Syracuse power-play struggles continue in 2-2 tie against St. Lawrence

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Syracuse earned its first power-play opportunity against St. Lawrence with 6:15 remaining in the first period. The Saints won the faceoff and dumped it into Syracuse’s zone, where the Orange were able to set up their first attack.

SU forward Abby Moloughney received the puck at the centerline and passed to teammate Sarah Marchand, who was already skating in the right side of the offensive zone. Marchand lightly tapped it to Lauren Bellefontaine. Bellefontaine deked past an SLU defender and then fired a shot from one knee. St. Lawrence goaltender Lucy Morgan was unable to make the save, and the Orange were up 1-0.

After going 1-5 the night before on the power play, the early goal on the player advantage seemed like a sign of progress for Syracuse (0-1-1) against St. Lawrence (3-0-1) on Saturday. But Bellefontaine’s goal would be the only time the Orange scored on any of their six opportunities. In the first two games of the season against SLU, SU has only scored twice in 11 power-play opportunities.

The Saints totaled 20 shots, all of them on goal, against the Orange. While Syracuse only attempted nine shots in the opening period, it held on the one-goal with goaltender Arielle DeSmet, who tallied 14 saves in the period. With 30 seconds left in the period, Sarah Thompson came off the bench and catalyzed a breakaway for SU down the right side. Before Thompson could take a shot, Saint defender Kristen Guerriero hooked her, giving the Orange a power play going into the second period.

But SU was unable to capitalize on the advantage. Less than 20 seconds after the penalty ended, SLU struck back. Saint sophomore Kristina Bahl stole a Syracuse pass and created a two-player advantage for St. Lawrence. The puck was able to get to Bahl’s teammate, Hillary Sterling, who attempted to take a shot, but SU’s Shelby Calof broke it up. The puck fell back into the possession of Bahl, who floated a shot past DeSmet to tie the game.

The Orange had three power-play opportunities to try and score. But they were unable to get anything past Morgan. Syracuse’s inability to score on either penalty was emphasized by Mae Batherson whiffing on a shot, breaking her stick and killing another Syracuse attack. SU had another power-play opportunity in the third but was only able to get an icing called against it.

St. Lawrence finally took advantage of the Orange in the third period when Aly McLeod stole the puck away from SU in its end. McLeod passed to teammate Abby Hustler who passed to Shailynn Snow. Snow fired a shot from the left side that deflected off of DeSmet. McLeod was in the perfect position to immediately retrieve the puck and score the Saints’ second goal of the game with nine minutes left in regulation.

Five minutes later, however, Syracuse capitalized off a steal. Bellefontaine was able to pick Chloé Puddifant’s pockets and give the Orange another chance. Bellefontaine’s steal led to a scrum at the net. And at the end of the chaos, Moloughney netted the puck to tie the game and send it to overtime.

While the five-minute overtime period saw no power plays from either team, it did see 28 combined shots from the two teams. DeSmet and Morgan didn’t let anything get by them in extra time, including three successive breakaways from both the Orange and the Saints, ending with a 2-2 tie.