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The last time Syracuse played Cornell at the War Memorial Arena was on December 3, 2013. They lost that game by a score of 5-2. In the same venue almost two years later, history was repeated as the Orange lose at the War Memorial to the Big Red again by a final of 5-2.
Cornell (2-4-1) averaged just over a goal per game heading into the game at Syracuse, but they found their offense early. One minute into the game senior captain Cassandra Poudrier scored, it was her first goal all season. Then after almost 17 scoreless minutes in the first, Cornell put in two quick goals to drive the score up to 3-0 at the intermission.
No goals were scored in the second period and Syracuse (5-7-1) headed into the final frame down by three. Head coach Paul Flanagan says the team was missing their edge.
"I'm disappointed in our lack of energy. I thought we hadn't played a home game in a while and that we'd have more energy and we just didn't. I don't know what was going on from that perspective. And we didn't play smart," said Flanagan.
However, Syracuse started to find their firepower. Just 11 seconds into the third period, Stephanie Grossi put the puck in the back of the net making it 3-1. But, three minutes later Cornell put out the flames when Pippy Gerace scored to make it 4-1. Syracuse tried to make a late push when Alysha Burriss scored on a powerplay to cut the lead to two with just under five minutes left. But again the Big Red were quick to answer. It only took Cornell 22 seconds to respond, putting the exclamation mark on their 5-2 victory.
"We need to improve on the (defensive) zone and just not giving them big scoring opportunities. We'll dominate and get some shots and then they'll go down and score and it's a huge momentum killer," said Grossi.
The Orange will have some time to regroup and get ready for their next game against CHA rival RIT on Wednesday November 18th at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on Time Warner Cable Sports and live stats can be accessed via Cuse.com.