Caitlin Roach was all alone, yelling for the puck late in the third period Saturday. She had scoring chances all weekend long, but had yet to come through for Syracuse.

This time when Megan Skelly found her, she didn’t waste the opportunity. Roach went top shelf to beat the Union goaltender for the game-winning goal with 49 seconds left. As she raised her arms in celebration, her teammates rushed to mob her in ecstasy.

‘I just grabbed my stick, and I shot it hoping it was going in the net,’ Roach, a sophomore, said. ‘I had so many chances this weekend. I just wanted to close it out with a goal and then afterward the celebration was crazy.’

That goal capped off a massive third-period comeback in which the Orange scored five goals to defeat Union 5-3 in front of 227 at Tennity Ice Pavilion on Saturday. Syracuse seemed destined for a loss after the Dutchwomen broke the game open with three goals late in the second period. But rather than completely unravel, SU regrouped during the intermission and came out firing in the third period to erase the deficit. The Orange salvaged a split after losing to the Dutchwomen 4-3 on Friday.

Syracuse controlled the puck for the majority of the game Saturday, outshooting the Dutchwomen 24-7 in each of the first two periods. But the Orange wasn’t able to capitalize on all the opportunities.

Instead, Union struck first when Emilie Arseneault beat SU goaltender Kallie Billadeau with 2:13 remaining in the second period.

Union went on to score two more goals on its next two shots in the ensuing two minutes. Billadeau misplayed the third goal, deflecting it into the net.

And just like that the Orange trailed 3-0 going into the final period.

‘I don’t want to sound like arrogant, but I don’t think that’s ever happened to me before,’ Billadeau said.

While Billadeau was down, the general mood in the locker room during intermission was still optimistic, even after such a disastrous end to the second period.

SU head coach Paul Flanagan tried to hit on the positives to assure his players they could still put together a comeback. Flanagan told his players to shoot for five goals in the final period.

‘It was very deflating, you know, and I think for us, it’s our job to keep them motivated, keep them up,’ Flanagan said. ‘And as much as we were trying to do it, I think the kids did a great job keeping themselves motivated.’

That motivation was exemplified in SU’s play early in the third period.

Kaillie Goodnough got the Orange on the board 1:59 into the period when she maneuvered her way into open ice and beat Union goalie Alana Marcinko. Following the goal, Goodnough skated to the bench where her teammates met her with spirited high fives.

‘We could’ve been satisfied with getting the first goal. Oh, we lost 3-1, it just wasn’t our night,’ Allie LaCombe said. ‘But we came back, and we scored five goals. I mean that’s just something our team’s never accomplished, let alone in one period.’

Then with less than five minutes remaining in the period, Lacombe banged in a one-timer from the right side to cut the SU deficit to one.

LaCombe then connected with her cousin, Christina LaCombe, for the equalizer less than two minutes later on a power-play goal. It was LaCombe’s first career goal.

After that score, the Syracuse players knew it was their game to win. With all the momentum on its side, the Orange knew it was just a matter of time before it took the lead.

‘No doubt about it,’ Allie LaCombe said. ‘If you were in the stands you could just feel the electricity on the bench. The coaches were pumped. Our trainer was into the game. You can just feel it.’

That intuition turned into fruition when Roach also netted her first career goal and her teammates engulfed her in celebration.

Then Margot Scharfe scored on an empty net to give Syracuse its fifth goal of the period — the number of goals Flanagan actually threw out before the period began. Looking back, LaCombe and her teammates could only laugh that they scored the number of goals he challenged the team to score.

‘He kind of jinxed it in a good way,’ LaCombe said.

dgproppe@syr.edu

 

Published on October 23, 2011 at 12:00 pm