Syracuse Women’s Ice Hockey Blanked 4-0 by Mercyhurst

Syracuse lost the second game of a weekend doubleheader against Mercyhurst on Saturday. CitrusTV’s Brandon Ross tells you what change kept the Orange out of the win column.

Syracuse entered Saturday’s game riding high on a 3-game win streak with the chance to claim a tie for first in the College Hockey America conference. However, both the streak and the chance for first place were crushed when Mercyhurst handed the Orange a 4-0 loss at home.

After the first series of the season against the Lakers back in December, SU head coach Paul Flanagan criticized the team for a lack of effort. The Orange showed up in the first game of the series, converting four goals on just 17 shot attempts, and holding the Lakers scoreless.

But Saturday’s game, which saw Syracuse finish without a goal, and allow 42 shots on goal, led Flanagan to once again call out his team for a lack of effort.

“We got pushed around a little bit,” Flanagan said, “Right off the bat (Mercyhurst) executed on that power play, so that led to a lot of us just being passive at times.”

The Lakers scored early, with forward Vilma Tanskanen poking the puck past Abbey Miller off of a rebound. Syracuse had many opportunities to equalize the game, earning three power plays through the first two periods, including a 5-on-3 opportunity for nearly one minute. Yet the Orange’s could not find the back of the net.

“I think we played a little bit of perimeter hockey today,” Grossi said. “We got a lot of shots, but not necessarily in the best areas.”

The inability to take advantage of power plays was just one of the ways the Orange failed to execute on Saturday. In the entire game, Syracuse only put 22 shots on goal, with very few posing a legitimate threat

“I think we need to have better shot selection,” Miller said. “We hit (Mercyhurst goalie Kennedy Blair) in the stomach quite a bit today… We’ve got to stop shooting right in the middle of the net.”

The Lakers, on the other hand, were far from done. They would score three more times, with Tanskanen scoring two of those goals on power plays to earn a hat-trick.

Miller provided the lone bright spot for the Orange. Despite giving up four goals, Miller tied her career-high of 38 saves on the night.

Syracuse still ranks third in the CHA, sitting four points back of Mercyhurst and Robert Morris.

SU will not have much time to regroup, as it heads to Potsdam to play defending national champion Clarkson on Tuesday. The matchup is sure to be a handful, as the Golden Knights shut out the Orange 5-0 back in December.