SYRACUSE, NY – The RIT women's hockey team (7-9-3, 1-5-1 CHA) fell to College Hockey America foe Syracuse University (5-8-7, 4-4-5 CHA) by a score of 4-2 at Tennity Ice Pavilion on Saturday evening.
Jess Paton (Woodstock, Ontario/Waterloo K-W Rangers) and
Marissa Maugeri (Ajax, Ontario/Durham West Lightning) each scored for the Tigers.
Cassie Clayton (Pickering, Ontario/PEAC School) and
Celeste Brown (Great Falls, MT/National Sports Academy) contributed helpers, while
Jetta Rackleff (Bend, OR/Summit) stopped 22 of the 24 shots she faced. Syracuse led 2-1 late and scored two empty-net goals sandwiched around Maugeri's goal in the final minute.
Alysha Burris tallied the hat-trick for Syracuse. The first goal came 9:09 into the game to tie the score at one apiece. The second was early in the third period to put the Orange ahead 2-1, and she added the final insurance goal on the open net with 11 seconds left. Eleanor Haines added the third Orange goal, also with the RIT net empty with 51 seconds left in regulaton. Jenn Gilligan of Syracuse made 16 saves on the 18 shots she faced in net.
Syracuse out-shot RIT, 26-18. The Orange was 2-of-7 with the man-advantage, while RIT was 0-for-6.
RIT went into the first intermission tied at 1-1. Paton put the Tigers got on the board early, just 3:30 into the first period. Clayton took a shot on a breakaway and Paton was there to tap in the rebound.
With seven minutes left in the second period, the Tigers had a chance to take the lead when Maugeri had a lone break away up the middle but was not able to handle the pass. Another chance came at the 1:18 mark, Maugeri dangled past a defender on a breakaway for a shot, but Gilligan made the save.
Rackleff made a huge save late in the second on Melissa Piacentini, who broke down the ice alone, faking the first shot and trying to wrap the puck around Rackleff who laid out for the stop.
Maugeri scored 16 seconds after the Orange's third goal. Maugeri slapped in a rebound off of Brown's shot from the faceoff in the Tigers' offensive zone.
The Tigers will be back in action next weekend as they faceoff with North Dakota for their final non-conference series of the regular season, Friday and Saturday, Dec. 12-13 at the Gene Polisseni Center. Both games will begin at 3:05 p.m.
