What the Future Holds for Syracuse Ice Hockey as Postseason Nears
By Ben Chadwick | @BChad214
The thought of playoff hockey action is an exciting one for any team. However, it was a bleak one for Syracuse Ice Hockey (12-20, 10-8 in AHA) just two weeks ago. The Orange were 7-20 and just 5-8 in conference play. They sat at fourth in the six-team standings and desperately needed to turn their season around with just a few weeks left. Well, that’s exactly what they did.
SU went on to win its second game in a weekend series against RIT, getting its first win in the past month and a half/eight games.
“I think for us, again, we talked about it last night, but we just won the series there” said ‘Cuse Head Coach Britni Smith after the win. “So we have the head-to-head, which is huge for us. We don’t focus on standings, we don’t focus on points. But that was a goal of ours, win the series, and to drop one on the road and win the other three, that’s a hard-fought series that I think we earned.”
After claiming that pivotal win, Syracuse proceeded to sweep its weekend series’ against Lindenwood and Robert Morris in the following two weeks. That brings us to where the Orange stand today.
SU is fairly concrete in its spot in the Atlantic Hockey America standings. ‘Cuse sits at third with 32 points. Mercyhurst is ahead in second with 38 points while RIT trails behind in fourth with 27. So what does this mean?
Well, there’s only one weekend series (2 games) left for each AHA school and they all start this Friday. The AHA’s top dog and eighth-ranked team in the nation Penn State travels to RIT, Syracuse heads to Mercyhurst, while the bottom feeders Robert Morris and Lindenwood face off at RMU’s house.
With each win being worth three points, the Nittany Lions are locked in at first place and guaranteed themselves a bye until the semifinals. The same can be said for the Lakers in second place since they hold the tiebreaker over the Orange. The Colonials hold just a one-point lead over the Lions so a fun battle will be had for fifth place out in Pennsylvania. Then there’s the middle children.
The only way RIT can jump SU is by sweeping PSU and having ‘Cuse get swept by Mercyhurst. The only problem with that is the Tigers haven’t beaten the Nittany Lions in any of their past six meetings. 12 Now that’s not to say the Orange have much to look forward to out in Erie. The Lakers haven’t lost any of their past 12 meetings, their last loss dating all the way back to 2022. Regardless, it will take a miracle for there to be any change to the top 4 teams’ standings in the conference.
That Syracuse and Mercyhurst (17-13-2, 12-5-1) series gets going this Valentine’s Day, February 14th, at 6 p.m. in the Mercyhurst Ice Center.
