With less than six minutes remaining in the third and overtime nearing, Penn State’s Chantal Burke turned aside an Orange shot, kickstarting a Nittany Lions counterattack.

As the puck made its way to the point, a Penn State slapshot entered the mass of bodies in front of the Syracuse net. Lost in the sticks and skates, the puck was found by Penn State’s Brooke Madsen, whose shot bounced past a sprawling Allison Small.

Madsen’s goal was the only one of the contest. Syracuse outshot the Nittany Lions, 27-22, but were never able to solve Burke, falling 1-0. It was just the second time in school history Syracuse (7-16-1, 6-4-1 College Hockey America) fell to Penn State (10-9-6, 5-3-3). Chants of “we are Penn State” drowned out “Let’s go Orange” as Penn State won their first game ever at Tennity Ice Pavilion.

“I think it was kinda punch-for-punch,” head coach Paul Flanagan said. “Both teams played hard and we could almost see as it was getting in that ten minute mark that it was basically overtime.”

Through two periods, Syracuse led Penn State’s shot attempts 16-14 and had long periods of pressure in the offensive zone. But with active sticks and 11 blocks on the night, Penn State’s defense kept the game tied. Syracuse held possession, trying to find open shooting lanes by cycling the puck around the edge of the offensive zone. Defender Lindsay Eastwood held the puck on her stick at the point and would try to fire pucks on net hoping for a juicy rebound, she said.

“They were blocking what felt like everything, so I had to get my head up and try and get it around them,” Eastwood said. “It was tough to get pucks through tonight for sure.”

When SU did manage to find some room for a shot, Burke was always there to swallow it up and prevent any rebound. Even when SU attackers were able to break free of Penn State defenders they couldn’t execute. Victoria Klimek rang the puck off the crossbar, Lauren Bellefontaine was through on goal only for the puck to roll off her stick and Kelli Rowswell fanned on what would’ve been a wide open shot from the side of the goal. All night the Orange created chance after chance without an end product.

“We had two two-on-ones in the second period and we didn’t even come close to connecting,” said Flanagan. “That’s just the execution factor. We had our chances to get ahead we just didn’t.”

Penn State kept the pressure on Small all game with constant counterattacks, forcing her to make multiple breakaway saves. In the end, the Nittany Lions were able to find the breakthrough goal on a scramble in front, notching an all-important CHA win. The victory brought Penn State level with Syracuse in the conference at 13 points. Both teams are now three points back of the top spot.

Eastwood said one goal games like tonight’s feel like playoff games. With only one nonconference matchup remaining, and the CHA’s first through fourth seeds separated by just three points, Flanagan said close games will be “the way it’s going to be” for the remainder of the year.

“1-0, 2-1, 3-2 games,” Flanagan said. “That’s going to be the nature of the beast.”

Published on January 24, 2020 at 11:53 pm

Contact Gaurav: gshetty@syr.edu