Arielle DeSmet records 2nd shutout of season in 3-0 win over RIT

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Shelby Calof skated the puck through the neutral zone and intended a pass for freshman Erin Brousseau. But RIT forward Kylie Aquaro intercepted the puck before it could get to Brousseau. Aquaro, flanked by teammates Megan McCormick and Abby Davies, then generated a 3-on-1 opportunity for the Tigers. Aquaro skated down the right side of the Orange’s zone and took a low shot from the right faceoff circle that SU goaltender Arielle DeSmet saved with her left pad.

Although the Orange already had 12 more shots than the Tigers, neither team finished their wide-open scoring chances, which kept the game scoreless after the first period and made DeSmet’s save on Aquaro crucial early on. 

This save was part of DeSmet’s second shutout of the season, where she made 29 saves in Syracuse’s (8-9-5, 6-3-0-1 College Hockey America) 3-0 victory over RIT (0-22-2, 0-8-1 CHA). The shutout increased DeSmet’s season save percentage to .934, the second-best mark in the CHA. 

DeSmet’s performance was also part of a larger and more efficient defensive effort from the Orange that stalled Tiger breakaways and continued penalty-killing success. The win was SU’s first shutout victory since Nov. 6 against RIT.

The first period saw the Orange dominate the Tigers in shooting. Syracuse outshot RIT 20-5 after 20 minutes, but over a quarter of SU’s shots were blocked by Tiger skaters and other offensive opportunities would fizzle out before a shot could be taken, which kept the game scoreless.

The opening period also included neutral zone turnovers. Syracuse defenseman Hannah Johnson tried to make a forward pass while her SU teammates were heading to the bench for a line change, which caused another turnover, making SU’s first period stops even more critical. 

This included Johnson skating into the RIT zone with the puck to generate some offense for the dormant Orange with a little over six minutes left in the period. But RIT’s Jordan Marchese poked at her stick and stole it to create a scoring chance. Marchese had fellow forward Chloe McNeil to her right but Madison Primeau and Jessica DiGirolamo blocked her passing lane. Instead, Marchese decided to take the shot, which was blocked by the Syracuse defensive duo. 

“We were pretty good in the defensive end but we need to clean it up,” SU forward Sarah Marchand said.

As the second period started, the Orange also had to stop the Tigers’ solo breakaway chances. Terryn Mozes held the puck at the top right of RIT’s zone when Marchese again stole the puck. This time, Marchese had a breakaway chance at the net, but Marchese didn’t even get a shot off as SU’s Kambel Beacom rushed behind Marchese to prevent the shot. With Beacom blocking any chance at the net, Marchese decided to stop, waiting for the rest of the Tigers to come and start an attack. But as Marchese sent a wall pass up to Kyla Bear, Syracuse forward Sarah Thompson stole the puck to kill the scoring chance.

“Defensively we did a pretty good job of staying up and forcing a lot of turnovers,” head coach Paul Flanagan said. “We forced a lot of dump-ins and that is what you want.” 

But as the Orange started to score — notching two second period goals — the Tigers started to become more physical. Abby Moloughney was body-checked to the ice by Addie Carr and Thompson was slammed into the boards which eventually led to a penalty. The physicality from the Tigers started to generate chances for them as well. 

With just under 13 minutes left in the second period, Lauren Bellefontaine skated up into the neutral zone but was immediately pressured by Tiger forward Lindsay Maloney. Maloney used her right arm to aggressively take the puck away and create another breakaway for RIT, quickly sending a pass to Emma Roland who got it to Athena Vasdani for a shot. DeSmet got a piece of the puck and it flew over the net. Roland had seven more shots on goal, but all of them were saved by DeSmet.

“We could’ve gotten our feet moving more in the neutral zone,” DeSmet said. “But other than that we created good space for ourselves and that carried into the offensive zone.” 

DeSmet’s dominant performance continued into the final period even as the Tigers started to get power-play opportunities. While RIT had three power-play chances, Syracuse, who has given up the fewest power-play goals in the CHA, shut down passing lanes and blocked shots. When DeSmet was needed, she also controlled play even when the team was down a player. 

With nine minutes left in the game, Roland fired the puck from the slot that DeSmet blocked. As the puck was still around the crease, Maloney lurked to DeSmet’s right, looking for a shot. Maloney took a poke at the net, but DeSmet finally got a glove on it, stopping any further chances.

“At times it was a little disjointed,” Flanagan said. “But they were just trying to plug up the middle and have turned pucks over, which I thought we did a good job of.”