Paul Flanagan said his team needed to do well at Penn State last Saturday and Sunday to give this season some life. Instead, penalty-kill problems stalled SU’s chance to resuscitate what the head coach believes is a dying season.

In Saturday’s 4-2 loss to Penn State, SU allowed two goals on power plays. It’s now given up five power-play goals in the last four games.

“Obviously we’ve struggled in a lot of areas recently. Our record isn’t exactly what we want it to be,” goalkeeper Jenn Gilligan said. “We’re working on our game and hopefully we’ll be better this weekend.”

Syracuse (6-13-9, 4-4-5 College Hockey America) is last in the CHA with 86 goals allowed this season, second-to-last in the conference in penalty-kill percentage (.803) and tied for second-to-last in goals allowed on power plays (23).

SU hopes to fix its defensive issues with an improved penalty kill heading into two home games this weekend against Robert Morris (9-15-3, 6-6-2 CHA) at Tennity Ice Pavilion. The first game is on Friday at 7 p.m. and the second on Saturday at 3 p.m.

“We’ve got to block shots and be smarter with our routes so to speak, knowing where we’re going,” said Flanagan. “And we’ve got to have big saves.”

Robert Morris is fourth in the CHA in both goals for (53) and goals on power plays (15), so Syracuse hopes it will be better off this weekend than last when it lost and tied in two games against Penn State, who is second in both categories.

Flanagan said earlier in the season that his goal was to have the team kill 90 percent of all
penalties it received. With that goal far from met and just six games remaining on the conference schedule, he conceded on Wednesday that his team needed to be more physically engaged in order to solve some of the its defensive problems.

The responsibility doesn’t rest solely on the defenders battling in front of the net, Flanagan said, but with every SU skater having a sense of purpose when they’re back-checking.
He said they need to be more effective in their in-zone coverage. By sticking with skaters in the defensive zone, SU hopes to limit easy opportunities for other teams.

“Being positionally sound is important,” Flanagan said. “Just getting hands and getting sticks (on the puck). I think we’ve been guilty as a group of … not taking the opponent’s stick or hand out of the play.”

Senior defender Akane Hosoyamada insisted, though, that the team has been much more aggressive defensively as of late and the defense and shot blocking has been improving throughout the year.

“Previously, (in other years) our team had a block-shot mentality,” Hosoyamada said. “This year we had a hard time establishing that at first. That focus has gotten better.”

Flanagan said he’d like to see his team go after rebounds in front of the net. That comes down to clearing both rebounds and other players from in front of Gilligan so she has a clear view of the action.

Improving on the little things will lead to success on the penalty, and it might even provide the Orange with an added bonus.

“If you’re better defensively,” Flanagan said, “you start scoring more goals.”

Jon Mettus, jrmettus@syr.edu, staff writer, contributed reporting with this article.

Published on February 5, 2015 at 12:33 am

Contact Liam: lpsull01@syr.edu