After freshman forward Julie Knerr suffered a concussion on a late hit against in-state rival Cornell on Nov. 1, senior Megan Skelly and her Syracuse teammates were furious.

The Orange players weren’t going to let the Big Red push them around — like it did when Cornell outshot SU 59-10 in that game two months ago — in a rematch between the teams on Tuesday. And they used the late hit on Knerr as motivation to match Cornell’s physicality all night on Tuesday.

‘It obviously made us pretty pissed off,’ Skelly said. ‘But that’s what we used to fire ourselves up and build energy against them because you don’t want to let a team like that walk all over you. We weren’t going to make the same mistakes again.’

Syracuse (8-14-2, 0-2-2 College Hockey America) came out playing aggressively and physically to keep the lethal offensive attack for No. 3 Cornell (16-2-0, 11-1-0 Eastern College Athletic Association) off balance. Although SU fell 6-3 to the Big Red, the slugfest was in many ways a confidence builder for the Orange after getting blown away by Cornell 9-2 in the first matchup.

Before Tuesday’s game, SU head coach Paul Flanagan told his players they needed to fight ‘fire with fire’ if they wanted to compete with a nationally ranked opponent like the Big Red. His players listened and brought the heat right from the drop of the puck.

SU was very active early in the game, making a statement that it could handle the physical intensity that overwhelmed the Orange in its first matchup with the Big Red.

‘If you sit back and let a team with that much skill and speed come at you, it’s going to be a long night,’ Flanagan said. ‘So you have to go after them. Our defense was pretty active in getting to those corners and adding a physical element, as well as using their body to protect the puck.

‘That’s something we didn’t do down there at Cornell (last game), and we let them push us around too much.’

Led by strong, aggressive play from senior forward Lisa Mullan and freshman forward Shiann Darkangelo, the Orange made sure it wasn’t bullied this time around. The Orange played fearlessly against a stronger, more talented opponent, which helped SU keep the game close most of the way.

With the game tied 1-1 midway through the second period, Mullan dove across the blue line and blocked a shot by Cornell, igniting excitement from the crowd and bringing the Syracuse bench to its feet. It was that type of aggressive play that Skelly said provided a boost of confidence for her team.

That type of hustle play by Mullan along with a stellar effort on faceoffs by Darkangelo supported the SU defense as it held Cornell to three goals in the first two periods.

‘The girls were scrappy tonight and fought so hard. They used their size to their advantage to protect the puck,’ said SU goaltender Kallie Billadeau, who made 28 saves in the loss.

Darkangelo lined up for a majority of the faceoffs for SU, consistently using her size to snag the puck away from her opponent. She set a tone for the Orange by winning 21-of-30 faceoffs to give Syracuse possession time and time again.

By winning the faceoff, the Orange kept the puck away from that persistent Big Red attack and held Cornell to 25 fewer shots than the previous meeting. Even if the Big Red still managed six goals, Syracuse displayed improvement from early in the season.

As the buzzer sounded at the end of the game, SU was still intent on showing Cornell that it wasn’t going to be taken lightly. After several players fought for a loose puck as time expired, a Cornell player threw what appeared to be a punch in the direction of an SU player.

And this time, Skelly and the Orange retaliated, starting a shoving match with the Cornell players to send a final message to the Big Red even in defeat.

‘When our player gets punched in the face, we’re going to defend her no matter what, especially after last game,’ Skelly said. ‘We’re certainly not happy with the final score, but we proved to ourselves that we could compete with some of the top players in the country, and we took it to them.’

awmirmin@syr.edu

Published on January 17, 2012 at 12:00 pm