Syracuse Hosts Alumni Weekend at Tennity with URI Coming to Town

By Isabella Apple

#2, Freshman, JD Florio.

Syracuse, N.Y. -- The Syracuse Orange (3-6-0) will look to continue their winning ways as the University of Rhode Island Rams (4-6-0) come to town this weekend. The Orange also will welcome Syracuse Hockey alumni back to Tennity, and induct the 2021 Hockey Hall of Fame class.

The Orange, coming off a huge shootout win against Oswego St. last weekend, will need to build off of last weekend's momentum to propel their way up the standings. After a slow start to the season, Syracuse must begin stringing wins together to avoid falling too far behind the rest of their division.

Forward Tim Kalinowski said they hope to build off the pregame ceremony’s momentum.

“It's always fun when we do special promo nights like [Alumni Weekend],” said the senior. “You can immediately feel a different atmosphere in the building and guys really start to notice that before they even hit the ice. It will be important to get off to a good start and give the crowd something to cheer about!”

For captain Mackenzie Murphy, this weekend is an opportunity for the Orange to get their season headed in the right direction.

“I think it’s about using what we learned from the Oswego win and carrying it into games going forward. [We can use] that confidence to play a full 60-minutes,” said the junior. “With this stretch of games coming it’s important to end the semester better than we started.”

URI is headed to Syracuse for their first matchups of the season after splitting their series with the University of Delaware last weekend. After dropping their first contest, 7-0, the Rams bounced back in a big way, winning 3-1 the following day. The Rams are perpetually a resilient team, a resilience the Orange will have to work hard to fend off if they want to come out on top this weekend.

Rhode Island’s best play has come from sophomore Jonathan Shaw this season. In just 10 games he has six goals and three assists, and three of his six goals have come on the powerplay. Once again, it will be imperative the Orange play clean, and keep the strong URI powerplay off the ice,

Kalinowski said they can’t expect to win if they take penalties.

“[We have to] stay out of the box... It’s that simple. We can’t give teams the opportunity in the first place.” The senior continued, “We’ve been a little more disciplined every week which is encouraging, but at this point in everyone’s hockey careers there’s no secret formula, the rules haven’t changed. You have to move your feet and play within the limitations of the game or else you’re gonna end up hurting your team.”

Staying out of the box isn't the only thing Syracuse must prioritize this weekend. They must also try to make Rhode Island uncomfortable on the ice, and draw more penalties to give their own powerplay a chance to become a game-changer. The Orange have a young powerplay unit that has only built more and more chemistry as the season has progressed.

Forward Lucas Prestamo, who had a three-point performance last weekend (1-2-3), will look to continue to be a force to be reckoned with on Syracuse’s top line. But for the forward, contributing to the team is all he cares about.

“It felt great to contribute on the scoresheet, but I think there were a lot of players who stepped up with their defensive play. [Manousos] stood on his head for us and without him stepping up the way he did it would have been a different game I think,” commented the senior. “We’re looking forward to the next challenge of a new opponent and continuing the progress we made this week in practice.” he finished.

The weekend festivities will kick off with a pregame ceremony to honor the Alumni and new Hall of Fame inductees and will lead into an afternoon matinee against URI. The puck drops from Tennity Ice Pavilion on Saturday, November 6th, at 3:30 pm. The Orange will be hosting a post-game Alumni celebration at the Inn Complete on Skytop Road which can be registered for here.

Contact me:

By e-mail: iengelha@syr.edu

By Twitter: @isabella_skye23