Down a goal with a little more than 10 minutes left in the game, Syracuse was on the attack after a squandered power play. Despite failing to score on a 5-on-3 opportunity and ensuing 91 second powerplay, the Orange offense seemed inspired, controlling the puck in Lindenwood’s territory to find an open look. After a Brooke Avery wrist shot deflected off Lady Lions’ goalie Jolene deBruyn’s pad, Lindsay Eastwood corralled the rebound before sending a shot wide of deBruyn’s glove.

With the Lions’ defense in disarray, the Orange again took control of the rebound, skating around the Lindenwood zone before turning the puck over. The change of possession set up a 3-on-1 opportunity for LU and exemplified SU’s struggles to capitalize offensively all day.

Syracuse (5-8-2, 4-1-1 College Hockey America) dropped its first conference game of the season on Saturday, falling to Lindenwood (3-10-1, 3-5-0), 2-0, at Tennity Ice Pavilion. A day after scoring four times on 27 shots on goal in a 4-1 win against the Lady Lions, the Orange was shut out on its 24 attempts against deBruyn on Saturday. In addition to deBruyn’s play in goal, Lindenwood came out a more determined team than on Friday, Syracuse head coach Paul Flanagan said. LU’s newfound edge, combined with SU’s inability to execute, ultimately doomed the Orange.

“Lindenwood played an excellent game,” Flanagan said. “I thought they were a half step to a step quicker than us last night. They were punching harder. We didn’t do what we needed to do.”

The Orange won the time of possession battle with the puck during the game, but its long possessions too often ended in turnovers or off-target shots that never had a chance to find the back of the net. The Orange took 55 total shots against the Lady Lions, who only produced 32 attempts themselves. It was a matter of quantity over quality for Lindenwood, which put 71 percent of its shots on goal as opposed to Syracuse’s 44 percent.

“We got our chances, we just didn’t capitalize,” said Alysha Burriss. “We had some good zone time, and we were creating some offense. Today we didn’t score on our chances and yesterday we did.”

Even though Syracuse had 10 more attempts on Saturday than during its win, the effort to get to the spots on the ice that it needed to be in wasn’t up to par. After its dominating victory on Friday, the Orange was lulled into a false sense of security going into Saturday’s game, Flanagan said. Instead of playing with the same level of effort and determination on offense as it did in the win, Syracuse “killed its own power plays” by waiting too long for a good look to appear.

While the Lions performed well and certainly played a part in SU’s ineffectiveness, the Orange sabotaged itself with its lackadaisical play.

“We didn’t go the net,” defender Allie Munroe said. “We didn’t have that work ethic we needed to get pucks in the net. I think some people got really frustrated throughout.”

Munroe, who led the team in shots on goal with five, was all over the ice for Syracuse on both sides of the puck. At times, however, her aggressiveness hurt the team rather than helped it. Just six minutes into the game, as the Orange defense sparked a breakaway opportunity, Munroe ran into teammate Sarah Stuehr. Both fell onto the ice, and the Syracuse fast break turned into a scoring opportunity for Lindenwood.

The reigning national champion Clarkson Golden Knights come to town on Tuesday for a non-conference matchup with the Orange. Unless it wants a similar result as Saturday’s loss to the Lions, Syracuse must be able to create its own opportunities and capitalize when they arise, instead of settling for poor looks and shot attempts. Flanagan thinks his team will be ready.

“We can whine, ‘We didn’t get a bounce, or we didn’t get a break,’” Flanagan said. “Well, we have to make the breaks. We’ve got the defending national championships coming in, so I’m sure we’ll get up for it.”

Published on December 2, 2017 at 7:31 pm

Contact Eric: erblack@syr.edu | @esblack34