Following Syracuse’s 5-0 loss to Princeton on Dec. 11, head coach Paul Flanagan thought his team was tired or maybe even a little beat up. After losing twice to the Tigers, a team that entered the weekend with only four victories, there had to be something wrong.

‘I think that there were a lot of things that went on that psychologically that affected us that weekend,’ Flanagan said.

But nearly eight weeks later Flanagan has yet to find the solution to the problem.

‘We haven’t really recovered from that,’ he said.

The Princeton series marked the first two losses for the Orange in a frustrating six-game road losing streak. SU will look to climb out of its recent slump in a series with Wayne State in Detroit this weekend.

The main problem for the Orange has been an inability to score goals on the road. SU has netted just five goals during the recent six-game losing streak on the road.

And the scoring woes haven’t gone unnoticed. Junior forward Megan Skelly has begun to realize just how big of a problem the offense is, especially after SU only scored one goal in two games against Niagara last weekend.

‘That’s something that we’ve been trying to work on at practices and in competition,’ Skelly said. ‘When we do get that chance to score, executing on it. It’s a big part of the game. If you get a lot of chances and you never score ? even if you’re outplaying your opponent ? you’re still going to lose.’

Despite outshooting the Purple Eagles by a 28-18 margin last Friday, the Orange still failed to score a goal. Syracuse lost the game by a goal despite feeling as though it outplayed Niagara.

Sophomore forward Isabel Menard, who leads the team with 31 points this season, was held scoreless in both games.

Menard, though, is not as frustrated as some of her teammates. She simply takes the season one game at a time and sees this weekend’s games as an opportunity to gain some confidence moving forward.

‘It’s not something that’s on my mind,’ Menard said. ‘It happens. We didn’t play too well defensively, and I think they were more in our zone then we were in the offensive zone, but it happens like that sometimes.’

Flanagan will search for the right combinations in his lineup this weekend to combat Syracuse’s recent inability to put the puck in the net. The chemistry is something that has to change if the Orange hopes to get back on track away from the Tennity Ice Pavilion.

The urgency to score, however, can sometimes backfire on a team, Skelly said. If Syracuse is going to snap out of the recent funk, it must get into a rhythm and play with the same mentality it has been playing with at home all season.

‘You do get mentally like, ‘I have to get the puck in the net,” Skelly said. ‘But at the same time if you think about that you get a little bit more stressed, you grip the stick a little bit tighter and you’re not going to score. You have to learn to balance the pressure with playing, you need to have fun and relax.’

This weekend might be the perfect chance for the Orange to snap out of its scoring daze. The last time it played Wayne State, SU scored 5 goals in a 5-3 victory on Dec. 4. The Orange defeated the Warriors 3-0 the previous night.

The eight goals match a season high for Syracuse during a weekend series. Although scoring on the road has been an issue for the Orange it appears these two games may provide relief for the SU attack.

‘I think that was a good weekend for scoring,’ Skelly said. ‘I know we can do the same thing. I know we can go down there and get some goals, and get the belief back that we can win some games and score a lot.’

adtredin@syr.edu

 

Published on January 26, 2011 at 12:00 pm