WASHINGTON — Dominic Lamolinara shoulders some of the blame for Syracuse’s loss to Hobart. He made just seven saves and allowed 13 goals in Tuesday’s loss to the Statesmen.

He’s been solid for the most part for the Orange since joining the starting lineup on March 19 against Providence, but his performance against Hobart led SU head coach John Desko to discuss replacing his struggling goaltender with former starter Bobby Wardwell. So Lamolinara’s performance on Saturday was much needed.

“Dom was a little shaken up at the Hobart loss,” Syracuse defender Brian Megill said. “Dom’s a great leader and he’s going to get on his game eventually, and he did.”

Lamolinara’s struggles continued early—he allowed three goals without making a save in the opening quarter – but he straightened up and locked down the Georgetown offense over the final three quarters of the No. 3 Orange’s 9-8 win on Saturday. He finished the day with 10 saves to just eight goals allowed, good for a 55.6 save percentage.

But he didn’t necessarily struggle in the first quarter because of anything he was doing wrong. Twice the SU defense let a Hoya in close for an easy shot, and the third goal came on an extra-man opportunity for GU.

“I was seeing the ball the whole game,” Lamolinara said, “they just had some real good shots in the first quarter.”

After the first quarter, the gaffes were few and far between for Lamolinara. As Syracuse made its run in the second half, Lamolinara stood tall between the pipes.

He reached down to make saves – like one on Zac Guy early in the second half – and leaped up to knock balls out of the air – like the one he made on Joseph Bucci’s shot midway through the third quarter.

“They got a couple of decent looks and I thought he made some very good saves, some one-on-one saves and some good shots from the outside he took away from (them),” Desko said. “He finished with 10 saves on the day and it came at the right time.”

But the biggest play of the day came without him even making a save. When Syracuse midfielder Steve Ianzito’s stick broke with less than 30 seconds remaining, the Orange went into a de facto man-down situation while nursing a one-goal lead.

He braced for the shot, but Lamolinara never panicked. He let his defense rotate as Drew Jenkins came on to replace Ianzito. Dan McKinney’s pass sailed out of bounds. Lamolinara made the saves he needed, but on the final play, luck smiled upon him as well.

“The first thing I thought of was, ‘OK, shot’s about to come,’” Lamolinara said. “But he didn’t have much of an angle so he held on to it and we were able to rotate down and I don’t think they knew where the open guy was, so we lucked out.”

Published on April 20, 2013 at 6:42 pm

Contact David: dbwilson@syr.edu | @DBWilson2