Syracuse Offense on Full Display, Win First Game of the Season

By Tyler Melito

CitrusTV’s Ice Hockey Beat Reporter

Last season, Syracuse did not win its first game until its tenth game of the season against Union in a 5-0 victory. This season however, it only took three games for the Orange to get win number one, as Syracuse (1-2, 1-0 College Hockey America) got the 7-1 victory over RIT (0-1, 0-1 CHA) on Friday.

The Orange were swept last week during their two-game stretch against Colgate, and a major takeaway from those two games was that Allison Small looked good in net for SU, but the offense was simply unable to get any momentum.

That was not the case on Friday as the Orange got on the attack on the offensive end early on. Emma Polaski, Lauren Bellefontaine, Victoria Klimek, and Abby Molougney all scored in the first period for Syracuse, giving the Orange a 4-0 lead after one period. At one point during that first period, SU led in shots 9-0.

After Polaski’s second goal of the night came off a power play early on in the second period, Carrissa Hlywa would score RIT’s first goal of their 2020-2021 campaign to make things 5-1. That goal came off a costly mistake by Small, who turned over the puck with two Tigers players around her, Hlywa ultimately being the beneficiary. What was not working in the Tigers’ favor in this game was that four of their top-five point getters from last season are no longer on their roster.

Sarah Thompson and Marielle McHale would dot the i’s and cross the t’s for the ‘Cuse, both scoring late in the third period to put this game simply out of reach for RIT.

It was apparent in this one that Syracuse had gotten their feet wet in terms of playing a game setting and RIT simply did not as the Tigers were playing their first game of the season. What will now be interesting for SU is how do they follow up this performance in their next game? What would happen at times during last season was that the Orange would have games where they win convincingly, then follow that up with a game where they looked like a completely different squad.

Speaking of that next game, Syracuse and RIT will run it back on Sunday, November 29 at 3pm.

tylermelito@gmail.com | @MelitoTyler