By Linc Zdancewicz
Pittsburgh, PA – Syracuse concluded its lengthy November road trip with a series loss to Pittsburgh last weekend. The Orange had gone into the ESCHL meeting with a chip on their shoulder after splitting the preceding series at John Carroll University. Friday, the Orange came out strong on the defensive side of the puck but eventually lost momentum and fell to the Panthers 6-3. Saturday proved to be similar as the team could only find the back of the net once in a 3-1 loss.
The Orange went into the series with some key injuries to their core including captain Sam Hutchinson and Jack Alecia, who still ranks second in scoring on the team. This meant that the top line of Hutchinson, Alecia, and Duffy was again not intact.
“Lines are going to have their off nights and you look to generate some sort of spark to get them going again” Coach Timmons commented. “[Switching up the lines] happens often throughout a season.”
Syracuse started strong on Friday with a goalie battle early with A.J. Finta showing his metal through one period and a half, shutting down quality chance after quality chance by Pittsburgh. However, the dam broke midway through the second period with a goal from Pittsburgh's Maverick Crupi. This goal completely changed the game's flow as the Panthers unleashed three straight to finish the middle period.
Penalties started to shorten the Syracuse bench during this stretch as Brendan Duffy took a 10-minute misconduct for slashing after Pittsburgh’s first goal. Later in the game, an offsetting roughing call sent Cameron Gaffney to the locker room early. Despite these calls, the penalty kill showed strength, killing two of the three Panther power plays.
Resilience characterized the Orange in the third period, starting with a quick goal from Brock Alvers to cut the lead to three. Though Pittsburgh scored two more to pad its goal total to six, Syracuse added two more of its own goals in the final five minutes of the final period from Carter Rugg and then from Jack Wren on a 2-man advantage. However, Pittsburgh’s goalie, Grant Lindsay, stopped the rest of Syracuse’s shots to triumph 6-3 on Friday night.
Coming into Saturday's game, the Orange looked to improve upon the positives they showed on Friday. The main lineup change came in net for Syracuse as senior Chris Spano would suit up in place of Finta for his first start since November 2nd, against IUP.
In the first, Pittsburgh hopped onto the score sheet early with a goal from Santino Multari. Despite this early setback, Syracuse had its shot to even things up on the power play off of an interference call but it didn’t connect
Multari scored again a minute and a half into the second period off of a bad giveaway in the defensive zone. This would be the only defensive mistake of the period as the Orange would go on the powerplay off of a tripping call just a minute later. Though they didn’t score on the power play, the sustained pressure led to their first and only goal of the game from Aiden Emery to cut Pitt’s lead in half.
Going into the final period down by one, Syracuse looked determined to tie it up, fighting tooth and nail to find the equalizer. Carter Rugg almost scored that equalizer with a beautiful end-to-end rush that led to a two-on-one with Max Gargurevich, however, Lindsay stood tall yet again, making the diving save. However, eight minutes in, Pittsburgh scored yet again to go up 3-1 and would hold that lead to the end.
The Orange had their chances late being beneficiaries of two power plays in the dying minutes of the third. Jake Brown collected a ten-minute misconduct on a tussle with Pittsburgh’s Maverick Crupi, giving Syracuse a four on four with three minutes to go. With another Pittsburgh penalty, the Orange sat shorthanded and pulled Spano from the net but no goal came.
With this series loss, the Orange have now lost six straight in three years against Pittsburgh.
“Unfortunately we fell to them again this past weekend, but we are shorthanded at the moment in terms of our offensive game,” said Coach Timmons. “There were guys who stepped up and it’s a learning experience against an always competitive team in Pittsburgh.”
Syracuse will bring it back home to the Tennity Ice Pavilion next weekend, taking on ESCHL rivals, Stony Brook University, at 7:00 p.m. on Friday and 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, the latter will count towards ESCHL Play.
All home games are held at the Tennity Ice Pavilion on Syracuse University’s campus and are free for students and the general public. Home games are also streamed live on the SU Hockey Network.
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