Heading into the third period of the College Hockey America championship game, Paul Flanagan tried to corral his team’s focus.

‘We’ve gotten this far,’ the SU ice hockey head coach Flanagan told his team. ‘We’ve waited a year to play in this game. Just play like it and do the things that have gotten you here. Make plays. Make hits. Stay disciplined. Don’t panic.’

But Flanagan’s words couldn’t carry the Orange to a win. Mercyhurst was just too strong, and the Lakers’ two third-period goals led to a 5-4 victory in their favor.

‘They almost had too much energy between the second and third period,’ Flanagan said. ‘I wanted them to rest, but you can’t slow it down. It’s that energy, that adrenaline.’

Before the 3-3 tie became a 5-4 defeat, Syracuse sat squarely in front of what could have been the school’s first championship in just its third season. On one end, there was a Syracuse team that knew it had to patiently deconstruct a vaunted Mercyhurst defense that had given up four goals in a contest four times prior. On the other, there was a relentless Mercyhurst offense led by Meghan Agosta, an all-world player closing out her outstanding collegiate career.

It was only right for the eight-time defending CHA champions to come into SU’s Tennity Ice Pavilion, handle their business and give a final goodbye to conference play for the year. With three goals and 23 shots in the second period, the team with all the championships flexed its muscle.

But at the close of the first period, Syracuse held a 2-0 advantage. And by the end of the second, Syracuse had withstood a quintessential powerhouse comeback to keep the score even at 3-3.

Momentum shifts and conference pedigree aside, when the two teams broke back into their respective locker rooms, they were still tied. Syracuse was standing on an even level with the team that has won every championship since the CHA’s inception.

‘We had lots of momentum going into the second and into the third,’ senior defender Ashley Cockell said. ‘And our main focus was to just keep going after them. Keep getting the puck deep and run their ‘D’ into the ground.’

The CHA doesn’t offer an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament to its champion. Mercyhurst would have likely been in the postseason either way, but had the Orange won, Syracuse would have dramatically increased its chances at extending its season.

‘I think we really tired them out and got some great opportunities,’ Cockell said.

Sophomore Isabel Menard also remembers the time between the second and third period when, for a moment, Syracuse had every chance to be the CHA champion.

‘We’re right in this, girls,’ Menard said she told her teammates. ‘We’ve waited for this moment for a while now. I mean, someone has to beat Mercyhurst.

‘We were close. We got some penalties at the end, but you can’t blame it on just one person. It was everyone. I’m just really proud of everyone. It was great to be part of it.’

Very quickly, Syracuse’s most important second period of the season led to its most important third period of the season. Mercyhurst’s Bailey Bram and Agosta scored consecutive goals in a 21-second span nine minutes into the period, and the Lakers were up for good. The first goal came on a second effort near the net, and the second directly out of a faceoff.

If Syracuse can hang its head on anything, it will be that two periods into this game, it stared down a team that is already used to winning championships. A year after losing the championship to Mercyhurst 3-1, SU inched a little bit closer to taking down the perennial power.

‘Last year we got this close,’ Flanagan said. ‘It was really a one-goal game a year ago. This year, it’s a one-goal game. Getting back to this game — that was our mission. And we accomplished that.

‘Now we just have to figure out how to get over that hump. We want to be the team that’s getting that big trophy a year from now.’

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Published on March 6, 2011 at 12:00 pm