Syracuse defender Allie Munroe fired a pass that skidded across the ice to Orange forward Alysha Burriss. Burriss stopped the puck with her stick, skated hard past one defender and found herself all alone. The only thing between her and a goal was RIT goalkeeper Jessi O’Leary. Burriss moved the puck from left to right, caught O’Leary off balance and slid the puck between O’Leary’s legs to put Syracuse up 4-0.

Syracuse (10-17-2, 9-5-1 College Hockey Association) ended its three-game skid after defeating RIT (4-22-3, 1-14-0), 7-1, in the first game of the final home and home series of the season against the Tigers. The Orange was propelled to victory by strong performances from both Munroe and Burriss, each of whom scored one goal and had two assists. All of the Orange’s goals were scored by a different player, including first career goals by SU’s Allie Olnowich and Ronnie Callahan.

Sophomore defender Olnowich scored her first career goal in tonight’s game, a goal she said she did not even know went in. Despite scoring her first career goal, Olnowich was more excited about the Orange’s balance of scoring in its victory, and teammate Ronnie Callahan’s first goal.

“I think it is fun. I love when the D scores. It’s something different you don’t see,” Olnowich said, “She (Callahan) put it perfectly right in the top corner, I thought it was a thing of beauty.”

After not traveling with the team for last Tuesday’s game against Cornell because of sickness, Munroe had a strong game back on Friday. Her night began with a goal at the 4:28 mark of the first period. Munroe was able to evade a crowd of Tigers defenders in front of the net to put SU on top 2-0. Munroe continued by assisting on two of SU’s next five goals.

After her big day, Munroe stressed that she wants to produce for the team, “to get the offense rolling and help produce wins.”

“Allie Munroe did a lot of good things,” SU head coach Paul Flanagan said, “She broke the puck out well, she kept her head up, making real good passes to the neutral zone, and offensively she was very patient.”

Munroe acknowledged Syracuse’s recent lack of offense and says this is the type of game the Orange needed.

“The balance, it is what we needed,” Munroe said, “I think we lacked offense in our last game, everyone’s confidence is going up.”

Published on February 9, 2018 at 11:00 pm

Contact Anthony: amkhelil@syr.edu