Nearly four minutes into the game, the Princeton Tigers only had three shots on goal, but two found the back of the net.

Princeton (4-2-2, 3-0-1 Eastern College Athletic) maintained their early lead for the entirety of the game, defeating SU (4-7-1, 4-3-1 College Hockey America) 5-3 at Tennity Ice Pavilion on Sunday. The Orange are now 0-3-1 on home ice.

Princeton’s first goal came 1:55 into the first period after a turnover deep in SU’s zone. Then, an Orange giveaway at the attacking blue line gave Maggie Connors a one-on-one with goalie Maddi Welch. Connors overmatched Welch and put the Tigers up 2-0. The senior goaltender allowed four goals on 18 shots before she came out of the game.

But the blame doesn’t fall solely on Welch, Flanagan said. Two SU defenders — Shelby Calof and Jessica DiGirolamo — registered a -4 plus-minus. When they were on the ice, Syracuse allowed four of its five goals.

“I feel like we weren’t confident with the puck today, and we’re going to work on it this week in practice,” DiGirolamo said, “So hopefully next weekend we get better results.”

SU rebounded 1:34 into the second period, when freshman Marielle McHale capped off relentless pressure in front to cut the deficit in half, 2-1.

The physicality picked up in the second period as well. Junior Savannah Rennie left the game with 14:00 to play in the second because of an elbowing penalty on Princeton.

Syracuse could not capitalize on the ensuing power play, losing the puck from the attacking zone twice without much pressure from Princeton.

The score remained 2-1 until 7:17 left in the period when a Welch save rebounded right to the stick of a Princeton attacker, who ripped it into the open net for a 3-1 lead.

“Biggest thing for me is putting rebounds in corners, and that’s where they happened to be,” said Welch, “It was a tough bounce.”

SU was quick to answer. DiGirolamo wristed one from the point past Princeton’s goaltender with 3:30 to play to return the deficit to one.

In the third, SU moved the puck well, but could not find the netting. Welch did her part, including a nice glove save on 2-on-1 sharp angle try with 7:45 to play in the third.

But another defensive breakdown left the senior goaltender helpless. Princeton scored their second one-on-one goal of the night to regain a two-goal advantage with 3:33 to play.

A strong shot by Lindsay Eastwood gave the Orange some life a minute later, but Princeton quickly countered with an empty net goal to finish the scoring barrage.

Published on November 11, 2018 at 7:06 pm

Contact Tim: tnolan@syr.edu