UPDATED: Oct. 21, 2019 at 12:47 p.m.

When the final horn sounded after Syracuse’s 5-1 defeat to Colgate on Saturday at Tennity Ice Pavilion, more than just the final score became official.

Syracuse has had some poor starts during its 12-year history. In 2008-09, the program’s first year, they started 1-6. In 2016-17 the Orange started 0-4-2. This year, the Orange have had four matchups against top-five teams. But with Saturday’s result, seven consecutive losses to start 2019-20 have solidified this season as the worst start in Syracuse (0-7) history.

With 2:47 remaining in the first period of Saturday’s game, the energy was stolen from the SU bench. Defender Lindsay Eastwood stepped in front of a Colgate shot from the point, and successfully blocked it. As the puck fell to her feet, a Raider winger lifted her stick and pulled the puck behind her, finding a wide open teammate in front of the net to score the game’s first goal.

As the Colgate bench stood and cheered, the Syracuse bench sank. It was happening again. Like it had the night before when the Orange fell 5-2 to the same Colgate team. Like it had every game so far this season.

“We’re in these games,” Eastwood said. “Then we just throw them away.”

With a minute remaining in the first period, sophomore Lauren Bellefontaine picked the puck up in the neutral zone and carried it into the Raiders end. After toe dragging the last defender, contact with the Colgate player prevented her from corralling the puck as it slid wide of the goal and she fell to the ice. Bellefontaine looked around with her arms raised for a call that would not come. She skated by the Colgate bench, every single player still standing, to find her spot beside her sitting teammates.

Twice during the second period, Syracuse players had to skate over to goaltender Allison Small after conceding a goal to tap her on the pads, as if to say “our bad.” Both goals in the period beat Small high glove hand, and coming just 38 second apart in the middle of the frame, they quickly put the game out of reach.

All night, Raiders players yelled to motivate their team, “Dump it in,” they’d shout from the bench, “Watch behind you.” Down the boards, the Syracuse bench had no response.

Down four scores, Syracuse had one moment of execution. Shorthanded, with 6:25 remaining in the second, forward Kelli Rowswell chipped the puck around a Raider winger and sent herself in on goal. With a defender closing in, Rowswell shot the puck farside and beat the Colgate goaltender to cut the score to 4-1. 

After the initial celebrations, both benches reset to the position they found themselves in all night. Colgate stood, Syracuse sat. Colgate wanted the win, and Syracuse was in no position to deny them.

“You just gotta just trying to keep everyone positive,” Eastwood said. “We’ve had some really good moments and we just need to work off of those since we don’t have a win to to feed off of.”

In the third period, things went from bad to worse. A game that was already out of hand got messy. Just 30 seconds apart, forwards Bellefontaine and Madison Beishuizen were tossed from the game with match penalties for cross-checking and boarding respectively. 

“It falls on my shoulders,” SU head coach Paul Flanagan said. “It’s up to me. The lack of discipline is a direct reflection of me.”

While killing off the ensuing four and a half minutes of five-on-three, Colgate’s hunger for a victory persisted. The Raider’s coach called a timeout, already up three goals, looking for more. Just seven seconds out of the stoppage, the puck found Raiders winger Kaitlyn O’Donohoe with a wide open net to bring the lead to 5-1, a score that would last to the final horn.

Nothing summarized the game, and frankly their season thus far, more than the public address announcer at Tennity announcing the birthday of Orange winger Abby Moloughney only minutes later being forced to correct his error, saying it was, in fact, forward Emma Polaski’s birthday. SU couldn’t even win a birthday celebration.

The 5-1 defeat, and a weekend of being outscored 10-3, could not have been the birthday gift Polaski wanted, or what the Orange could have wanted to give her. But if anything has become clear in the first seven games of this season, it’s that Syracuse is not going to get any gifts. 

CLARIFICATION: In a previous version of this post, the strength of Syracuse’s schedule was unclear. The Orange have faced two top-five teams this season through seven games.

Published on October 19, 2019 at 7:36 pm

Contact Mitchell: mbannon@syr.edu