After Stony Brook’s Dylan Pallonetti scored his 21st goal of the season and his second of the game with less than three minutes passed in the third quarter, Syracuse found itself in an all too familiar position. The Orange, now down 6-5, trailed after the first quarter for the sixth straight game. Four of those five games SU had lost.
Unlike those last four losses, the Syracuse offense responded, and it did so quickly. Just 13 seconds after Pallonetti found the back of the net, Tucker Dordevic responded to make it a 6-6 game.
SU wouldn’t look back after that pivotal score. The Orange proceeded to put seven more in the net before Stony Brook could get back into the scoring action. Stony Brook wouldn’t score until the 3:42 mark in the 4th quarter; by that time the Seawolves were in a six goal hole that they couldn’t escape. The game ended with a 14-9 score.
During SU’s dominant 2nd half, familiar faces powered the offensive run. Tucker Dordevic, Brendan Curry and Owen Seebold combined for seven goals in the third and fourth quarter while the Orange turned a one goal deficit into a seven-goal lead. Dordevic was especially dominant with five goals during the run and six overall. The redshirt junior added three assists for a career high nine points. Curry and Seebold were certainly solid as well, both collecting hat tricks.
That offensive run would have been impossible without a strong defensive effort. The Orange committed a season high eight penalties, and in turn, showed off some of its best man down defense. SU gave up two goals while playing five-on-six but one came when the game’s result was safe late in the fourth quarter.
“That was hands down our best man-down performance,” defender Nick Caccamo said. “We were all just moving as one. The biggest thing was smooth movement, smooth rotations, and that was the difference-maker today.”
“It was a good day,” head coach Gary Gait said. “We had a couple saves, a couple turnovers, and we were able to keep them out of getting rhythm on man-up — and they did have a lot of opportunities. In the second half, it was great.”
Goaltending was certainly of interest on Saturday; the Orange have rotated Bobby Gavin and Harrison Thompson between the pipes throughout the year. After Thompson started in the loss against Johns Hopkins, Gavin was given the start on Saturday and did not disappoint. The Virginia transfer had a season high 13 saves and played his first full game of the season without allowing more than ten goals.
The Orange now stand at 3-4. Syracuse takes on #12 Duke at 12 pm next Saturday. Tune into 88.3 FM at 11:30 am for GZA Countdown to Faceoff.