Syracuse Tops RIT For Much Needed Win

The Orange beat its in-state rivals 4-1 Wednesday night.

The Orange were in desperate need of a result after last night’s shocking defeat over conference foe RIT. The Tigers were able to find the back of the night FOUR times in the 1st period alone and sought out a 5-3 win over Syracuse. Fast forward 24 hours later and both teams are facing off once again, this time at Tennity Ice Pavilion.

If The Orange were going to end up in the win column tonight, they would need to score early. Sure enough, just 3:37 into the opening period, it was Hannah Johnson who found the back of the net with a shot from the blue line, assisted by Lauren Bellefontaine and Rhea Hicks. Her goal tonight is another supporting statistic to add to Johnson’s impressive Junior season.

Although there were no goals scored in the 2nd, the main storyline was the resurgence of RIT’s offense. The Tigers outshot The Orange 14-6, as they tested Arielle DeSmet for what felt like the entirety of the period. However, the Vermont-native netminder stood tall and her stellar performance helped send her teams’ one-goal lead into the final 20 minutes of play.

The Tigers would equalize just 3:10 into the 3rd period as Amy Dobson scored the first goal on DeSmet, as it was inevitable due to the number of shots on goal at that current time. However, just over a minute later, the captain Lauren Bellefontaine would net the eventual game-winning goal on the Powerplay off of the cross-crease feed from Tatum White. Even though Syracuse was able to score just one goal on the woman-advantage tonight, I was impressed with their formation and the amount of composure that Bellefontaine, White and Mae Batherson displayed during each opportunity.

The Orange would add another tally just 52 seconds later off of the stick of Madison Primeau with her 11th of the season that came from a gorgeous two-line pass from Kambel Beacom. Sarah Thompson would add the final goal of the contest with an empty net goal, notching her team leading 12th goal of the season.

The Orange are now 9-17-1 on the year (6-4-0 in CHA play) and their next set of tilts come against CHA opponent Mercyhurst. Puck drop for both Saturday and Sunday is set for 1 p.m. EST. Both games will be shown on FloHockey.