1-0 Princeton.

Syracuse (0-9) surrendered that goal just 1:13 into its 3-0 loss to No. 6 Princeton (2-0) at Hobey Baker Rink on Saturday. Despite playing their first games of the season this weekend, the Tigers showed why they’re a top-10 team in the nation, letting up only one goal in their first 120 minutes of hockey.

On its first overnight road trip of the year, Syracuse turned to Small for consecutive starts in net, after she allowed only two goals on 34 shots in Friday’s 3-1 loss. Small stopped 22 of 25 on Saturday, but with the Orange unable to put a tally on the board, her performance was all for naught. 

Syracuse has been plagued by penalty troubles all season, but the Orange managed to take only three penalties in Saturday’s defeats. SU’s power play, which sat at a 14.3% success rate entering the contest, once again let faltered, as the Orange field to score on four opportunities.

“We do work on the power play at the end of most Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday practices,” Orange forward Emma Polaski said earlier this week. “They’re kind of changing right now.”

After a pair of losses last weekend, SU head coach Paul Flanagan knew his team’s tough early schedule would continue as they travelled to face the Tigers. Still, nine losses to start the season is a program record. 

“This is a year where things are a little tough,” Flanagan said. 

Published on October 26, 2019 at 3:12 pm

Contact Mitchell: mbannon@syr.edu