With the second period clock winding down in the Syracuse ice hockey game Sunday against Union, the puck popped out of a pile in the corner and drifted to the middle of the Union zone. It skidded to freshman Erin Burns with about one second left on the clock.

She wound up for a shot and ripped a bullet past Union goaltender Kate Gallagher as the horn sounded.

The red light to signal a score did not go on, but the referees decided that the goal would count. The Union coaches and players argued, but the refs did not budge.

Burns’ goal stood as the game-winner, giving the Orange a 3-2 lead that it held throughout the third period. It provided Syracuse (8-6-1, 3-1-0 College Hockey America) with some much-needed momentum after a sluggish start against the Dutchwomen (2-11-1).

‘It was huge,’ senior goaltender Lucy Schoedel said of the play. ‘It changed the momentum. It woke us up in the locker room, which is something we needed.’

The Orange needed the boost after coming out flat to start the game. In the first period, Syracuse registered only four shots and could not capitalize on an early power-play opportunity.

Penalties by Burns and senior Brittaney Maschmeyer put Syracuse in a hole early. Union scored 40 seconds into the 5-on-3 advantage, when Schoedel could not slide to protect the net on a backdoor pass.

‘They came ready to play,’ SU sophomore Megan Skelly said. ‘They were hungry, and they wanted to play. I think we all just sat back, and we weren’t ready. …We weren’t mentally prepared to play today.’

Despite the poor play, the Orange managed to tie the game on what Skelly said ‘wasn’t the most beautiful goal’ she has ever scored.

Junior Stefanie Marty carried the puck into the Union zone and passed to junior Julie Rising in the middle. The puck got poked away from Rising, right to Skelly. She snapped a weak wrist shot that bounced off the ice and over Gallagher’s glove to knot the score at one goal apiece.

Syracuse came out of the first intermission with more energy, but Union refused to let the Orange pull away. Rising chipped a Maschmeyer pass into the Union net for a power play goal 3:04 into the second period.

Union answered just over three minutes later. Schoedel stopped a shot from the middle of the Orange zone, but the rebound popped out in front of the crease. Union forward Marissa Gentile picked up the puck and skated around a diving Schoedel. She dumped the puck into the back of the net to tie the game at two.

‘I give (Union) credit,’ SU head coach Paul Flanagan said. ‘They did a real good job. They were motivated. They worked hard. We were probably guilty as a team of looking at their record and not giving them enough respect.’

The two teams battled back and forth for the rest of the period. Neither could break the tie until Union was called for slashing with 15 seconds left. The man-advantage provided Burns with her opportunity.

‘I just saw (the puck) pop out,’ she said. ‘I knew there wasn’t much time so I tried to get it on the net. I didn’t even know if I beat the buzzer or not, but I looked around and my teammate hugged me, so I knew it was in.’

After the goal, Syracuse seemed like a different team than the one that had struggled in the first period.

The Orange was given a protocol violation penalty for coming out to the ice late to start the third. But it killed off the penalty and did not allow a Union shot until almost seven minutes into the period.

Syracuse controlled the puck in the Union zone for most of the third. The five shots the Dutchwomen took came from tough angles or long distances, and Schoedel had no problems denying a score.

The eventual game-winning goal at the end of the second period provided the Orange with the spark they needed to overcome its sluggish start.

‘We built from that power play goal and just kept going,’ Burns said. ‘We finally decided as a team to play like we’re capable of and just got our feet moving and got ourselves working and come out like we can.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on November 30, 2009 at 12:00 pm