W. Ice Hockey SU 2 vs UConn 2 10/19/14 2:00 @Cuse

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Liam Sullivan‏@Liam_Sullivan_ 2h2 hours ago
Oh women's soccer isn't for you? Here's some women's ice hockey coverage if that's more your style. Read here: http://bit.ly/ZroKVq


Freshman Grossi emerges as early scoring threat for Syracuse despite small stature
"Stephanie Grossi’s talents have her on pace for what could be a breakout first campaign, as she already leads Syracuse with 22 shots and a team-high two goals on the season."

Hannah Wagner | Staff Photographer
Stephanie Grossi’s talents have her on pace for what could be a breakout first campaign, as she already leads Syracuse with 22 shots and a team-high two goals on the season.
By Liam Sullivan
18 hours ago

No one on the team is shorter than Stephanie Grossi. But four games into the season, her Syracuse teammates are looking up to her — at least in a statistical sense.
Listed as 5 feet, 2 inches on the Orange’s roster, Grossi, a freshman, hasn’t let her size stop her from having an immediate effect.
“Size does not affect her at all,” head coach Paul Flanagan said. “She’s got good skills and she just keeps the game simple. She possesses the skills and abilities you really can’t teach.”
Grossi’s talents have her on pace for what could be a breakout first campaign, as she already leads Syracuse (1-1-2) with 22 shots and a team-high two goals on the season. Grossi is trying to keep adjusting to the collegiate game and improving as the Orange advances through its schedule.
“I don’t think I’ve been doing anything special,” Grossi said. “I’m just doing what I know how to do. I skate, find holes in the defense, play solid hockey. It’s nothing hard. I’ve just been lucky.”
Flanagan added that Grossi’s goal total should be at three, not two. He said a “horrible call” by an official took away a goal in the team’s 2-1 win in the season opener against Colgate.
The head coach said he expects her to contribute offensively this season and the team is going to need her to do so to be successful. The fact that Grossi has emerged as one of the team’s top offensive threats so far bodes well for the team, Flanagan said.
The strong start puts the freshman on pace for 17 goals on the season, which was the team-high last year.
Junior forward Melissa Piacentini, who led the team in goals scored last year, believes Grossi is doing everything she can to get better.
Grossi has been working on little things outside of practice and that has made the difference so far, Piacentini said. She’s working hard in the weight room and stays after practice to do drills focused on working to improve her handling and touch.
Grossi hasn’t just been a contributor by putting the puck in the back of the net, but she’s been able to create for her teammates as well. She has one assist on the season so far, which puts her in a 10-way tie for the team high.
“Everyone coming to this level has some sort of adjustment period,” Piacentini said. “Steph’s hasn’t really been a thing.”
Flanagan praised her reactionary decision making skills as being very solid, something that is crucial in a sport as quick and action packed as hockey.
She also described Grossi’s style of play as being smart and instinctive, which was something she was able to develop before coming to Syracuse.
Grossi played at Shaftesbury Prep in Canada and holds the record for the most points, 158, and assists, 84, in program history — and her success in high school has, so far, translated directly into the college game.
But she’s not satisfied with her performance and thinks she needs to keep improving. Although she has had success, she said she wants to work on her handling of the puck under pressure and being able to finish more of her opportunities.
While there is room for improvement, Grossi’s teammates are appreciative of the offensive lift they’ve gotten from her and her ability to score and create chances is not being swept under the rug.
“Stephanie’s really been a huge asset this year,” said Piacentini. “She’s done everything right so far and she’s going to be really successful here if she continues to work at it.”

 

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Syracuse 1-1-4
Score By Periods
Team123OT 1Total
UConn02002
Syracuse01102
Game Recap: Women's Ice Hockey | 10/19/2014 7:24:00 PM
Orange Score as time expires to tie UConn
Sibley sends the Orange to its fourth-straight tie

Next Game:
at Clarkson
10/24/2014 - 3 pm

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It took every last second, but the Orange were able to salvage a tie with UConn on Sunday, thanks to the last-second heroics of Jessica Sibley and 'Cuse's extra skater unit.

With the Orange trailing 2-1, goaltender Jenn Gilligan on the bench and time waning, Sibley managed to deflect a shot from Alysha Burriss into the top of the net just before the horn sounded. After review, the officials determined that the goal stood and had crossed the line with less than one second remaining, sending the game to overtime for the fourth-straight game.

Sibley's goal capped off a dominant third period for the Orange in which pepper the Huskies' net, attempting 31 shots (putting 14 on net and having 11 blocked) to UConn's three – but it wasn't until Sibley's last-second goal that the Orange were able to get past UConn net minder Annie Belanger.

After a scoreless first period, Syracuse got on the board first in a wild second period that featured seven penalties as Emily Costales scored 52 seconds into the second period. The goal was the first of Costales' career, with the assists coming from Nicole Renault and Stephanie Grossi.

The Huskies got the goal back with nine minutes left in the second as they took advantage of a 4-on-4 situation and Theresa Knutson beat Gilligan on a feed from Sara MacDonnell.

UConn scored again just under six minutes later when Emily Snodgrass scored on a Huskies' power play to give them a 2-1 lead which they would take into the locker room.

After the Orange's dominant third period, the Huskies saw more opportunities in the overtime period, but Gilligan and the 'Cuse defense withstood the pressure to preserve the tie.

The tie is the fourth in a row for the Orange, tying the amount of ties the team had in the last two seasons combined and second only to the 2010-11 (6) season for most in an entire season.

Syracuse owned a 39-19 advantage in shots on goal in the game.

The Orange will look to get back in the win column on Friday when they travel to defending National Champion, No. 7 Clarkson. Puck drop is scheduled for 3 p.m.

 

[CuseLegacy]

Net goal
Paul Flanagan looks to lead Syracuse to 1st CHA title in 7th year with team
Paul Flanagan looks on in a match at Tennity Ice Pavilion, which was all he had when he came to Syracuse seven years ago. "

Hannah Wagner | Staff Photographer
Paul Flanagan looks on in a match at Tennity Ice Pavilion, which was all he had when he came to Syracuse seven years ago.
By Matt SchneidmanAsst. Copy Editor
11 hours ago

When Syracuse named Paul Flanagan the first head coach in SU women’s ice hockey history in 2008, all the program had was him and a rink.
There was no locker room and no skate sharpener. He had no staff members and no players, and he only had three months to find them.
“We didn’t have anything,” he said.
What he did have was five Frozen Four appearances, 230 wins and a .692 winning percentage from nine years as the head coach of the St. Lawrence women’s hockey team. He already had a reputation as one of college hockey’s best coaches, but couldn’t pass up the challenge to elevate a program that, at the time, didn’t exist.
Syracuse (1-1-4) isn’t at the level that Flanagan would prefer, having not won a College Hockey America conference title despite three championship game appearances.His recruiting expertise and established reputation of success have him gradually approaching that targeted peak though, increasingly validating a move that initially left many in shock.
It wasn’t until his seventh season at St. Lawrence that the Saints won their first outright conference title, and Flanagan will look to do the same in his seventh year at the helm of the Orange.
“For a lot of reasons, not one singular, this has been a great move,” Flanagan said. “I stand here today feeling comfortable that we’re moving in the right direction. I think we should be knocking on the door both with winning the CHA and getting into that Top 10.”
Growing up in Canton, New York, Flanagan was immersed in the culture of a college townfocused on one sport. He played baseball, but St. Lawrence Saints hockey was like the town’s professional team, he said.
A young Flanagan could often be found at a rink, either watching the Saints or playing himself. He was around the team at an early age and, knowing players and coaches, the self-proclaimed “rink rat” said it was easy to nurture his passion.
“He was born and raised in Canton and St. Lawrence was all he knew,” said SU assistant coach Alison Domenico, who also played for Flanagan at St. Lawrence. “He’s such a small-town guy.”
He attended St. Lawrence, where he played for the Saints from 1976–80. In 1982, Flanagan found his first head coaching gig with the Canton High School boys’ team.
After six years as a high school coach and 12 as an assistant with the St. Lawrence men’s team,Flanagan took the head job with the women in 1999 before amassing 230 wins in nine years.
“He built this thing from the ground up,” current St. Lawrence women’s head coach Chris Wells said. “He’s a tireless recruiter and was able to get some great kids in here early on.”
Flanagan plucked prized prospects from key markets in Canada like Quebec and Toronto, Wells said, using St. Lawrence’s proximityto steal top players away from Ivy League schools.
But in 2008, before Domenico’s senior season, Flanagan announced to the team that he’d taken the job at Syracuse, a decision that left Domenico in “pure shock.” But she said that she understood.
“To go from a successful program to just see ‘You’re just on your own two feet here, let’s see what you can do’ — it was very challenging but exciting at the same time,” Flanagan said. “It wasn’t like I felt I had to leave or I wanted to leave, it was just this opportunity presented itself and I was excited about it.”
A year before he was standing in the coaches’ box at the Frozen Four. Now he was standing on gravel trying to get players to come play for him.
He stood in the parking lot behind Tennity Ice Pavilion and pointed at space, showing recruits and parents where a locker room was going to be built.
Recruits knew there would be no immediate championships. Rather, they wanted to be part of a ground-up movement and play for a coach with established success and a frank attitude about why they should be part of Syracuse’s first recruiting class.
“There was no bullting with him,” said Taylor Metcalfe, a freshman defender on the first SU team. “Whatever he did or whatever he was planning on doing, even though you weren’t sure what it was yet, it was for the best and it was going to work out from all the experience he had.”
There were no expectations for the program, Metcalfe said. Some players had to cart their equipment back to their dorms because there wasn’t enough storage at Tennity.
Yet for some reason players, even ones like current Swiss National Team member Stefanie Marty, were attracted.
“The ‘starting from the bottom’ is a reason why I went to Syracuse,” Marty said in an email. “It was challenging and interesting to build up a team culture, that goes from building simple team rules to inventing team cheers and other traditions on bus trips, before games, pretty much anything you can imagine from serious to almost absurd.”
Gradually, the program evolved. After a 10-15-3 first season, Flanagan led the Orange to two straight CHA championship game appearances and a combined 32 wins the next two seasons, while winning the 2010 CHA Coach of the Year award.
After only 10 wins in 2011–12, Flanagan guided SU to a program-record 20 victories in 2012–13. Then came another 20 the next year.
What started off as trying to find a place for players to change into and out of their uniforms has become a mission to finish the job of becoming CHA champions.
But Domenico said there’s one question she repeatedly gets asked by recruits and their parents: “What’s Paul like away from the rink?”
“He’s a blue-collar guy who rarely gets outworked in anything that he does, whether it’s painting the house or recruiting players,” Wells said.
And now he wants something to show for the program he built from scratch.
“It’s seven years, we’re not a new program anymore,” Flanagan said. “I won’t be satisfied until I can sit down and say, ‘We’re really good.’ I think we’re close.”