The Orange’s top three goal-scorers had only one defender to beat.

Syracuse’s Nicole Ferrara took the puck straight down center ice with Melissa Piacentini and Jessica Sibley following at her sides. Ferrara faked a pass to Sibley and quickly handed the puck off to Piacentini, who thought she had an open shot.

It looked like Syracuse was finally going to score against Boston College, who held a 3-0 lead over the Orange.

Instead, BC’s Alex Carpenter came out of nowhere and deflected Sibley’s shot away from the net. Carpenter would score her third goal of the game 10 seconds later, giving the Eagles a 4-0 advantage with 17 minutes left in the second period.

“It was the JV versus the varsity tonight, in terms of how quickly (the Eagles) were doing things,” Syracuse head coach Paul Flanagan said.

Syracuse (8-10-2, 5-1-2 College Hockey America) found itself unable to operate offensively as No. 2 Boston College (20-0-0, 13-0-0 Hockey East) held the Orange to two late goals in a 7-2 blowout win for the Eagles on Thursday afternoon at Tennity Ice Pavilion.

BC’s speed on defense prevented Syracuse from developing any offensive rhythm. Two Eagles double-teamed Jessica Sibley as she crossed the blue line with 12 minutes left in the first period, forcing the puck loose. Minutes later, a defender forced Piacentini’s stick out of her hands as she began to enter her shooting motion.

Another time, Piacentini attempted to dump the puck off to a trailing Ferrara, but another Eagle flew in front of the senior captain. If not for a Jenn Gilligan save on that breakaway, BC would have had a 3-0 lead before Syracuse had its first shot on goal.

“It’s really unacceptable for our team to play like that,” Sibley said . “Nothing was going our way. We weren’t stopping on pucks. We weren’t making passes. Just unacceptable.”

Piacentini scored Syracuse’s first goal with 11:25 left in the second period. But Boston College had already scored six by that point, three of which came within the first six minutes of the second period.

Flanagan said on Tuesday that he wanted to prevent the Eagles from scoring by keeping possession of the puck. But the Orange made too many sloppy passes throughout the first two periods that forced the team to retreat back on defense.

“There were a lot of turnovers today where we gave the puck right to them,” Flanagan said. “That tells me (that players are thinking), ‘I don’t want it. You take it.’”

Against RIT and Providence, the Orange outpaced its opponents en route to blowout victories. Flanagan has often cited the speed of Ferrara, Piacentini and Steph Grossi as a huge advantage against other teams.

But on Thursday afternoon, Syracuse was too slow to keep up with the undefeated Eagles, who are ranked second in the country.

“They were moving the puck a lot faster than us,” Piacentini said. “They got us out of position. They’re a really strong team.”

Published on December 10, 2015 at 8:19 pm

Contact Chris: cfthomse@syr.edu