The Orange lost for second time this weekend to the Boston University Terriers in a 3-2 game.
The matchup was the last game for the Orange prior to conference play, which starts Thursday against Penn State in Happy Valley.
Coach Britni Smith said the series and the rest of the season so far has helped prepare the team for Penn State.
“We believe we’re far more prepared right now for conference play than we were at this time last year, and that’s a huge part of our process,” said Smith.
The Orange responded to Friday’s loss with a better start defensively to the first period.
Despite BU maintaining pressure early, Syracuse kept most of the BU shots to the outside and allowed Allie Kelley to be perfect through the first 20 minutes. She made her best save on Lola Reid, who fired a shot that was stopped by the blocker of Kelley.
The game stayed scoreless into the first intermission as Kelley made 9 saves on the Terriers in the first period. .
The Orange got a powerplay early in the second and created a few chances. One of those was a deflection by Peyton Armstrong that went off the BU goalie, Mari Pieterson.
The Terriers started to control the second period and held the Orange to 3 shots in the period.
Just under the five minute mark, SU took an interference penalty. BU scored seven seconds into the powerplay to make it 1-0. Sydney Healey got the puck at the point and beat Kelley high glove side to give BU its first lead of the game.
The Orange responded quickly and a stretch pass from Bryn Saarela gave Jackson Kinsler a breakaway. She took a shot that went bar down and tied it up with under a minute to play in the second period.
Tatum White said the goalie helps to boost the play of the entire team beyond just stopping pucks.
“She keeps us in games and gives us confidence to make plays on offense, and we’re just really confident with her on the backend.” said White
The period ended tied at one.
BU opened the scoring in the final period four minutes in. Riley Walsh entered the offensive zone in a one on one. She shot one that deflected off the SU defender, off the post and then hit Kelley before trickling over the goal line.
Syracuse continued to battle but it was the Terriers who scored again. This time the stick of Reid beat Kelley high glove side on a play similar to Kinsler’s goal in the second.
The Terriers led 3-1 for just over a minute, when Maya D’Arcy cut the lead in half. On a partial three on two D’arcy drove hard to the net and was able to tip home the pass from Saarela to make it 3-2.
The Orange try to respond late to tie it up. Jackson Cowen
Syracuse created several chances late with the goalie pulled but could not find a way to tie it.
The team moves into conference play looking to end its losing streak. Coach Britni Smith said the team has continued to battle going into next weekend.
“Our focus needs to shift to making sure that we are gritting out every point possible,” said Smith.
The team continued to try and build off its play from non-conference play and take that into Thursday.
“We’ve talked about our process leading up to conference and conference play being where we hit the ground running,” White said.
The team plays two games at Penn State Thursday and Friday at Pegula Ice Arena to open up AHA conference play.