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Rachel Teslak dove in front of Hayley Chang’s shot with 3:20 left in overtime. Unfortunately for Teslak, the puck rebounded right back to Chang. The junior only had goalkeeper Allie Kelley in between her and the net. Instead of shooting again, she found Mary Edmonds, who passed to Alex Ferguson to hammer home a goal from close range.

Ferguson’s goal which came 1:48 into the sudden death overtime period, giving Merrimack (2-2, 0-0 Hockey East) a 2-1 victory over Syracuse (2-1, 0-0 College Hockey America). Kelly, the graduate goalie, had 56 saves, but it wasn’t enough as SU could only muster 16 shots on goal.

After an opening face-off win by Merrimack’s Sophie McKinley, Syracuse’s Tatum White registered the first shot of the game. The Warriors recorded the next five, finding the back of the net on its fifth.

Emily Oosterveld found a puck loose on the goal line to the left of the net before quickly skating toward the middle of the ice. As she started to drift back, she slid a weak shot to the crease where Celine Tedenby redirected the puck past Kelley and into the left side of the net. This was the first even-strength goal of the season given up by the Orange.

Merrimack outshot the Orange 17-3 in the first period. Kelley said postgame that she thought Merrimack started off the game stronger than the Orange, but saw her team develop as the game went on.

For the rest of the first period, Syracuse struggled to maintain long possessions in its offensive zone as Merrimack tried to double up their lead.

With 5:20 left in the first, the puck was deflected in front of the net into Kelley by Merrimack’s Solveig Gisler. During an ensuing media timeout, the officials went to official review to see if it crossed the line. It ultimately remained a save.

“That was scary,” Kelley said postgame. “I was really worried they were gonna call that a goal. I just had too much momentum going back making the save.”

Afterwards, the Orange had to kill off a penalty after White committed cross checking 14:55 into the first. Syracuse was able to hold off a few shots from Merrimack over the following two minutes.

Then, with seven seconds left, a pass from Nea Tervonen gave Haley Trudeau open ice in front of her, but the shot went wide.

The Orange looked more competitive in the second period, finding more quality chances. Both teams won nine faceoffs and Syracuse was only outshot 16-8.

Both teams also had to kill power plays. A Heidi Knoll roughing call for Syracuse 6:32 into the period and a Natalie Nemes hooking call for Merrimack five minutes later gave both teams man-up advantages. While each team created chances during the power plays, neither team was able to capitalize.

Syracuse finished the game 3-for-3 on power kills, after giving up two short-handed goals in its 3-2 loss to Post last week.

“It was a huge focus of ours this week, making sure that we kind of buttoned up a couple things with our penalty kill,” Syracuse Head Coach Britni Smith said.

Both teams traded shots in the last few minutes of the period, but two late icing calls on Syracuse and a pair of saves by Kelley kept both teams off the scoreboard.

As the third period began, the Warriors went on a nearly two-minute possession within their offensive zone, causing Smith to call timeout.

The timeout worked, with Syracuse coming out of the break with a sense of urgency.

“Obviously going into the third. I think we felt some pressure,” Thompson said. “We definitely wanted to win this one. So we picked it up a little bit. In intermission we really tried to rally the group together.”

Tedenby was called for interference, giving Syracuse a power play, which it took advantage of. Just over five minutes into the third, Kate Holmes fired a wrist shot from just in front of the blue line. It was tipped to the left of the net by Merrimack goalie Calli Hogarth, but Sarah Thompson was there to clean up the rebound.

Merrimack would also get another power play chance, after Holmes got called for hooking just over nine minutes into the period. The Warriors fired off six shots over the next two minutes but couldn’t score.

Merrimack outshot Syracuse 23-5 in the third, but Kelley, who faced 58 shots on the day, did not let any past her.

“The focus tonight was just (to) continue to compete. … And obviously, you know, it didn’t necessarily translate to more shots on net or less shots against,” Smith said.

As the 3-on-3 overtime began, an early offsides call against Syracuse, followed by Teslak giving up the puck spelt bad news for Syracuse. Soon after, Ferguson scored the game winner.

This was the second time in three meetings Syracuse took Merrimack to overtime. Last year, the Orange beat the Warriors 3-2 on the road. This time the Orange were on the other end of the result.

“I think keeping it simple is going to be really important for this group,” Thompson said. “I think we just tried to do a little bit too much.”

Published on October 6, 2023 at 11:59 pm