Small has Career Day in Tie Against Penn State

By Tyler Melito

CitrusTV’s Ice Hockey Beat Reporter

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Major missed opportunities for Syracuse (1-3-1, 1-1-1 College Hockey America), as the SU scored two goals in the first period on Sunday against Penn State (3-0-1, 3-0-1 CHA), but were unable to get any offense going after that. This allowed the Nittany Lions to get back into the game, which they did by scoring two goals in the third period to ultimately force overtime. In the end, things ended in a 2-2 tie between these two squads.

Victoria Klimek was the star for Syracuse, scoring both of SU’s goals in the first period. The first of her two goals came on a power play, and it seemed that the Orange were able to shake off the poor offensive performance from Saturday’s game against Penn State. Then Klimek struck again with time winding down in the period to put her squad up two. The two goals in this game were Klimek’s third and fourth of the season, good enough to lead the team through five games.

That would be all she wrote, however, in terms of offense in this game. After the first period, Syracuse had 26 total shots, 20 of which were on net. For the final two periods and overtime, the Orange had 30 total shots, 17 of which were on net. This has been something that is not new to Syracuse this season, as in the first period this season the ‘Cuse has ten goals. In the second and third periods, SU has three goals.

For Penn State, they did not come out with the same fire that they did against Syracuse on Saturday. The Nittany Lions had 17 shots in the first period with 12 being on goal. In the final two periods and overtime PSU had 34 shots on goal on a total of 62 shots. It was two shots in the third period that proved to be extremely important for Penn State. The first by Carrie Byrnes, and the second by Amy Dobson. Allison Small had played well all game despite Penn State’s offensive attack, but the shots were ultimately too much to bear as the Nittany Lions were able to crack the wall Small had built, and ultimately come out with a tie in a game where that did not seem likely after the first 20 minutes.

The goalie battle for these two teams was strong. Small had 44 saves, allowing the two goals for 95.7%. She now has 157 saves through five games for the Orange. On the other side, you had Josie Bothun, who despite allowing two goals early, would finish the game by saving the final 17 shots she saw for 35 on the day.

This is not the last these two teams will see each other, as they will square-off for a two game set on December 11 and 12 in Syracuse.

tylermelito@gmail.com | @MelitoTyler