An unusual afternoon for Syracuse did not provide the confidence boost wanted heading into the NCAA tournament, but the Orange (12-2, 4-0) still downed in-state rival Colgate (5-9, 3-5) on Saturday 11-9.
Syracuse weather the storm, both literally and figuratively. The skies opened up on Hamilton, New York early in the game, and barely relented. Colgate also came out firing and refused to let Syracuse pull away.
A fast start for the Orange gave them the lead 3-0. Brendan Bomberry lead the hot start, scoring the first two goals and assisting on the third.
The Raiders would answer though with three straight to knot things up. Sam Cleveland scored two of his four goals during this Colgate run. Anthony Abbedessa scored one himself and set up one for Cleveland.
Syracuse went on another run to open the third quarter. Evans, Stephen Rehfuss and Jamie Trimboli all scored to stretch the lead to 6-3. Colgate notched one more before the end of the half, pushing the halftime tally to 6-4.
Faceoff specialist Ben Williams dominated the much of the contest, winning 16 of his 23 faceoffs on the afternoon.
On the other hand, Jordan Evans did not have his best day. He scored a pair of goals and added an assist, but he also committed six turnovers, part of Syracuse's season-high 17 during the game.
Colgate outplayed Syracuse for much of the third quarter, scoring three in a row to take the lead 7-6. The Raiders came close to stretching the lead even further on a number of occasions, hitting the pipes on three separate attempts.
The Orange finally got back on track with a goal from Bomberry to give him a hat trick for the day. Evans fed Salcido to fire another one home to retake the lead 8-7.
Syracuse opened up the fourth quarter with an easy finish by Jordan Evans to push it to 9-7. Pat Carlin added to it after megging the Colgate goalie on a craft bounce shot.
Even as Syracuse began to exert its will, the Raiders refused to go away quietly. Peter Donato beat a weak switch and beat Evan Malloy near post to cut the lead to 10-8. Cleveland then continued his stellar afternoon in the waning minutes, beating Malloy for his fourth goal of the game.
As Syracuse has done so many times before this season, the final seconds of the game were full of anxiety. A bad turnover from Salcido gave Colgate one last chance to tie with a minute remaining.
Colgate had every opportunity to equalize, but two different offsides calls ended its game and its season.
The final goal came on a Hail Mary clear from Malloy that clear the line just before the clock hit zeros. Syracuse narrowly avoided finishing its eleventh one-goal game of the season with Malloy's lucky shot.
The Orange will now await the selection committee's decision Sunday night to determine who it will play in the first round of the NCAA tournament, which begins on May 13.