1st period comes back to haunt Syracuse in defeat to Mercyhurst
Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.
Syracuse fell behind just over two minutes into the game, giving it a tough hill to climb against a physical Mercyhurst team. Mik Tod tried forcing a pass up the boards as she was closed down by a Mercyhurst defender, but to no avail. Her attempt was deflected up into the air, eventually falling to the stick of Riley Johnson who kickstarted a push up the ice.
Johnson flicked it into the path of Jersey Phillips as she, controlling the puck past the blue line. With Maya D’Arcy cutting of her angle, Phillips flipped her hips, changing her body angle to face away from the goal. She saw Megan McKay trailing her with no Syracuse player tracking her. Philips laid the puck off for McKay who didn’t have much of an angle or a chance of scoring a goal, but she let fly anyway. McKay’s first time shot arrowed into the top left corner before Arielle DeSmet could even react, giving Mercyhurst a 1-0 lead.
The Orange found themselves down multiple goals, conceding two in the first five minutes, to trail 3-0 at the end of the first. Another slow start for Syracuse proved problematic in its (9-22-2, 6-9-1 College Hockey America) 4-2 defeat to Mercyhurst (17-13-2, 9-3-2 CHA). Syracuse’s first-period struggles have been well-documented this season. The Orange have found themselves playing from behind in much of its game, hardly bouncing back. Playing a full three periods has been something head coach Britni Smith said the team has been working on.
Syracuse’s first two periods in its 2-0 loss Friday had plenty of positives for Smith as the team headed into its matchup Saturday. Syracuse remained locked at 0 through almost 40 minutes in its previous matchup, but any growth the Orange made during the game went straight out the window in the opening five minutes on Saturday.
“It just comes down to the fact that we weren’t ready to play.” Smith said. “I don’t think it was a tactical thing. Whether we didn’t prepare them mentally or not, it was the focus more than anything, I don’t think it had anything to do with the game plan.”
The Lakers nearly doubled its lead seconds later when Thea Johansson drove on net, but was foiled by Arielle DeSmet. Syracuse needed to counter punch, but it remained shelled in its own zone, with Mercyhurst taking advantage.
Mae Batherson attempted to dump the puck deep in Mercyhurst’s zone, but her clearance deflected off the boards towards the middle of the ice. Kary Kromer backhanded a pass hitting Lillian Perrault who held off two defenders firing a shot just wide of the far post. Perrault’s attempt was chased down by Sarah Boucher who passed it behind the net back to Perrault. The forward gave the right back to Boucher who fired a shot that was saved by DeSmet. DeSmet deflected leaving it up for grabs in front, giving Perraut an opportunity to pounce. With Syracuse defenders trying to locate the puck, the Graduate student snuck behind everyone, poking it home to double the Lakers lead just over three minutes into the game.
“We weren’t doing simple things,” Hannah Johnson said. “Getting the pucks deep, we were trying to make plays that weren’t there and letting them in our D-Zone and get the shots on net.”
The Lakers added another goal in the first period, catching Syracuse on the break during a man-up opportunity. Perrault led the attack with Boucher sprinting up to get with her. A perfect pass across led to a finish from Boucher, giving Mercyhurst a 3-0 advantage.
The Lakers dominated the opening period, nearly doubling Syracuse’s number of shots on goal with 17. Despite recording nine shots on net in the first period, none of the Orange’s chances were clear cut. Sarah Marchand made a strong cut and angled towards the net, but the puck was poked away from her at the last second. Lauren Bellefontaine tried her luck from distance, but her attempt sailed over the top.
The Orange didn’t test Ena Nystrom in net while Mercyhurst put pressure on DeSmet’s cage for Syracuse. The graduate student had 14 of her 33 total saves in the first period.
Junior Forward Sarah Thompson said that it’s important not to let the errors compile and snowball for the rest of the. She said “mistakes happen,” and that it’s part of the game. She feels teammates need to be there to “support each other” when the first one happens to prevent one mistake from turning into two or three.
“When we get let down a little bit, sometimes we let the game get away from us,” Thompson said. “A big thing for us is if we do get a goal against just bouncing back, leaning on each other, and moving the momentum back in our favor.”
The let down in the first period gave Syracuse a mountain to climb for the rest of the game. The Orange did well to fight back, scoring a goal through Thompson on a power play opportunity in the second period.
Later on in the third, the Orange pulled DeSmet, giving them a man advantage where Rhea Hicks scored, making it 3-2 with under 90 seconds to play. Mercyhurst put the game away with an empty netter thirty seconds later.
“This weekend, we played five out of six periods,” Smith said. “We’re getting more consistent, the message after the game this time of the year, we don’t have a period to take off anymore. You do that in the playoffs and you’re chasing the game.”
