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Colgate captain Rosy Demers managed to steal the puck from Hannah Johnson against the boards and then drew in Sarah Marchand and Lauren Bellefontaine, who both tried to win the puck back. But this allowed Demers to lightly tap the puck to Kalty Kaltounkova, who took three touches with the puck to get right in front of goaltender Arielle DeSmet. 

Kaltounkova was uncontested as she looked up and sent a shot right over DeSmet’s left shoulder and into the back of the net. It put Colgate up 1-0 in just the first minute of the game. The Syracuse bench looked deflated, and the early energy indicated another blowout loss to the third-ranked Raiders after a 7-1 loss on Thursday.

But instead of admitting defeat in their fifth game in 10 days, the Orange bounced back right away. When Colgate was on the attack in the second minute, Syracuse’s Madison Primeau stole the puck from Taylor Kirwan. Primeau skated down the right side and got behind the Colgate defense before they could reach her. Victoria Klimek skated to the far left to give Primeau a passing option before she reached the net and forced the Colgate defender into a two-versus-one situation. 

Primeau looked left to Klimek as if she were going to pass but kept it herself and netted the puck into the top right corner of the goal, responding to Colgate’s goal within the first minute, something the Orange failed to do in Thursday’s loss. 

Despite losing 5-2, Syracuse (1-4-2) showed improvement from its first loss against Colgate (8-0-0) with stronger defensive play leading to a closer game on Saturday.

“After Thursday, I was pretty disappointed in our performance,” head coach Paul Flanagan said. “I thought we had a lot more energy and had a better focus in a lot of areas today.” 

After Primeau’s goal in the second minute, Colgate won two straight faceoffs and notched a shot a minute later, but Johnson blocked it. After a penalty on Colgate for tripping, Syracuse took advantage and won two faceoffs and got two shots off.

But Tatum White was called for body checking a Colgate player to the ground, resulting in three straight shots from the Raiders. The defense remained strong and earned the penalty kill as a result of another block from Johnson and a save from DeSmet. 

Syracuse struggled offensively the rest of the period and was outshot 21-5. Katie Chan scored the second goal of the night for Colgate in the 13th minute on a power play. Colgate passed the ball from corner to corner in the Syracuse half when Chan received the puck right at the offside line. Syracuse failed to close out to her, so she took the shot and it deflected into the net to put the Raiders up 2-1.

Compared to Thursday, the Orange found themselves in a better position after the first period, only down one. DeSmet made three more saves, and the Orange held the Raiders to three fewer faceoff wins — showing improved defense.

Although Colgate outscored Syracuse 2-1 again in the second period, SU played a cleaner second period than Colgate statistically. The Orange finished with more saves and six more shots due than the Raiders, flipping the script from Thursday when the Orange were outshot by six.

Colgate scored first in the second period when Syracuse got caught too high on offense. Jessica DiGirolamo took a shot from the left side that the Colgate goaltender blocked. Demers got the rebound and passed it ahead to a streaking Delani MacKay, who snuck behind Marchand and DiGirolamo to get a one-on-one with DeSmet. After crossing over a couple of times, she fired a shot into the back right of the net.

But after knocking on the door with several consecutive blocked shots, Primeau got a loose puck in the left corner of Colgate’s half and tapped it to Anna Leschyshyn, who took advantage of an open shot and converted to get Syracuse back within one.

Colgate answered Syracuse’s comeback attempt quickly, however and scored a goal within the next minute. Danielle Serdachny received a pass from Dara Greig right at the center line, skated all the way up to the Syracuse net untouched and finished the easy shot to put Colgate back up by two heading into the third period.

By the third period on Thursday, Colgate was up five goals. Despite giving up another goal, Syracuse kept pace with Colgate on Saturday and was relatively even to the Raiders in every statistical category in the third period. 

Colgate started off the period with four shots, but the defense held strong on a Colgate power play. DiGirolamo blocked two shots, and DeSmet saved one to earn the penalty kill. The two teams would then go back and forth on faceoffs and possession for most of the period until Neena Brick scored her third goal of the season off a chip shot. 

Syracuse was able to string together a few offensive possessions and hold strong on defense for most of the game, showing improvement but still falling to one of the top teams in the country by three.

“At the end of the day, they outscored us,” Flanagan said. “But they’re probably one of the top teams in the East, so you can’t get too down about it.”

Published on October 16, 2021 at 8:59 pm

Contact Adam: amccaffe@syr.edu