Syracuse women’s ice hockey stuns Penn State on the road, 3-1

By Gino Antimarino | @ginoantimarino

Syracuse (5-18-2, 2-8-1 CHA) came into Happy Valley last night and did what not a lot of people were expecting: to pull out a win against the best team in the conference. Penn State (13-11-1, 8-3-0 CHA) dominated in the shot department, 42-13, but the Orange proved that quality is better than quantity.

Now, the Nittany Lions were getting a lot of good looks on net and generating a lot of scoring chances. However, SU goaltender Allie Kelley stood tall in the crease, once again. The grad student has stopped over 100 shots in just the last two games! Kelley shut down several odd woman rushes for Penn State and was a huge reason behind PSU going 1/7 on its power plays. 

With that being said, Syracuse got bailed out many times throughout the game, but especially in the third period. The Orange took three minor infractions in the final 20 minutes while being up on the scoresheet by just one. At that point of the game, one has to play a disciplined brand of hockey and avoid putting the best team in the CHA on the player up. Furthermore, SU took a penalty in the first 11 seconds of action in the third period. Syracuse’s PK did a great job, and even scored the game winner, but against a great team like PSU, taking that many penalties usually ends up hurting a team. 

The goal scorers on Friday night for the Orange were defender Alexandria Weiss, forward Darci Johal, and captain Tatum White.

The second matchup of the series is today at 2 p.m. Syracuse has a chance to do what it hasn’t done since the end of September: win both games of the series.