Paul Flanagan said he was worried about the penalty kill after the Syracuse ice hockey team’s 4-3 win over Princeton Friday.

On Saturday afternoon, the unit’s performance showed the head coach that his worries, from the night before, may have been a little unfounded.

The SU penalty kill blanked Princeton on seven power play opportunities, helping to keep the game at a scoreless tie through three periods. Sophomore forward Lisa Mullan then scored the game-winning goal with just over a minute left in overtime to give the Orange a 1-0 win on Saturday in Tennity Ice Pavilion.

‘It was some unbelievable penalty killing,’ Flanagan said after Saturday’s game. ‘That’s just hard work, really. (Goaltender) Lucy (Schoedel) making the saves, and everybody else just gutting it out, grinding it out. It’s just hard work.’

The unit’s performance Saturday came after the Orange struggled with man-down situations Friday night. Princeton converted two of its four opportunities in the first game, pushing the Tigers to a 3-1 lead in the second period.

But SU rallied back. Junior forward Stefanie Marty scored late in the second period to pull the Orange within one. A power play goal by freshman Isabel Menard about a minute into the third tied the score, and Julie Rising scored more than eight minutes later on another 5-on-4 opportunity.

SU’s 4-3 win on Friday came largely despite the penalty kill’s performance.

But on Saturday, killing penalties became crucial, as the Orange struggled to get the puck on net.

After a defensive stalemate in the first period, one of Princeton’s best opportunities came with an extra skater less than a minute into the second.

After a Tiger shot, the puck popped loose just outside the crease. As both teams collapsed toward the goal, Schoedel rolled around in front of the net, flailing her arms and legs around to stop any potential shots. Syracuse bodies formed a wall in front of the net, and Princeton could not get the puck past the Orange.

‘I think once the game gets going, it’s not really about systems any more,’ Schoedel said. ‘It’s more about that desperation stuff. We stick to the systems, but it doesn’t always go that way. We were able to really react.’

In those first two periods, Princeton had five extra-skater opportunities. As the Orange offense sputtered to just eight shots-on-goal before the second intermission, the Tigers registered 18 shots, 10 of them on power plays.

But they were not good enough to beat Schoedel, who finished the afternoon with 27 saves. The shutout was the senior co-captain’s second this year.

‘They didn’t have a ton of great chances,’ Flanagan said. ‘Lucy didn’t have to make spectacular saves. She made good, solid saves, handled rebounds well, and we did what we had to do.’

The Orange offense created more opportunities in the third, but still could not find the net. Then, Mullan finally broke through in overtime.

Menard gained possession of the puck in the Syracuse zone and found Mullan skating down the left side. As Mullan received the puck, freshman forward Holly Carrie-Mattimoe took off down the right side, creating a 2-on-1 opportunity.

Mullan said she wanted to dish the puck off to her teammate, but Carrie-Mattimoe was trailing the play by a couple strides. As Mullan skated just inside the left faceoff circle, she ripped a wrist shot to the top left corner of the goal.

Princeton goaltender Rachel Weber got a piece of the puck with her shoulder but could not knock it down. The shot then bounced down off the crossbar and landed just inside the goal line to give the Orange the 1-0 victory.

‘I was at the end of my shift,’ Mullan said of her goal. ‘I was really tired, and I wasn’t really expecting a rush or any kind of scoring opportunity. But it happened, and I just capitalized on it.’

Without the seven penalty kills, SU would have never had the chance in overtime. The unit may have hindered the Orange in the first win this weekend, but its performance kept Syracuse in the second game.

And after the game Saturday, even the hero acknowledged that fact.

‘It’s huge,’ Mullan said. ‘These are probably the biggest wins that we’ve had so far this season, going into the break.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on December 15, 2009 at 12:00 pm