By Isabella Apple
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The Syracuse Orange (11-11-3) will head south to Long Island to face the Stony Brook Seawolves (15-9-1) for their final road trip of the season.
The Seawolves are coming off a tough two-game series against the Ohio University Bobcats. The Seawolves were outscored 7-4 over the two games in Ohio and will be looking to bounce back this weekend. If the Seawolves are looking to make a championship run, they will need to be better than they have been of late. They are just 1-4 over their last five games.
The Orange should be well-rested coming off a bye week after splitting the series against NYU two weekends ago. The Orange will look to get up early against Stony Brook - a team that has shown it struggles to come back from early deficits.
Forward Tim Kalinowski says Syracuse needs to do the small things right on the road, especially when they play on Long Island.
“We have to keep things simple. When you play on the road, especially in Stony Brook, you have to make the easy plays and be cautious not to turn the puck over. They seem to always capitalize on our mistakes,” commented the sophomore.
The last time these two teams met was an intense two-game series in Syracuse, which both teams took a win.
In the first game, the Orange played some of their best all-around hockey. They were able to jump out to an early lead just 16 seconds in as captain Peter-Owen Hayward broke into the offensive zone off of the opening face-off. With the lead secured early, Syracuse was able to settle down both offensively and defensively and control the pace of the game. They eventually got up 3-0 on the Seawolves and despite Stony Brook’s best efforts, their comeback fell short 5-3.
In the second game of the weekend series, it was the Orange who fell behind and had to mount a late comeback. Syracuse scored three goals with just 3:11 remaining in the third period lead by their upperclassman to tie the game 4-4 after trailing 4-1 just minutes earlier.
The resilience of the Orange bought them a point, but they were unable to complete the comeback through overtime and ended up falling 5-4 in the shootout. Despite splitting the weekends’ games, the struggling Orange team from early this season gained confidence and momentum from that series.
Alternate captain Ford Hatchett knows it’s going to be a hard-fought series this weekend.
“They’re a really talented team, it’s on us to be ready to go in what we know will be a hostile environment. We haven’t had a ton of success down there in recent years and our start is crucial to making sure we get the result we want,” said the defenseman.
The Orange are just 4-9-1 when playing Stony Brook all-time.
Rookie defenseman Ryan Dowd, who grew up near Long Island, is thrilled for this road trip.
“I’m super excited about our final road trip against Stony Brook because my parents are taking the Bridgeport ferry across Long Island Sound just to see me play. I’m definitely going to give it my all out on the ice because nobody wants to sit on a ferry [for over an hour], let alone after a loss,” said the Connecticut native.
The Orange will play a doubleheader on Saturday, February 15th at 8:30 pm, and Sunday, February 16th at 3:30 pm at Stony Brook’s home rink, The Rinx in Hauppauge, NY. The Orange will then close out the season with home series against the Niagara University Purple Eagles and the University of Delaware Blue Hens.
Contact me:
By e-mail: iengelha@syr.edu
By Twitter: @isabella_skye23