Three minutes into the game, Syracuse began its rampage.

The Orange (14-11-1, 8-3-1 College Hockey America) defeated Penn State (7-16-1, 1-10-1) 4-1 on Saturday, scoring three goals within the first 12 minutes of the game at Tennity Ice Pavilion. But it wasn’t until 24 seconds remained in the third period that Syracuse found the empty net again. The struggles in between were negated by the hot start and strong finish, and SU pulled off a sweep against the Nittany Lions.

After Nicole Ferrara launched the puck into the net off of assists from Holly Carrie-Mattimoe and Margot Scharfe, SU didn’t stop. Less than two minutes later, Kaillie Goodnough found the net with the assist from Brittney Krebs.

Defenseman-turned-forward Jacquie Greco then joined the scoring, launching the puck into the top-left corner of the goal. SU went up 3-0. The early burst helped the Orange bury memories of its narrow, frustrating 1-0 win against PSU Friday night.

“We kind of reevaluated ourselves from yesterday,” Greco said. “We played our game that we know how to play and really came out hard today.”

But less than three minutes into the second period, Penn State scored its first goal in four games against the Orange this season, cutting the deficit to two. But it was what happened two minutes later that caused trouble.

SU forward Sadie St. Germain was skating just a few feet in front of the Nittany Lions’ goal when a puck bounced off of her elbow and into the net. As Syracuse celebrated the unlikely goal, the referees conferred and waved the goal off.

“In fairness to the refs, whatever they saw they saw, or didn’t see,” head coach Paul Flanagan said. “The guy that called off the goal that hit her chest, you know which one called it off, the guy who was positioned at center ice.

“The guy right here,” he said, pointing at the net, “that was looking right at it, he called it a goal.”

St. Germain said she was confused as to why the goal was called off.

“It was a goal,” St. Germain said. “I’m not that coordinated enough to tip that in with my elbow. So that was just frustrating because it should’ve been called a goal. But what can you do?”

The potential goal was the second one called off by the referees. Earlier in the game, another goal was called off for unknown reasons.

Despite being on the opposite end of the rink, goaltender Jenesica Drinkwater was disappointed when she saw the two goals waved off.

“It was kind of a tough call. I feel like the one when Sadie was just skating through the crease, not even through the crease, just skating through and it bounces off her body, I feel like that never should’ve been called off,” Drinkwater said. “You can’t control the refs so you kind of just keep playing and we just kept battling.”

For the rest of the second period, SU failed to score on two separate power plays. But at the beginning of the third, only eight seconds after the Nittany Lions returned to full strength, the Orange earned another.

In the end, Syracuse’s struggle with power plays continued. SU was 1-of-5 on power-play opportunities, with its only goal on a man-up situation coming from Greco’s finish.

But it wasn’t just on power plays where the Orange struggled. The offense as a whole had trouble scoring, despite taking 55 shots compared to Penn State’s 15.

Next weekend, SU rides a four-game winning streak into Moon Township, Pa., to face Robert Morris. The Orange and the Colonials split a pair of games at Tennity on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.

SU is three points behind Mercyhurst for the top spot in the CHA.

Published on January 28, 2013 at 12:20 am

Contact David: dlauterb@syr.edu