Lauren Bellefontaine took the puck into the Syracuse offensive zone, and with 15 seconds remaining in regulation, passed the puck to Victoria Klimek in the middle slot. Klimek lunged at the pass, touching it just enough to direct it into the empty Lindenwood net, securing her hat trick and icing the game. 

In its first game of the College Hockey America playoffs, Syracuse (14-19-2, 11-7-2 CHA) shutout Lindenwood (5-24-5, 3-15-2), 4-0, and eliminated the Lions while advancing to play No. 2-seed Robert Morris on Friday. Much like the Orange’s regular-season meetings with the Lions, the game was a highly one-sided contest.

Lindenwood only had nine shots on goal going into the third period, but its desperate play style toward the end of the game allowed it to put 12 shots on Allison Small in the final frame. Small ended the day with 21 saves for her fourth shutout of the season. 

Klimek opened up the scoring with six and a half minutes remaining in the first period, taking the assist from Shelby Calof and rifling the puck in. Klimek’s first goal would end up being the game-winner, but her day of scoring was far from over.  Thirty-nine seconds into the second period, Lindsay Eastwood tapped home the loose rebound while Lindenwood’s Casey Adimey served her hooking penalty. 

With the two-goal lead and half of the third period nearly gone, Klimek intercepted a stray pass from behind the net in the low slot while the rest of her Orange teammates were in a line change. Klimek deked to her left, Lions goalie Annika Asplundh took the bait, giving Klimek a wide-open net to her right to roll the puck into.

Klimek then finished her night by securing the empty net. As Klimek and her teammates celebrated by high-fiving the SU bench, a handful of hats rained down from the stands at the Harborcenter in Buffalo, saluting the junior’s achievement. Thursday afternoon was Klimek’s first hat trick as an Orange, and her first multi-goal game since Feb. 9, 2019, where she scored twice in a 4-0 win against Mercyhurst. 

Syracuse has now outscored Lindenwood 35-3 during their matchups this season, although for two of those games the Lions did not have a regular starting goalie in net.

Because the Orange moved past the Lions, they are now slated to take on Robert Morris in the semifinals Friday afternoon. Syracuse and Robert Morris split their season series 2-2, with the Orange besting the Colonials 4-2 in their final regular-season game, but Robert Morris edged out Syracuse by four points in conference standings.

Published on March 5, 2020 at 6:18 pm

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