Whatever Paul Flanagan said in the Orange locker room during the first intermission worked.

“We just had a little chat,” Flanagan said. “A little chat just between us.”

After a first period where Syracuse doubled Lindenwood’s shots but scored only one goal the Orange came roaring out of the gate. Lauren Bellefontaine scored on a rebound just 22 seconds into the second period. Not even one minute passed when Kelli Rowswell’s shot snuck past Lindenwood goalie Annika Asplundh. Syracuse (12-16-2, 10-4-2 College Hockey America) scored six goals in the second period in an 8-0 win over Lindenwood (5-21-3, 3-13). The goals came in bunches — three goals in five minutes to start the period then two goals in 90 seconds against Lindenwood’s new goalie, Julia Maguire.

“I think we all just knew that the first period wasn’t our best performance and we wanted to pick it up for the second period and just get a bigger lead,” Mae Batherson said.

While the Orange’s one goal first period allowed Lindenwood to stay in the game, the second period ended any hope in just a few minutes. After a Kristen Siermachesky slap shot made it 4-0, the Lions took three penalties in a 90 second span. SU continued to dump pucks in and had it’s defenders close in on attackers to keep pucks in the zone.

“You notice our D kept a lot of pucks in on the walls when they were trying to get out so they just got tired,” Flanagan said. “So that’s part of the mentality. Don’t let them change, you’ll score goals.”

Bellefontaine started and ended a stretch of five goals in 11 minutes. Her second goal came off another turnover by Lindenwood. The Lions were trying to clear the puck out of the zone but before it could cross center ice and out of the neutral zone, Jessica DiGirolamo batted it down out of the air and dished a pass to a streaking Madison Beishuizen. Beishuizen was then alone on a two-on-one with Bellefontaine and then passed the puck to Bellefontaine who roofed a shot off the crossbar and in.

“He (Flanagan) said he was nervous for us because we were doing really bad in the neutral zone and our defensive zone. So we needed to pick it up a lot and get the offensive chances that we needed,” Bellefontaine said. “So I think we really capitalized on that. And he motivated us to do that.”

Mae Batherson added a goal in the final minute of the second period when she weaved through three defenders to backhand it into the net. In all, Syracuse had six goals in the second period. Lindenwood had six shots in the same frame.

In a game in which SU could have let the Lions stay in it, Syracuse took control.

“I think once the kids got clicking you can tell Lindenwood was thinking about the flight home,” Flanagan said. “I mean it’s human nature.”

Published on February 15, 2020 at 9:08 pm

Contact Gaurav: gshetty@syr.edu