Halfway through the second period on Oct. 28, Syracuse led then-No. 2 Boston College by a goal. The upset-driven Orange jumped out to a fast start against a ranked team, something SU had not done all season long.

Three minutes and two Boston College power-play goals later, the optimism vanished.

Syracuse (2-7-2, 1-0-1 College Hockey America) has struggled to stop top opposition from scoring on the power play all season. While SU head coach Paul Flanagan has consistently preached more discipline on the penalty kill, the Orange ranks 23rd out of all 40 NCAA Division I teams. Prior to this weekend’s series with a Penn State team that has zero wins in six conference games, SU was No. 31 of 40.

“There’s an old adage: your best penalty killer is your goalkeeper,” Flanagan said. “We need big saves from whoever is in net and we have to be more disciplined. Looking back at Boston College, we allowed a goal with only seven seconds left on the power play, and that’s frustrating.”

With a 76.6 percent conversion rate on the penalty kill before the PSU series, Syracuse has fallen short often in large part due to these struggles. Against Boston College, the two power play goals shifted a possible 3-2 upset into a 4-3 win for the Eagles.

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In the series against Northeastern, two weeks before Boston College, the Huskies’ six power play scores in only two games turned what Flanagan called “an even-series in the five-on-five,” into consecutive four-goal losses for SU.

With struggles on clearing the puck, Syracuse is giving more opportunities to the opposing attack, senior defender Megan Quinn said.

Even with two weeks between the two matchups with Boston College and Northeastern — where it allowed ten power play goals — the Orange was unable to fix this issue.

Leading up to the Penn State series, Flanagan adjusted his penalty-kill unit. Using different players, Flanagan tried to stop the struggles by keeping his unit well-rested.

“We’re going to work with some other kids that typically do a lot of kills in practice when working on the power play,” Flanagan said. “Given our results and our (penalty-kill) percentage, we need to start utilizing more players.”

The Orange started working on its penalty kill two days earlier than usual before PSU, putting an emphasis on blocking shots and deflecting passes, senior forward Alysha Burris said. And the changes seemed to have worked.

In the two games against the Nittany Lions, SU dominated on the penalty kill, allowing only one goal on 18 opportunities. A sudden shift from its recent struggles, the Orange’s greater focus on preventing power play goals before the game allowed the team to find more success, Flanagan said.

“We did a good job at getting in shooting and passing lanes and pressuring them this weekend,” senior goalkeeper Abby Miller said. “We were on them the entire time.”

Published on November 12, 2017 at 8:51 pm

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