All Margot Scharfe had to do was tap the puck into the back of the net.

Lindenwood goaltender Taylor Fairchild was out of position with her attention turned to the far side of the ice when the puck was passed to Scharfe. With the puck right in front of an exposed net, Scharfe just had to guide it home. But rather than scoring an easy goal, Scharfe shot wide of the near post, hitting the glass instead of the net.

If Scharfe had converted, it would have broken open a scoreless deadlock. Instead, the missed opportunity just added to the frustration for an Orange team that struggled to score in SU’s game against Lindenwood on Saturday.

‘We need to be able to finish plays, so I need to grip my stick a little tighter and put it in,’ Scharfe, a sophomore forward, said. ‘It really sucks when you can’t put those in, but that’s what we’re going to work on in practice this week.’

Despite a 2-1 overtime victory for Syracuse (8-10) on Saturday against Lindenwood (1-16), the Orange could have won easily with the offense putting up a season-high 49 shots against Lindenwood. But no matter how many shots Syracuse fired against a Lions team that was on its heels for most of the game, goals continued to elude SU. For every chance the Orange missed, the frustration built.

For freshman forward Nicole Ferrara, that was the difference between Saturday’s tight contest and Friday’s blowout 6-2 win. The six goals were a season high for the Orange, which capitalized on many of its chances.

In each period, Syracuse outshot its opponent by seven or more shots. In the first period alone, Syracuse rattled off 13 consecutive shots, hammering Fairchild at will. Still, the Orange had nothing to show for it on the scoreboard.

That trend carried over to the second period when Casey Hirsch hit a wide-open shot that resulted in a quick glove save from Fairchild. Afterward, teammate Allie LaCombe had to skate over to pat Hirsch on the back and console the fellow freshman, who was still in disbelief.

‘We were a little snake bitten today in terms of trying to bury the puck,’ SU head coach Paul Flanagan said. ‘There were three of four in the second period, I didn’t know how they didn’t go in, but they didn’t.’

And with bad luck repeating itself, even in an SU win, the frustration started affecting the team on the ice. Flanagan said although his team outshot Lindenwood 12-5 in the third period, he actually thought the Lions outplayed Syracuse in the third period.

Junior forward Jessica Sorensen said it was difficult for the team to keep its composure and momentum when it seemed the puck simply wasn’t destined to go in the net.

‘Definitely frustrating among the girls when you know you’re getting shots and none of them are going in,’ Sorensen said. ‘People start slowing down.’

Senior forward Megan Skelly said that when the team was in the locker room between periods, the players talked about staying relaxed despite the missed opportunities.

Still, the Syracuse offense remained on the attack all game.

The Orange moved the puck continuously, keeping the Lindenwood defenders scrambling for most of the game. But SU struggled to convert as it shot too many times right at Fairchild, making her look better than she really was, Skelly said.

For Flanagan, games like Saturday’s — in which shots misfired time and time again — worry him. He said if Syracuse couldn’t find the back of the net, it would cost it the game.

But SU kept the pressure on and scored a goal late in the third and then another one in overtime for the win to avoid a game in which Skelly said the score didn’t indicate Syracuse’s dominance.

‘At the end of the game it doesn’t matter if we had 50 shots or two,’ Skelly said. ‘It obviously goes down to the score, so that’s what counts.’

dgproppe@syr.edu

Published on December 4, 2011 at 12:00 pm