Paul Flanagan called it the worst game he’s ever coached.

‘The team just wasn’t ready,’ Flanagan, the Syracuse head coach, said. ‘That’s my job to get the team ready. … It’s our job to get these kids ready for each and every game.’

Flanagan’s Syracuse team lacked energy and focus in its 3-1 loss to Colgate on Wednesday in front of a crowd of 125 at Tennity Ice Pavilion. The Orange looked lost for stretches and came out flat in the opening period against the Raiders. SU conceded the first goal for the second consecutive game and was thoroughly outplayed from start to finish.

For the Orange, its struggles were clear as soon as the puck dropped.

A defensive gaffe in the opening minute of play allowed Brittany Phillips — the nation’s leader in points per game entering Wednesday — a breakaway opportunity that was denied by Kallie Billadeau.

‘We just didn’t come out focused at the beginning of the game, which obviously showed,’ freshman defender Jordyn Burns said.

From there, the opening period was mostly uneventful until the closing seconds of the period.

With time winding down in the first, Miriam Drubel skated into the offensive zone, where she got tangled up with SU defender Akane Hosoyamada, who was called for a penalty.

The struggling Orange special teams unit was forced to start the second period on the penalty kill. And the Raiders capitalized on the opportunity less than a minute into the period on a slap shot goal by Phillips.

‘Colgate did a good job of frustrating us, but I think we were our own worst enemy,’ Flanagan said.

The opportunities started to come for Syracuse in the second period, but on Wednesday, anything that could go wrong for the Orange went wrong.

Shiann Darkangelo nearly answered Colgate’s goal with two of her team-high five shots just a minute later, but was robbed on a fantastic save by Raiders goaltender Kimberly Sass.

Later in the period, Hosoyamada redeemed herself for the earlier penalty by drawing a tripping call against Phillips to set up a five-on-three for the Orange.

But Syracuse couldn’t make the most of the opportunity Hosoyamada created.

The Orange power play unit continued its struggles, getting off just four shots in 1:44 with the two-player advantage.

But the issues for SU didn’t end there. The Orange defense broke down to allow Colgate to pad its lead.

Burns got trapped in a corner near the top of the offensive zone and coughed up the puck. This set up an odd-man rush that was capped by deke by Melissa Kueber to assist a Taylor Volpe goal to put Colgate up 2-0.

In the third period, though, the energy changed for the Orange after Flanagan pulled Billadeau from the game and replaced her with third-string goalie Stephanie Jones. It was Jones’ first appearance of the season.

Flanagan said the move was made to get Jones some playing time and ‘maybe get something going.’

Though Caroline Potolicchio added an insurance goal against Jones early in the period, the change in net along with what Flanagan told the team in the locker room lit a fire in the team for most of the final period. The Orange played with an aggression that was lacking early.

‘Our coach, Paul, definitely brought that up in the dressing room, and he had to repeat it again, and that’s where we came out stronger,’ Hosoyamada said.

The Raiders added some insurance in the third period by way of Potolicchio’s second goal of the season before the Orange finally got on the board with less than two minutes remaining on a goal by Jessica Sorensen.

Normally a garbage time goal isn’t thought of as much, but Sorensen’s goal came on a power play, and Flanagan hopes this will give the team a little bit of momentum moving forward.

The head coach is hoping his team can take the lessons from the poor performance and improve as the season goes on.

‘Sometimes failure’s good for you,’ Flanagan said. ‘You learn a lot about yourselves. We’ll see what kind of character our team shows up with.’

dbwilson@syr.edu