Syracuse Women’s Hockey takes down RIT in AHA action due to late-game heroics

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Syracuse Women’s Hockey team defeated RIT 3-2 in the final regular-season home game of the year.  

RIT came into this evening sitting at the 4th seed in the AHA with 29 points, sitting one point ahead of the No. 5 seeded Orange.  

The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds are both secured by Penn State and Mercyhurst. There are seven teams in the AHA playoffs, the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds host playoff games.  

No. 3-seeded Lindenwood took on No. 4 nationally ranked Penn State, losing 6-3, which means Syracuse not only jumped RIT but also the Lions, who were sitting at the No. 3 seed in the AHA with 30 points.   

“We have to take care of our business,” said associate head coach Heather Farrell, “We can’t expect anyone else to help us at this point, so we need to get points tomorrow and get some points from Mercy.”

Syracuse found success quickly in this one, 7:24 into the first period; Jackson Kinsler on the doorstep put home the rebound off the captain Nea Tervonen’s chance to put the Orange up 1-0.   

Shortly after, at the 11:08 mark, Jaidan Fahrny ripped one right past the Syracuse netminder Ava Drabyk, on the Power Play, notching this one up at one a piece.  

Moving forward to the later stages of the 2nd period, Emma Gnade and Peyton Armstrong found themselves up the rush on a 2-on-1 where Gnade found Armstrong, who ripped it right by the RIT netminder Brenna McNamara.   

“Army (Peyton Armstrong) is just so quick with her hands, so she was able to roof that puck pretty quickly and hit the water bottle it was a pretty nice goal,” said associate head coach Heather Farrell.

Not even two minutes later, in the late stages of the 2nd period, Cassandra Barnes deflected one in off a point shot from Tilli Keranen to tie it up at two apiece.   

Jumping to the final period of play just over the mid-way point, Ireland Stein ripped one right past Drabyk, giving RIT a 3-2 lead, so that’s what they thought until coach Farrell challenged the play. The officials decided that RIT was the official turning the goal over, keeping this one tied.   

With time running out and this one potentially about to go to overtime, Jessica Cheung delivered her first goal of the season to break the deficit at the 18:38 mark.   

“I haven’t gotten a goal so far this year so, but I’m glad that I was able to get that, and I think it’s really going to boost my confidence,” said Cheung.

The Orange look to keep their pace in the AHA standings on the road tomorrow against RIT, before they hit the road again against Mercyhurst for the team’s final regular-season series of the year.  

Penn State wins eighth straight, blanking Syracuse, 4-0

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – No. 9 Penn State completed the weekend and season-series sweep against Syracuse, capturing a 4-0 conference win at the Tennity Ice Pavilion on Saturday, Jan. 18.

Penn State (21-4-1, 12-0-0 AHA) spent most of Saturday’s contest in the offensive zone, creating scoring chances. The Nittany Lions outshot the Orange 31-25.

In the first period, freshman forward Grace Outwater opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal. Outwater stole the puck from Syracuse freshman defenseman Jessica Cheung and capitalized on the breakaway for her fifth goal in eight games.

Junior forward Tessa Janecke doubled Penn State’s lead less than three minutes into the second period. With her 17th goal, Janecke became the career points leader in Penn State women’s ice hockey program history with 138 points.

Freshman forward Nicole Hall scored her fourth goal of the year to make it 3-0 Nittany Lions with 1:43 remaining in the second period.

Early in the third period, Outwater scored her second goal on an assist by junior forward Maddy Christian. Christian led all players in the season series with six points.

Junior goaltender Katie DeSa made 25 saves and secured her sixth shutout victory of the season.

In its four wins this season, Penn State outscored the Orange 13-4 and won two of the four games in overtime. On Saturday, Penn State picked up its eighth straight win and remained the only undefeated team in the AHA.

The Nittany Lions have won 11 of the last 12 meetings against Syracuse, but the Orange lead the all-time series 31-16-8.

The Orange (7-19, 5-7 AHA) blocked eight shots and won 25 faceoffs. Syracuse graduate forward Tatum White, again impressive in the faceoff circle, won 10 of 19. Sophomore forward Nea Tervonen won 8 of 16 faceoffs for the Orange. Penn State’s Janecke won 10 of 16 faceoffs.

The Orange were 0 for 9 on the power play in this weekend’s two games, but Syracuse head coach Britni Smith said she didn’t feel the team struggled with the man advantage.

“I thought we were better today than yesterday on our power play. We had more opportunities and more pucks to the crease. So we’ll just build on that,” Smith said.

Smith said every conference game going forward is important.

“It’s going to be a battle. Every single point is going to be a battle. So another week of practice and right back to it,” Smith said.

Syracuse will have a home-and-home series next weekend against RIT. On Friday, Jan. 24, they will head west to Rochester, New York, for a 3 p.m. puck drop. Syracuse returns home to the Tennity Ice Pavilion on Saturday, Jan. 25, with puck drop at 3 p.m. The Orange look to snap their seven-game losing streak.

Syracuse goaltender makes history in overtime loss to Penn State

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – After a scoreless regulation, NCAA history, and 42 shots on goal, No. 9 Penn State prevailed in overtime, securing a 1-0 conference win at the Tennity Ice Pavilion on Friday, Jan. 17.

With an 11-0 conference record, the Nittany Lions remain the only undefeated team in the AHA. They have won 10 of the last 11 meetings against Syracuse.

Syracuse graduate goaltender Allie Kelley made NCAA history after she made her 33rd save of the game. She became the NCAA all-time saves leader with 4,168 career saves, passing RPI alum Lovisa Selander.

Kelley finished the night with 41 saves, making it the tenth game this season with 40 or more saves. She leads the AHA with 823 saves.

Syracuse head coach Britni Smith said Kelley kept the Orange in the game.

“I thought she was on a different level tonight, and her focus, her ability to make big saves in big moments. I believe the reason we were in overtime was because of Allie Kelley,” Smith said.

Kelley said she wanted to finish her college career at Syracuse.

“I knew from my first conversation when I was in the transfer portal when I talked to [Coach Smith] that I wanted to come here. I just like playing behind this team that values each other so much,” Kelley said.

Smith said the coaching staff did their homework during the recruiting process.

“She checked the boxes on everything; past coaches had nothing but great things to say about her, you know, really talking about how she could really help change a program,” Smith said.

Penn State junior forward Katelyn Roberts scored her seventh goal of the year with 1:52 remaining in overtime on an assist by junior defenseman Kendall Butze.

The Nittany Lions outshot the Orange 42-18. The Orange had 18 blocked shots and won 23 faceoffs. Graduate forward Tatum White won 11 of 20 faceoffs for Syracuse.

The Orange struggled on the power play, failing to score during six power-play opportunities. Penn State was 0 for 2 on the power play.

Syracuse and Penn State square off for the final time on Saturday, Jan. 18, with puck drop at 3 p.m. at the Tennity Ice Pavilion. The Nittany Lions look to sweep the weekend and the season series.

Syracuse sweeps Robert Morris in last series of the semester

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Syracuse Orange completed its sweep of the Robert Morris Colonials with a 4-1 win on Saturday. Bryn Saarela led the Orange the whole weekend with seven points over the two games, including five goals.

“It was definitely a lot of fun. I haven’t done that before, it’s a lot of fun, especially doing it with this team,” Saarela said.

One of the other leaders on the weekend was captain and goalie Allie Kelley. She made 50 saves on the weekend and only let two shots by her in the two games.

Prior to the weekend, Kelley had 520 saves on the season, which put her second in NCAA women’s Division I hockey.

Saarela scored goals all different ways in the home series. She opened the series Friday with a powerplay goal against the Colonials.

Coach Britni Smith said was happy to see Saarela find success in the weekend.

“She just plays the right way. She’s someone that continues to battle on the defensive side of the puck and gets rewarded on the offensive side. It’s great to see her teammates get so excited for her success,” Smith said.

Saarela scored a second powerplay goal in the game Saturday. She said the key was quick puck movement.

“I think for the power play goal, just moving it around, getting them moving, and then kind of surprising them with the low attack, kind of like yesterday,” Saarela said.

Saarela wasn’t done with her special teams’ dominance. She scored a shorthanded goal on Saturday. Saarela said that the week of practice she had with her line mates helped them have success the whole weekend.

“I thought our week of practice went really well, we were connecting in some of the drills, so I think just continuing that into the weekend was very helpful,” Saarela said.

Saarela had an even strength and an empty net goal in the first game of the weekend to complete the first hat trick of her career.

Coach Britni Smith said she is able to play Saarela in any game situation.

“The goal is to have more and more players who can do that, and I believe we already have a lot of younger players who are already stepping into some of those roles as well. So it’s great to have players like Tatum and Bryn who can lead the way and help those younger players, so when they are in those positions, they have seen how it’s done and what is expected,” Smith said.

The Orange gets three weeks off before its first series of the second semester. The team sits at 7-12 with a 5-3 conference record.

The Orange will play in Minnesota against Minnesota Duluth in its first series of the new year. The Bulldogs are ranked fifth in the country.

Smith said the team deserved the break after their dedication to the process this semester.

“They definitely earned the sweep this weekend and it’s a good way to go into break,” Smith said.

A Rough Patch of Ice for Orange’s Hockey Team

SYRACUSE (Newhouse Sports Media Center) — The Orange women’s hockey team is heading to Providence, RI this weekend, looking to end a three game losing streak and get back to a winning formula in the College Hockey America (CHA) conference.

Last weekend Syracuse played a home-and-home series versus upstate New York rival Clarkson to begin conference play. On the road at Cheel Arena, the women’s team were shut out 4-0. Being out shot 36 to 26, and gave up two back-breaking goals in the final period. The Golden Knights are now 5-0-0 and the Orange are 1-3-0.

One night earlier and 145 miles south on I-81, the teams faced off at Tennity Ice Pavilion for the Orange’s home opener. Led by senior goaltender Kallie Billadeau, the women’s squad played an inspiring, fast-paced game. The Golden Knights came in ranked as the No. 3 team in the country, and provided an overwhelming offensive attack from the opening face off.

A slap shot by Carly Mercer got Clarkson on the board early, with 1:40 remaining in the first period. Mercer would add another goal in the second period to give the Golden Knights a 2-0 lead with 20 minutes to play.

The score remained the same until midway through the third period. Having a 5-on-3-man advantage, Nicole Renault, a sophomore from Plymouth, Mass., scored a wrist shot for the Orange and cut the deficit to one.

Penalty killing played a big part into the Orange defense, holding the opposition’s power play to 0-for-5, while going 1-for-5 themselves.

Billadeau, the Minnetonka, Minn. native did her best between the pipes, saving 39 shots for the Orange. It was not enough, however, as Clarkson would hold on to win 2-1.

Total shots taken was the real story, as the Golden Knights fired off 41 to the Orange’s 18.

Clarkson improved to 4-0-0, while Syracuse fell to 1-2-0 on the early season.

The Orange now travel to play Providence College for back-to-back games this weekend. Friday the puck drops at 7 PM and Saturday at 3 PM.

They return home and face Boston College and Union College, respectively, the following weekend of October 25th and 26th. Home games are free to the public.