Syracuse’s week of practice heading into its two game set with Penn State consisted primarily of skating and push-ups.

Any time there was a missed pass in practice, assistant coach Brendon Knight had his players drop and do 25 push-ups. Last Monday, these push-ups came after 15 minutes of skating, accounting for the 15 penalties committed in a weekend the Orange split with conference leader Robert Morris.

The Orange (6-17-2, 6-5-1 College Hockey America) are one of the most penalized teams in the country, averaging 11.2 minutes per game at a disadvantage. Yet penalties don’t exactly explain Syracuse’s record — SU committed a season-high 10 penalties in a win and have lost games when it committed only one or two. The overall issue seems to be a growing frustration, Knight said. The Orange have had a lack of discipline, not only sending themselves into the box but also letting other areas of play get affected, like poor passing and lack of quality shots.

Season-long issues were apparent in a 5-1 loss to RMU on Jan. 19, when Emma Polaski was assessed a 10-minute misconduct penalty for shouting at officials after she had been called for roughing. Head coach Paul Flanagan benched his second-leading point-getter, later threatening her with “bigger consequences” if she remained “undisciplined.”

“I just have to remember that the consequences are worse when I let my emotions go,” Polaski said, “than just taking the hit or getting chirped and just not scoring goals.”

Redshirt senior Brooke Avery was benched too. The forward had miscalculated a pass, leading to an RMU goal midway through the second period. After the play, she slammed her stick on the ice. Avery was benched for the remainder of the period and sat the third, too.

The lack of discipline carries over to the offensive end as well, prompting the push-ups for missed passes. But Knight believes that these problems are well-intentioned, as players have felt the pressure of a long losing stretch.

“When you have good character kids,” he said, “they put a lot of pressure on themselves to make something happen out of nothing.”

Junior forward Anonda Hoppner eluded three defenders on Jan. 18 against Robert Morris, and instead of passing the puck, she forced an attempt, limiting the power she was able to get behind the shot. Hoppner later conceded that both she and the team need to just get more pucks on net.

That strategy has yielded success for the Orange this season. Savannah Rennie’s first goal of the season on Jan. 26 resulted from a redirected shot. Avery’s goal last Friday came off a faceoff that was caused by a floater-shot that forced PSU’s goaltender to cover the puck.

An increased effort to stay out of the box followed a renewed offensive focus. The Orange committed five penalties all weekend, which Flanagan called “not bad.” Their 10 minutes in the box was one shy of their game average.

“That’s not bad, (five) power plays in two games on the weekend,” Flanagan said, “We usually take that on any given night, right?”

The Orange displayed a greater degree of discipline in their other areas as well, despite being without senior defensemen and key penalty killer — Lindsay Eastwood — all weekend.

SU will look to continue playing more disciplined when they host Cornell on Tuesday. The Orange are winless against non-conference opponents this season, including a 4-1 loss in Ithaca last October.

“We’ve gotta be disciplined, not take penalties, and just compete for 60 minutes,” Knight said.

Published on January 28, 2019 at 10:08 pm

Contact Tim: tnolan@syr.edu