Madison Primeau uses strong shot, long strides as top option for SU

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In December 2008, then-Calgary Flames forward Wayne Primeau brought his family to his team’s home arena. The Flames were hosting a “Christmas skate” where all the players could bring their families down to the ice and skate on the Pengrowth Saddledome’s rink. 

Wayne remembered seeing teammate Adrian Aucoin’s daughter, Alyssa, skate around the ice with ease, almost as if she was flying on the rink. He then saw his own daughter, Madison Primeau, struggling to skate and hanging onto the boards for dear life. Both Wayne and his wife, Leanne Primeau, could see the frustration in their daughter.

Primeau’s parents never thought she would play hockey. Despite having a father and uncle who played in the National Hockey League, Primeau didn’t initially fall in love with the sport. Instead, she mainly focused on ballet and tap dancing growing up.

“I tried everything,” Primeau said. “At that moment, I think hockey kind of just passed my mind.”

But that changed shortly after the Christmas skate. In July 2009, the Flames traded Wayne to the Toronto Maple Leafs. In Toronto, Primeau met one of her best friends, Rachel McConvey, who played hockey at the time. This friendship encouraged Primeau to play hockey.

Wayne watched his daughter play forward for Syracuse against Mercyhurst 12 years later. Behind her quick release and strong skating ability, Primeau has become one of the Orange’s leaders in goals as a freshman and was named the College Hockey America’s Rookie of the Week in October.

Wayne thought his daughter played well in the 3-0 loss to the Lakers on Dec. 3, despite only taking four shots on goal. But he did find one specific area of Primeau’s game that she could improve on.

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“Her faceoffs weren’t her strong part today,” Wayne said. “She could’ve done a better job with that.”

Improvement is something that Primeau and Wayne talk about constantly. It reassures her that she deserves to be playing at the collegiate level, Primeau said. Primeau has used her skating ability, specifically her long skating strides and her powerful shot, to become an offensive threat for the Orange this season. On a team full of veteran forwards, Primeau is tied with Abby Moloughney for the team lead in goals with seven.

The only other time in SU history that a freshman led the team in goals was in 2008-09 when Megan Skelly recorded 11. Primeau’s success on offense has keyed Syracuse to a 5-3-1 start to conference play. 

“She’s gifted where she’s got good, quick release and she’s big and strong,” head coach Paul Flanagan said. “So she’s hard to defend against, but obviously, she’s got things she got to work on.”

Having a quick release has always been important to Primeau, Wayne said. It’s something that Primeau and her teammates work on in skill sessions with assistant coach Claudia Kepler.

Darcy Breakey, head coach of the Mississauga Jr. Hurricanes, one of Primeau’s junior teams, remembered seeing her quick release after she joined the team in 2019-20. What made Primeau’s release so good, Breakey said, is that the young forward was always willing to change the point of release.

Wayne Primeau trying to teach his daughter how to skate. Courtesy of Wayne and Leanne Primeau

“If she’s got a defenseman in her lane, she changes that point of release to ensure that (the puck) gets through,” Breakey said. 

In 2019, Primeau was selected for Team Ontario to go to Yokohama, Japan, for a series of friendly games. Primeau scored multiple goals, displaying her strong release, using her size and long reach to protect the puck, allowing her to get powerful shots off, Breakey said.

“A lot of us kind of look up to her honestly,” Moloughney said. “You see someone who’s able to do that and you think, ‘I wouldn’t be able to do that. How does she do it?’”

Wayne said that Primeau could shoot more, and Primeau said she could drive the net more, too. The freshman is just tenth on the team in total shots, but Flanagan said he finds the freshman to be very opportunistic. Over his time at Syracuse, he has seen many freshmen become passive and take a while to score their first goal. But he says Primeau is a player who isn’t afraid to shoot.

“I’ve seen a lot of freshmen come in here and haven’t scored a goal, and after the first semester, come back and score 10,” Flanagan said. “Some of it is just recognizing that shoot-first mentality and (Primeau) she has that.”

Primeau also is certain that her skating — specifically her first few steps in a skating stride — could improve, especially as she continues to get stronger.

Wayne said he sees Primeau as a very deceptive skater, far different from when she struggled to stand up on the rink in Calgary. She can now use her long strides to gain possession of the puck, he said.

Associate head coach Brendon Knight said Primeau’s skating ability makes her a very sneaky player. Primeau uses her skating abilities to be in the right place at the right time for goals, he said. Additionally, most of Primeau’s goals come from the below the hash mark, Knight said, and that comes with good skating.

On Tuesday October 12th freshman Madison Primeau scored her first collegiate goal in our game against Union … the first of three games in a row with a goal💪🍊#CharacterDisciplinePassion pic.twitter.com/xkrDQSZCj1

— Syracuse Ice Hockey (@CuseIce) October 17, 2021

Primeau scored her first goal at Syracuse against Union from below the hash mark. Victoria Klimek drove toward the net with the puck, but Union goaltender Sophie Matsoukas was able to poke-check the puck out of the crease and let it slide away.

Primeau quickly skated below the hash marks and gained control of the puck in the center of Union’s zone. With a wide-open net, Primeau sent a short, but hard, shot into the net to give the Orange a 1-0 lead. It was the first of five goals the Orange would score that night and the first of seven that Primeau has recorded so far this season.

“There’s proof right there for the rest of the team: if you want to score, then go to the net,” Knight said. “The puck seems to find her, and she’s got a really good release on her shot.”