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Amid Syracuse’s eight-game skid to open 2025, Syracuse has struggled to receive contributions from its high-flying attackers and depth pieces alike.

But in its 2-1 loss against RIT on Friday, Celia Wiegand broke that trend with her first career goal. While it may have come on a fluky deflection off an opposing stick, SU will take goals of any kind as the final stretch of its season presses on.

In its final matchup with the Tigers at home before the postseason, Syracuse again looked to its depth pieces to help earn its third win in four games against RIT.

Inspired by Wiegand’s tally less than 24 hours earlier, Syracuse (8-20-0, 6-8-0 Atlantic Hockey America) was lifted to a 3-2 win over RIT (13-12-3, 6-7-1 AHA) by some unusual suspects’ efforts on both sides of the ice. In the opening period, SU’s Heidi Knoll notched her first goal of the season, and Sami Gendron scored on a breakaway for her first career goal, giving SU an early 2-0 cushion that it never relinquished.

“I think we’ve had good production in a number of areas. (Knoll and Gendron) have been getting their opportunities, so I’m sure they were both just relieved to find their first ones,” SU head coach Britni Smith said postgame.

While Syracuse set the pace in the first period the day before, RIT matched its aggressiveness to begin Saturday’s contest. As the Orange’s top line, led by Bryn Saarela, still searched for their wheels, Knoll opened the scoring.

With space on the left-wing side, Knoll brought the puck toward RIT goalie Sarah Coe, who moved out of her crease to challenge the incoming shot.

But with SU’s Charlotte Hallett screening her view, Coe lost track of the puck after making the initial save. By the time she tracked it down, it’d already slowly rolled across the goal line. The tally marked Knoll’s first score since Feb. 2, 2024.

Rylee McLeod, another depth piece for SU, also broke out Saturday. While she rode a five-game pointless drought entering the matchup, the freshman has still earned her fair share of looks during her dry spell.

Since scoring SU’s lone goal against then-No. 4 Minnesota Duluth in a 2-1 loss on Jan. 3, McLeod has logged eight shots on goal through her goalless streak. With the primary assist on Knoll’s opening marker, she now ranks second in Syracuse’s freshmen class with six points.

After Knoll’s goal, the contest opened up as the Orange and Tigers exchanged offensive opportunities. For nearly the next six minutes of play, both sides combined for 13 shot attempts.

However, helped by its secondary defensive pair of Wiegand and Gendron, SU upheld its 1-0 advantage past the midway point of the opening frame. At the same time, Gendron quarterbacked Syracuse’s defense in the period’s final five minutes.

Sprung by a pretty feed from Saarela off the boards, Gendron found herself alone behind RIT’s defense for a rare breakaway opportunity. All in one motion, she moved the puck from forehand to backhand and roofed it past Coe’s blocker for a nifty first career goal.

While it’s hard to imagine scoring as a defender, Gendron prepared for this moment. The goal appeared easy for the longtime blueliner.

”Honestly, it was just natural. Bryn just passed me the puck and I saw there was a little hole, and I scored, so it was great,” Gendron said with a laugh postgame.

As the contest turned to the second period, both sides continued their relentless pursuit of the puck. Syracuse’s forecheck, which helped generate 27 shots on net the day before, continued to wreak havoc in the middle frame led by another of Syracuse’s freshmen, Stella Costabile.

Despite logging no statistics besides a single shot on goal over her last four contests, Costabile’s role in her first collegiate season has not been given justice by her box score.

Her four-point season so far (one goal, three assists) may be easy to overlook, but the scrappy forward has made her greatest impact on the forecheck by creating offensive zone turnovers to tire out opposing defenders. By doing so Saturday afternoon, she paved the way for Syracuse’s bigs to surface and extended its lead.

With 4:38 remaining, three of the Orange’s top-four scorers —- Saarela, Tatum White and Charli Kettyle — worked the puck around the Tigers’ worn-down defenders and eventually lit the lamp to balloon Syracuse’s advantage to three. The lead marked its largest since Dec. 7, 2024.

While a 3-0 deficit may have seemed insurmountable, that didn’t stop the Tigers from making the game interesting down the stretch. Just as they had Friday, the Tigers rattled off back-to-back tallies just 4:13 apart to bring them a much-needed spark.

“The challenge (on the second goal) gave us time to calm down, and we got to talk and sort things out. We just knew we had to fight back, and eventually, we got the job done,” Knoll said.

At the same time, Syracuse struggled to find a response. Throughout the final period, Syracuse’s top player-advantage unit was gifted two opportunities to cash in to put the game out of reach but was stymied on both attempts as Coe only faced two shots across both opportunities.

However, when the Orange needed them most, their depth players bailed them out.

Following a timeout, the Tigers pulled their goalie in desperation and threatened to send the contest to overtime with a nearly minute-long offensive possession. In the game’s dying seconds, Syracuse’s secondary defensive pair of Gendron and Wiegand were tasked to fend off the Tigers’ assault.

“It’s a team effort. Everyone on the bench is cheering for each other; everyone wants to win, and in those moments, you just have to fight because you never know what’s going to happen. We play for each other,” Gendron said.

By holding the puck along the boards and eventually launching it out of the defensive zone past center ice, the duo maintained SU’s thin cushion to finish off a gutsy one-goal win.

“I think we’ve been getting pretty good production across the board. We obviously have some players like (Saarela) who are pretty consistent for us, but other than that, it’s been a lot more balanced than I think we’ve seen in the past,” Smith said.

Published on January 25, 2025 at 8:10 pm

Contact Matthew: mgray06@syr.edu