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Syracuse goalie Arielle DeSmet lost the puck in a mass of bodies. After Penn State’s Izzy Heminger sent a bullet from just inside the blue line, DeSmet swung her body the wrong way on the save attempt and the puck flew untouched into the top right corner of the net. PSU took a short-lived 2-0 lead near the end of the second period. But less than a minute later, the Nittany Lions struck again.
Erin Brousseau fell down trying to intercept a PSU pass, and that set Kiara Zanon free down the left side. She skated slowly towards the baseline looking for a crossing lane, and she found one as Alyssa Machado raced down the middle of the ice. Zanon’s pass made it through a few crossed sticks and Machado sank it with a quick swipe of her own.
Penn State (12-8-1, 4-1 College Hockey America) handed Syracuse (7-10-1, 4-1 CHA) its first conference loss of the season in a 4-0 rout at the Pegula Ice Arena. Syracuse started slow and finished slower. It was outshot 39-18 in the game.
The Orange, who usually excel on special teams, went 0-2 on Saturday, despite shooting five of their 18 shots during those two opportunities. SU leads the CHA in power-play percentage (.185) with Penn State in second at .176, but it failed to convert in the loss.
Through 10 minutes, neither team was putting together cohesive offensive possessions. But Penn State started to keep the puck on SU’s side more consistently in the second half of the period, until it eventually got a shot to fall.
With just over a minute remaining in the first, Zanon collected the puck and passed up the ice to Olivia Wallin before taking off down the middle. Wallin bided her time down the right side, looking for a lane. Similar to Zanon’s assist from the second period, Wallin found the crossing lane between a couple of SU sticks and Zanon fired it home in a hurry.
Just before that play, Brousseau tried to drive one-on-three, but it was poked away to an open Zanon. After sensing that PSU was controlling the puck, SU continuously tried to push despite being outnumbered. SU’s panic-driven offense was not cohesive and the passing only got sloppier as the game went on.
SU’s leading scorer, Sarah Thompson, finished the game with zero shots and went 3-of-14 on faceoff attempts, contributing to the 31-20 discrepancy in PSU’s favor. Nobody else on the Orange eclipsed three shot attempts.
After the game’s first goal, Penn State controlled the pace throughout, regardless of the team’s personnel. SU got off nine shots in their first period power-play and just one in their third period opportunity.
All season, head coach Britni Smith has emphasized the importance of starting strong. Not only did they start slow, but they let the momentum build up after every score. The Orange effort continued to go down as the game went on. The stagnant defense led to a demoralizing nail in the coffin in the game’s final period.
After Penn State cleared it to SU’s side, Charlotte Hallett whiffed on a pass right next to the goal. Her lackadaisical attempt hit the ice and her stick skipped right over the puck. Tessa Janecke was right in front of the barely-moving puck to score from point-blank range on a disoriented DeSmet.
Hallett threw her head back in disgust as SU stomached its first conference loss since Feb. 11.
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