Last season, Syracuse outscored College Hockey America foe Penn State 14-3 and swept the Nittany Lions, 4-0, in the season series.

After winning only one game in nonconference play, Syracuse (1-7-1) hopes last season’s success against conference opponents will carry over into this year starting this weekend. The Orange hosts Penn State (2-6-4) Friday at 7 p.m. at Tennity Ice Pavilion, and it looks to use conference play as a restart button on the season after a lackluster start. Last year, SU scored 63 goals in CHA play while allowing just 24.

“We are looking at it as a new season, a new start,” junior defender Allie Munroe said.

Munroe, who scored two goals in the second game of last year’s series against Penn State, believes the team is well prepared for conference play.

SU goes into the game with confidence after last year’s victories against Penn State. Remembering last year’s dominance over the Nittany Lions gives SU extra motivation to do it again this upcoming weekend, SU head coach Paul Flanagan said.

Senior forward Stephanie Grossi believes that all the games SU played against ranked opponents, five in total, has helped prepared the Orange for upcoming conference games. One of the lessons learned, Grossi said, was to tighten up on costly mistakes.

“If we can eliminate all the small errors of the game that are losing us the games, then we will be good for this weekend,” Grossi said. “If we focus on what we need to do and play a full 120 minutes we will be good to go.”

History is on the Orange’s side against PSU. Since the Nittany Lions joined the CHA in 2012, Syracuse owns a dominant 18-1-3 record against Penn State. Two of those wins came in CHA tournaments.

But Flanagan doesn’t want the team to dwell on past successes against the Nittany Lions, but to focus on this weekend, honing in on PSU’s strengths and weaknesses while continuing to get better as a team.

After a three-goal outburst against then-No. 2 Boston College in an eventual 4-3 loss, Syracuse needs to maintain momentum from a near-upset of the Eagles, Flanagan said.

SU will also need to bear down on defense, Flanagan said, and focus in on the penalty kill. So far this season, SU is killing penalties at around a 75 percent clip.

With the lessons of a rough nonconference slate behind it, SU is ready to start anew this weekend.

“We are excited to get into league play and it is a clean slate for us, so to speak, we’re 0-0-0 when it comes to league play,” said Flanagan.

Published on November 9, 2017 at 1:08 am

Contact Anthony: amkhelil@syr.edu