Ice Hockey

Syracuse ice hockey ‘should be ashamed’ with power play in tie with RIT

Colin Davy | Staff Photographer

Syracuse's power play couldn't produce at all, despite several chances.

Paul Flanagan motioned for his team to look at the scoreboard. SU had a one-goal lead midway through the third period and two RIT penalties granted Syracuse a 5-on-3.

On the ensuing faceoff of Syracuse’s 2-2 tie Friday night, RIT forward Kendall Cornine beat SU’s Jessica Sibley and cleared the puck toward SU goalie Abbey Miller. Later in the power play, an Allie Munroe shot found its way through traffic and teetered along the goal line before being cleared again.

As Tigers defender Taylor Baker left the penalty box, making it just a one-skater advantage, the RIT bench rose and began to cheer on its team. In the final 30 seconds of the power play, SU had only one shot. When RIT’s Christa Vuglar left the penalty box empty, the RIT bench only got louder, its sticks banging against the boards in support. Across the aisle, the players on SU’s bench sat silently.

“You have a 5-on-3 and you don’t get a real grade-A scoring chance,” Flanagan said. “… You should be ashamed with yourself.”

In the third period, Syracuse (4-7-4, 3-2-2 College Hockey America) spent 8:18 on the power play but didn’t score at all. Its 12:32 of power play time proved fruitless. The lack of execution allowed for conference rival Rochester Institute of Technology (3-15-1, 1-5-1) to regain momentum and score both its goals in the third period to tie the game. Following a scoreless overtime period, the two teams tied.



“Just keep it simple. I’m begging them whole night them to just stop forcing passes,” Flanagan said. “We got a power play, someone has to be open.”

Within the first two minutes of the third period, SU had its third power play of the game. As the seconds on the power play wound down, Munroe slipped as she tried to send the puck along the boards and SU lost its one skater advantage.

SU averaged fewer than three shots per power play opportunity. On three of the six chances, SU had one shot or fewer. Flanagan referred to his team shots as soft.

“We got to look in the mirror,” Munroe said. “This is a game that later in the season, it’s going to haunt us.”

A physical, aggressive game ramped up in the third period, as the teams combined for 10 penalties in the frame. Over a third of the game was spent with at least one player in either of the penalty boxes. RIT capitalized on one of its power play opportunities when Dakota Derrer went to the box for an interference penalty.

“We just broke. I don’t know. I don’t know what happened,” Derrer said. “I don’t think the whole team came and showed up to play.”





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