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Down 2-0 with 6:39 remaining in the third, Syracuse had just killed off its third penalty of the game and Rayla Clemons began rushing into the offensive zone. Along the left boards, she picked up her head, found Jessica DiGirolamo for a cross-ice pass and continued skating directly to the net. DiGirolamo fed a pass right back to Clemons, who went in for a close-range backhanded deke on Mercyhurst goaltender Ena Nystrøm with the rebound padded right in front of her.

The Lakers’ Megan Korczak took over and found Emily Pinto at the Syracuse blue line, skating along the right wing and beating three Syracuse defenders on her way to the front of the net, where her elevated wrist shot beat Small’s left shoulder just 19 seconds later.

Despite outshooting Mercyhurst (5-4-1, 5-4-1 College Hockey America) 45-31, Syracuse’s (3-7-1, 3-5-1 CHA) inability to consistently test Nystrøm on the power play led to a 5-2 loss to the Lakers on Friday. Syracuse hadn’t allowed five goals in a game since March 6 of last year in a 5-2 loss to Robert Morris.

Syracuse’s top forward and defensive lines were responsible for 33 of those shots. Abby Moloughney was the only starter to beat Nystrøm, with her 10th goal of the season and 60th career point.

An attempted clearance by Mercyhursts’ Alexandria Weiss was picked up at the Mercyhurst blue line by Syracuse’s Madison Beishuizen, who carried it in the zone, pressured by a Lakers defender. She spun around to make a backhanded pass to an onrushing Moloughney, who carried the puck centrally before firing a wrist shot far post over Nystrøm’s glove hand.

The majority of the team’s shots came on the power play, with Mercyhurst taking 6 penalties, including two 5-on-3 opportunities. Although neither of Syracuse’s goals came on the skater advantage, chances were still created — mainly in front of the net, where Syracuse would typically have a skater parked in front of Nystrøm’s crease to deflect an oncoming shot or set up for a one-time shot.

“I think maybe, at times, we tried to be a little too precise,” head coach Paul Flanagan said. “You get that 5-on-3 sometimes and you want to create that perfect play.”

On Syracuse’s first power play of the game, Moloughney took four of the Orange’s six shots on net, most of them wrist shots rifled from the right face-off dot. With the skater advantage winding down, Moloughney’s wrister was bobbled by Nystrøm, allowing Victoria Klimek the opportunity to put away the rebound. But Nystrøm was quick to pounce on the loose puck.

“I thought our power plays, with possession and moving the puck, were outstanding,” Flanagan said. “There were three or four power plays where Mercyhurst just couldn’t clear the puck out of the zone.”

With the starting five and power play unit receiving the majority of the ice time, Syracuse’s depth showed in the game’s final minutes. The Orange scored its second goal with 1:06 left in the game, which started off of a gritty neutral zone turnover by Emma Polaski.

Polaski took a long-range snap shot from the point, with the shot’s rebound going up in the air. Brynn Koocher’s stick met the puck in mid-air and batted it into the right corner of the net for her first goal of the season, as well as the only goal by a bench player that game.

“Obviously that one group of kids has a lot of shots because of the power play,” Flanagan said. “We just couldn’t get it by them. They were blocking shots and deflecting shots, and we just couldn’t cash in.”

Published on February 5, 2021 at 11:33 pm

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