Through seven games this season, Syracuse has shown its capabilities of playing a responsible, physical style of hockey. The Orange’s aggressiveness hasn’t been overbearing, as the team is averaging 3.4 penalties per game — what would stand as the best mark in program history.

Though SU has largely avoided committing penalties, it hasn’t played well in penalty kill situations. The Orange has given up six goals on just 23 penalty kills while playing shorthanded — a 73.9 penalty kill percentage — the worst mark in the College Hockey America conference.

Syracuse (3-4-0, 1-0 CHA) looks to improve its penalty kill play when it takes on conference foe Robert Morris (4-3-1) over the weekend, the CHA’s highest-scoring team on the power play.

Head coach Paul Flanagan said while he was unaware of SU’s penalties-per-game average, he was cognizant of his team’s poor penalty kill percentage. He said teams usually aim for a percentage around 90, far above the mark Syracuse has posted early this season.

“We’ve had some tough luck with it, but it’s something that obviously has to be rectified,” Flanagan said.

Flanagan added one problem his team has faced in penalty kill situations is the inability to clear the puck. He said Syracuse is working on doing that to prevent the other team from getting as many opportunities.

Despite how the Orange has played this year, teams are penetrating the tentative, man-down defense.

“On the (penalty kill) we need to focus more on being aggressive and not sitting back because I think when we sit back that’s when they get their goals,” defenseman Nicole Renault said.

Senior goalkeeper Jenn Gilligan said she tries to keep a calmer presence when the other team has a power play, making sure to keep everyone in a good mindset so that the pressure of an extra attacker doesn’t affect the level of play.

“I think one of the big things we need to start doing on the penalty kill is blocking a lot more shots,” Gilligan added. “… Obviously that makes my job a lot easier, if the girls in front of me block those shots, but you know coach always harps on blocking shots.”

Both Renault and Flanagan cited the referees as one reason the Orange hasn’t been called for many penalties at the start of the season, saying the players on the team weren’t playing much differently than they always do.

Flanagan said playing games outside the conference has leveled the number of penalties.

“Our referees call more penalties than the referees in the other leagues,” Flanagan said. “I think if you look at box scores over the years, it’s really skewed for the CHA.”

The numbers back up Flanagan’s claim. In the 2013-14 season, five of the six CHA teams finished in the top 13 in average penalty minutes per game. The same five teams were in the top 14 in penalty kills per minute the season before. Overall statistics from the 2014-15 season weren’t available.

Flanagan recognized that it might not very practical to expect his team to only get called for three penalties a game in the future. He knows that his team will have to face more penalty kill situations in the future.

“… It’s coming,” Flanagan said of his team’s penalty kill improvement. “It’s very disconcerting or very concerning from our part, to make sure we take care of that, but it is something we feel that we can work on and we’re definitely going to get better at.”

Published on October 28, 2015 at 10:20 pm