Orange Postseason Short-Lived—Cuse Drops ACHA Tournament Opener to Midland University By James Colgan COLUMBUS, O.H.— Syracuse felt the burden of playoff inexperience in Thursday night’s 4-3 loss to Midland University in the opening round of the ACHA tournament. The 18th seeded Orange (24-8-2) couldn’t capitalize on 3 separate leads throughout Thursday’s opening contest against the 15 seed Warriors. The matchup was as close as the final score would indicate. Both teams traded the better of play through the full 60 minutes, but it was simply the type of game destined to go to the team with fewer mistakes, which on Thursday’s rainy early evening in Columbus, was Midland. SU opted for goaltender Zach Shapiro in net over sophomore Michael Cuozzo, who had started a string of recent games for the Orange. It was just Shapiro’s second start in the past month, but head coach Nick Pierandri gave the senior the start in what wound up being his final game in an Orange sweater. Shapiro played well, highlighted by a series of outstanding, acrobatic saves at some of the game’s closest points. However, a pair of fluke goals from Midland damned the Orange down the stretch. First, a backhand from Midland forward Blake Neumann with virtually no angle on net bounced off Shapiro’s back and into the cage, and then when Shapiro's skate hit a rut in the crease on a two-on-one, sending the Croton on Hudson, New York native tumbling, and giving the Warriors a de facto empty net to shoot at. Despite that pair of goals, the Orange’s issues stemmed from inexperience throughout the top tier of the roster. SU had six key contributors (Peter-Owen Hayward, Luke Caddo, Alex Aguirre, Matt Jacobs, Owen Herrington, and David Rosen) playing in their first ACHA tournament game when the puck dropped against Midland—and while they played well (accounting for 3 points on the night), the greenness showed in key moments. Cuse couldn’t maintain any of its three separate leads on the night, twice giving up the tying goal within a minute and a half of scoring the go-ahead. While there’s blame to be shouldered by the entire roster, it was increasingly apparent as the game wore on that Syracuse did not have the bevvy of confidence earned by playoff experience, nor the consistency to its full 200-foot game to hang with the battle-tested Warriors. That point was punctuated when with 6:40 left, Jake Mullendore ripped home a rebound on Shapiro’s high blocker side after the Orange penalty kill found itself hemmed into its own zone. Mullendore’s first goal of the night gave the Warriors their only lead of the evening, but it’d be the only lead they needed. SU’s comeback efforts in the closing moments fell short and the Orange lost to Midland, 4-3—sending the team packing from the tournament after just one game.
While the loss was crushing (especially so to the team’s seniors), Cuse had a few bright spots. Hayward was typically spectacular throughout the night, notching the team’s first goal and somehow finding yet another gear to his game. Connor McNamara scored another goal from in tight, continuing to build on his reputation as one of the team’s best dirty area players. Luke Caddo and Stephen Bressi were instrumental to the early success the team had on the breakout, and wrapped up strong seasons for the Orange blue line in stellar fashion. A Season In Review As SU heads into the offseason having reached its third consecutive 20-win year, we look back on the highs and lows of the 2016-2017 season. High: Buffalo Meltdown Tournament Syracuse jumped out to a lightning fast start to its season by winning the heralded Buffalo Meltdown Tournament. The Orange snagged pool play victories against the likes of Duquesne and Utah before crushing Alabama and Western Michigan (both by a score of 7-3) in the semifinals and finals of the tournament to take home the title. Low: First Rhode Island Game SU, looking to build upon the success of the Meltdown, welcomed Rhode Island to the Tennity Ice Pavilion for a home matchup with the Rams. Cuse scored the game’s opening goal, but quickly surrendered 5 straight en route to losing 6-1. Low: Niagara Game 1 Cuse welcomed Niagara for the first game of the season between the NECHL’s top two teams. NU came ready for battle, while the Orange struggled to get its legs moving in its first game back from Thanksgiving break. It was all Purple Eagles all the way through, grabbing a 6-3 win over the Orange in one of the only blowout losses of the season. High: Niagara Game 2 SU headed on the road to a raucous environment in Dwyer Arena at Niagara University for the Purple Eagles’ senior night. The NECHL rivals stood as the Orange’s only obstacle in securing a spot in the ACHA national tournament. A single point in game for Syracuse meant an NECHL regular season championship and a berth in the tournament. The Orange battled through a ferociously physical and hard-fought matchup all the way to—a 4-3 shootout loss. The effort to get the win had fallen short, but Syracuse had earned the point they needed to secure a spot in the national tournament for the third time in program history. Low: NECHL Tournament The Orange headed into postseason play at the NECHL tournament in Buffalo looking to defend its Memorial Cup championship from the previous year. By way of winning the NECHL regular season championship, SU had the benefit of a quarterfinal round bye, playing its first game against Canisius in the semifinals. Syracuse had beaten the Golden Griffins twice in the regular season, but was dropped in double overtime in a stunning 3-2 loss. High: Senior Night Fresh off a surprising shootout loss to the Robert Morris Colonials (PA) the previous night in the opening game of a weekend back-to-back, Syracuse welcomed its biggest crowd of the season to Tennity Ice Pavilion for Senior Night. Seniors Matt Divietro, Mackenzie Connor, Ben Ferro, Zach Shapiro, and Adam Ganley played lights out throughout the contest, but the margin of error was razor thin. Two shorthanded goals—first off the stick of Trip Franzese on a breakaway, then from Peter-Owen Hayward—gave the Orange the advantage it needed in the final frame as the team skated to a 4-1 win. Goal of the Year The Orange had several contenders for this honor, but ultimately one specific goal rose above the rest to SU’s media team. Peter-Owen Hayward’s deking, dodging shorthanded breakaway goal against Robert Morris on senior night takes home the 2016-2017 season’s goal of the year honors. The reason behind this decision was partially because of the importance of the goal within the game—giving SU a pivotal 2-goal lead over the Colonials after it had surrendered three straight 1-goal leads the previous night. But mostly, we chose this goal because it was the single most impressive individual effort by a player we witnessed all season. Hayward, working on the penalty kill, forced a turnover at the RMU blue line before sashaying his way (untouched) through three Colonial defensemen and walking in on goaltender Nathan Mortland. Hayward, who was named the NECHL’s most outstanding player this season, then got Mortland to bite on his initial forehand fake, drew the puck back, and snapped it home. On a night highlighted by decibel level from the home crowd, Hayward’s goal left most of the few hundred packed into the Arena speechless. A Note from the SU Media Team We on the SU Media Team (Dana Grey and James Colgan) would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to the SU coaching staff, the players, and the fans and parents for helping make this season one of the true thrills of our college and professional careers thus far. We’d like to specifically thank head coach Nick Pierandri for his time and assistance, not only for giving us hours of his time for interviews and preparation for games, but also with helping us put together our broadcasts, social media, and online content on a regular basis. We admire your vision for this program and desire to see it reached, and are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to work covering this team. Additionally, we’d like to thank assistant coach Andrew Wolinski for being our best (and only) pregame interview and to express our gratitude to both coach Wolinski and coach Connor Treacy for always keeping an honest, insightful, and fun dialogue with us. To the parents and fans who have loyally tuned in throughout the season and regularly expressed your gratitude and support for our work, we can honestly say we were unsure if anyone would listen to our broadcasts when we began this season, let alone enjoy them enough to reach out and acknowledge our work. The primary drive behind our initial interest in this opportunity was to gain experience covering a game we loved, but after beginning this journey, it was your passion and interest for the team that made those hours of preparation and weekends on the road worth every second. For that, and for everything this season, we’d like to thank you on behalf of the entire SU hockey program. We look forward to continuing the fun again next season and thank everyone again for the opportunity and support we’ve received throughout.