An attempted Rochester Institute of Technology clear was held in at the blue line, and the puck came back to Syracuse’s Lauren Bellefontaine by the faceoff dot. She flung a shot at the Tigers goalie, Terra Lanteigne, hoping to give the Orange a 2-1 lead. Lanteigne seemed out of position and on her knees, but she flashed her glove out to snag the puck, robbing Bellefontaine of a sure goal.

“I was just really frustrated with myself,” Bellefontainte said. “So many chances, so many opportunities, just couldn’t bury any of them.”

Lanteigne’s heroics preserved a 1-1 tie for RIT (11-14-5, 7-8-1 College Hockey America) in the second of a home-and-home against Syracuse (8-19-3, 8-6-2) on Saturday night at Tennity Ice Pavilion. For the second straight, the Orange outshot the Tigers handily but couldn’t finish their chances. Lanteigne made 43 saves, holding SU to just a first period marker.

On Friday, Syracuse had 40 shots on goal. Lanteigne blanked the Orange, which Munroe put down partly to poor shot selection. In Saturday’s game, SU shot smarter, generated 92 total shot attempts, but it still wasn’t enough to beat the junior goalie consistently. The Orange needed to shoot lower to create more rebounds and not miss as many shots as they did, Munroe said.

“We worked hard, we battled hard, we just got stuck by a good goalie so it’s tough,” senior captain Allie Munroe said.  

The Orange attacked from the start. Three minutes into the game, Shelby Calof spun past a forward covering the point and shot from the slot. Seconds later, the puck came back to her, and she fired a wrister from the point into the goalie’s midsection. RIT replied with a chance of their own, a 2-on-1 neutralized by an errant pass.

Syracuse struck 7:25 into the first period. Anonda Hoppner cut in on an odd-man rush, but her shot was blocked by a RIT defender. The puck bounced to Brooke Avery, who got the puck on net. The rebound came to Kelli Rowswell on the far side, and she fired it back at Lanteigne. RIT’s goalie didn’t squeeze her arms tight enough, and the shot snuck through.

“I’m not sure who shot it, might have been Brooke, and she shot right at her pads,” Rowswell said, “and I crashed the net hard, and luckily it came back.”

It didn’t take long for the Tigers to equalize. Kendall Cornine broke into the Syracuse zone with a potential 2-on-1. The passing lane was cut off by the Orange defenders coming back, so Cornine kept the puck and roofed a shot over Ady Cohen. The score remained 1-1 into the first intermission, the Orange outshooting the Tigers 14-9 in the frame.

Syracuse’s scoring struggles continued through the second period. It had two power plays within the first five minutes of the frame, the second of which was cut short when Brooke Avery took a checking penalty. SU didn’t convert on either opportunity. The Orange went 0-for-5 with the player-advantage on the night.

Cohen had to be alert on the other end, too. RIT had a 2-on-1 opportunity shorthanded themselves, and Mallory Rushton kept it and shot high. The puck whistled just over the SU goalie’s blocker and the bar, keeping the score locked at 1-1 into the second intermission.

To start the third period, Syracuse held possession for almost all of the first two minutes. Unlike earlier in the season when the Orange struggled to hold onto puck, SU is now cycling the puck for long stretches of time in the offensive zone. Syracuse is also more confident in trying to pick out cross-crease passes, and Sarah Stuehr almost scored a pair of goals off similar looks.

In overtime, Rowswell nearly ended the game with a breakaway. A long stretch pass from Lindsay Eastwood sent Rowswell in alone, but a RIT defender got back to break up the play. Rowswell came away from the chance shaking her hand as if she had been slashed. No penalty was given on the play.

RIT remains the lone CHA team that Syracuse has not beaten this season. The Orange doubled the Tigers’ shooting output over the two-game weekend series, but came away with just one of the four available points. SU’s strong offensive showing gives them confidence if it were to meet RIT in the CHA tournament again, though Munroe said Syracuse would take the underdog role in that situation.

“It hasn’t felt like it, but when someone wins the games on you, then you just got to say that (you’re the underdog),” Munroe said. “But that’s fine, we’ll take that role all day. We know what kind of team we are. We know what we can bring.”

Published on February 16, 2019 at 11:45 pm

Contact Arabdho: armajumd@syr.edu | @aromajumder