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On a power play, graduate forward Darci Johal poked the puck away from an RIT defender in Syracuse’s defensive zone. Johal skated toward the blue line before quickly firing a pass to Kate Holmes in front of the net. Holmes received the pass before slamming it past Emilie Venne in net.

“I think I just waited for the right moment to head down to the net and Darci made an awesome pass and I happened to be there,” Holmes said.

The goal put the Orange up 3-2, giving them their first lead in two games. Boosted by two second period goals Syracuse (3-0-3, College Hockey America) defeated Renesselaer Polytechnic Institute (4-0-4, Eastern College Athletic Conference) 3-2, snapping a three-game losing streak.

The Orange controlled the pace of the game throughout the first 10 minutes, recording eight shots on goal.

“It’s really important to have a quick start, just so you’re not chasing the game and you get the momentum for your team and I think we did a good job of that today,” Johal said.

But it was RPI who almost took the first lead of the game nearly five minutes in. Andrea Trnková slid a shot from the right side just past the blue line to Syracuse goalkeeper Allie Kelley. The referees reviewed the play confirming the shot wasn’t a goal.

Almost 11 minutes into the game, RPI’s Maddy Papineau made a short pass from the red line to the blue line to Ellie Kaiser on the left side. Kaiser skated quickly to the left faceoff circle where she fired the puck over Kelley’s right shoulder into the net.

Just over a minute later, Syracuse’s Jocelyn Fiala received a pass in Syracuse’s right offensive faceoff zone. She quickly fired into Syracuse’s offensive zone, where teammate Rachel Teslak fired a one-timer to the left-side of the goal for her first score of the season.

The scoring didn’t not stop there. Fourteen minutes into the period, RPI’s Sabrina Beaudoin raced down the left side of the ice on a three-on-two breakaway. Before crashing into a Syracuse defender, she slipped a pass to Aylah Cioffi who received the pass with her back to goal. Cioffi turned and flicked a shot with the back of her stick into the top-right corner to give the Engineers a 2-1 lead.

As the second period started, both teams combined for four penalties before the media timeout halfway through the period.

Just over six minutes into the second, Syracuse got called for having two many players on the ice. Then, 79 seconds later, Syracuse’s Haley Uliasz got called for tripping, giving RPI a five-on-three advantage.

But Syracuse’s penalty kill unit — which didn’t give up a goal in two games this weekend — continued their strong play. RPI got called for having too many players on the ice 71 seconds later, moving it to a four-on-four, before both teams killed off all penalties.

The Orange got another power play chance 10:16 into the period when RPI’s Sophia Jones was called for interference leading into a media timeout.

“It’s nice to be able to have the opportunity to have that extra teaching, especially early in the year,” Syracuse Head Coach Britni Smith said postgame.

After the timeout, Syracuse came out firing. With the first line on the ice, Syracuse’s Alexandria Weiss saved a puck from leaving the offensive zone, placing a pass to Johal on the right side. The forward received it at the top of the right faceoff zone before firing the puck from the center of the zone into the goal to tie the game at 2-2.

Just over two minutes later, Holmes added the go-ahead goal.

As Syracuse generated offensive chances, the Engineers failed to keep up.

“I think it was our confidence more than anything…that first period for us was making sure we came out and played strong defensively and kept ourselves in the game early,” Smith said. “And I thought we did a really good job of that and then as the game went on we just continued to build confidence in our play.”

After a couple of late saves by Kelley in the second period, Syracuse entered the third with a lead for the first time at home this season.

“I think it’s definitely a confidence booster having that lead, but I think it’s important to not go in thinking oh, the game’s over,” Holmes said. “We need to battle until the end.”

Syracuse killed two more power plays in the third, one for slashing on Mik Todd and the other for tripping on Fiala eight minutes apart. But Syracuse held well, finishing the day 4-4 on penalty kills.

“Our penalty kill, I feel like we’ve been getting better and better every week and it’s definitely a momentum shift when we kill a big penalty,” Johal said. “So we did that a few times today and didn’t let them get back in the game.”

As time wound down Syracuse, it played safe. It faced one more skater when RPI pulled its goalie with two minutes left. But Kelley made saves on 13 shots on goal in the period to pull out a victory and earn a series split. The Orange entered the win column for the first time since Sept. 30.

Published on October 14, 2023 at 9:01 pm