Syracuse Ice Hockey’s Dominate 5-0 Senior Day Win over Lindenwood

Emotions certainly ran high here on Senior Day in the Tennity Ice Pavilion. But you know what they say, the best remedy for tears is a dominating 5-0 win for Syracuse Ice Hockey (10-20, 8-8 in AHA) over Lindenwood (3-23-2, 2-13-1 in AHA). ‘Cuse head coach Britni Smith said that she always had faith in her squad, but that it certainly helped to have family and friends in the stands cheering them on.

“Yeah, we talked about that before the game. You know, hopefully we don’t need that type of motivation, but that is a sense of motivation for us in terms of playing hard for seniors who have their loved ones in the stands who have supported them through their career. And it is an emotional weekend for them, whether we have games left or not. It could be, like you said, one of the last times that we’re playing at Tennity.”

Now, although today was all about the seniors, ironically, it was the underclassmen that led the charge. Four of SU’s five goals were scored by sophomores or younger. Specifically, freshman Stella Costabile totaled up four points over the weekend series, which is half of her season total. Orange goalie Allie Kelley says she’s immensely proud of how the youngins stepped up.

“Yeah, they battled hard for us. You can tell that they really care about us on and off the ice. They made this day pretty special for us. Yeah, and they played really hard in front of me and helped me get that shutout.” 

“Obviously, balance point production is something that I think any coach would be pretty happy with, but to see it from some of our younger players, especially sticking to the senior weekend theme, I think it goes to show the leadership they have and the standard that’s been set.”

Although today was senior day, Syracuse made sure it wasn’t the last home game of the season. With the win, SU officially clinched a home playoff game when the AHA postseason rolls around. But, there’s still a couple of weeks left to go in the regular season. Next up on SU’s agenda is a trip down to Robert Morris (8-19-3, 2-12-2 in AHA) with game number one on Friday at 7 p.m. Reporting from Tennity Ice Pavilion, Ben Chadwick, Citrus TV.