Coming into Friday night’s matchup against Penn State, Syracuse had allowed 11 power play goals, only killing 70.6 percent of penalties. SU ranked 30th amongst 40 teams in the country in the penalty killing category.

Behind a major improvement on the penalty kill — SU killed all eight of PSU’s power play opportunities — the Orange (2-7-1, 1-0-0 College Hockey America) defeated Penn State (2-7-4, 0-1-0), 3-0, for its first victory of conference play.

Senior captain Stephanie Grossi, who scored two goals in the first period, credits the extra practice on the penalty kill to Friday’s success on special teams.

“The penalty kill has lost us games in the past,” Grossi said. “Today we really tightened up, blocked shots, and when we had a chance to get the puck out of the zone, we got it out.”

SU’s hard work in practice to improve on the penalty kill was on full display Friday. The team was successful in killing all eight of Penn State’s penalty opportunities, raising their overall killing percentage on the season to 80 percent.

Goaltender Abbey Miller, who was instrumental in SU’s victory against Penn State, recording her first shut out of the season with 14 saves, said SU showed great improvement with the penalty kill against PSU.

“We had a ton of kills,” said Miller, “I think we did a good job of blocking shots, getting in shooting lanes, and getting sticks in passing lanes.”

Syracuse head coach Paul Flanagan has stressed the penalty kill in practice because of the Orange’s early season struggles with it. Flanagan believes SU responded well after the extra practice and that the success with the penalty kill was essential in beating Penn State.

“I believe it was really important at times to get through it without getting scored on,” said Flanagan. “The penalty kill can really diffuse any momentum you have, our penalty kills helped us maintain that momentum.”

SU’s improvement was a key cog in achieving their first victory of conference play and continuing its dominance against PSU, recording its 19th victory in 23 tries.

Published on November 10, 2017 at 10:41 pm

Contact Anthony: amkhelil@syr.edu