Syracuse trailed Binghamton by a goal early in the third quarter. The Bearcats had won 9-of-14 faceoffs to that point, and led the Orange 6-5.

But with one flick of the wrist, everything changed. Nicky Galasso’s goal with 9:17 left in the third quarter tied the score at six. Syracuse faceoff specialist Chris Daddio won three straight faceoffs, and SU went from trailing 6-5 to leading 9-6.

It was that small burst that led No. 7 Syracuse (6-3, 1-3 ACC) to a 10-8 victory over Binghamton (3-6, 1-0 America East) on Wednesday night in front of 1,847 at the Carrier Dome. Both Syracuse head coach John Desko and Binghamton head coach Scott Nelson said that the game’s flow went as faceoff flow went.

“It was a pretty poor start on my part,” Daddio said. “It kept them in the game. I mean, they stayed in the game the entire time. And then toward the middle of the game I got in a little bit of a rhythm there, winning some, and we started pulling away.”

After winning 15-of-24 draws in Syracuse’s 11-10 win last Saturday against Notre Dame, Daddio was inconsistent at the X on Wednesday night, winning just 10-of-22. The senior lost the game’s first for draws against Alex Doerflein, and the Bearcats took early 1-0, 3-2 and 4-3 leads.

But it could have easily gone much worse for Syracuse. Doerflein pulled his hamstring midway through the first quarter and didn’t play for the rest of the night.

Doerflein was replaced by freshman Dan Mazurek, who finished the night 8-of-18.

“The first five or six just got out of hand and got away from me,” Daddio said. “I just kind of came off after that and calmed myself down a little bit and just tried to go out there confident, like it never happened.”

Daddio earned his first win after Mazurek was called for an illegal-procedure penalty to start the second quarter. Though he won three of last four faceoffs of the half, Syracuse didn’t gain any momentum. There was an eight minute gap — from 9:04 to 1:25 — with no faceoffs.

Against Notre Dame, Daddio took advantage of drawing the ball back to wings Peter Macartney and Matt Harris. Although Macartney finished Wednesday with three groundballs — second only to Daddio’s seven — they all came in different quarters.

Nothing was continuous for Syracuse until the Galasso goal.

That’s when Daddio won three straight draws — which Mazurek credited to Daddio doing a good job timing the referee’s whistle — and Syracuse scored four straight goals over a five-minute span.

“I thought the six-minute spurt in the third quarter really hurt us when they got up by three,” Nelson said.

Scott Loy fired a shot past Bearcats keeper Tanner Cosens to give the Orange the lead. In a man-advantage situation, Dylan Donahue gave the Orange its biggest lead of the night– a two-goal lead at 8-6.

Randy Staats completed the stretch with a goal to extend the lead to 9-6.

In the fourth quarter Daddio did just enough, winning half of the draws.

For Daddio, it was the second game in a row he’s taken all of the team’s faceoffs. While the player taking the draws is consistent, the results have been anything but.

But for one key stretch, Daddio was, and it propelled Syracuse to a win.

Said Desko: “It seemed like when we got the faceoffs and Chris got it out, I think he relaxed and started to get it down. That helped us at the offensive end of the field.”

Published on April 2, 2014 at 11:48 pm

Contact Josh: jmhyber@syr.edu