—Akane Hosoyamada‘s last-second goal lifted the Syracuse ice hockey team (9-8-2) past Vermont (7-9-4) on Saturday afternoon, giving the Orange a 4-3 victory over the Catamounts at Gutterson Fieldhouse. Hosoyamada scored two goals in the contest to give SU its first win after winter break.
“We worked hard in the first period getting our feet back under us after the break,” head coach Paul Flanagan said. “We responded well with some good energy. The girls worked hard over the break and we had a good week of practice. It’s a great way to start the New Year, getting that win. It was a very back and forth game and [senior goalie] Jenesica Drinkwatermade some good saves. They did a good job pressuring us, especially on the game-tying goal in the third period.”
Julie Knerr and Caitlin Roach also had multi-point games. Knerr scored a goal and assist and Roach tallied two assists.
Jenesica Drinkwater made 26 saves, the most stops she has had so far this season, and improves to a 5-1-0 record. Vermont’s Roxanne Douville also made 26 stops between the pipes.
The Orange dominated on the dot, winning 28-of-46 (60.9%) faceoffs. Each team scored on one of two power play opportunities.
Syracuse started off strong, taking a 1-0 lead just 45 seconds into the game when Allie LaCombe notched her fifth goal of the season with assists from Nicole Renault and Caitlin Roach.
The Catamounts tied it up 5:44 into the second period when Victoria Andreakos tipped in a shot in front of the goal on the power play that got past Drinkwater to even the score at 1-1.
The Orange answered five minutes later when a lucky bounce put the puck in front of the net, where Knerr was ready for the tip in to regain the lead for Syracuse. Brittney Krebs took the initial shot from the right side that bounced off the boards and set Knerr up for the score with 10:56 to go in the second stanza.
Sadie St. Germain nearly put one in the net with five minutes left in the second period when she stole the puck between two defenders at the blue line, took control in front of the net and wristed one at Douville, who saved it but nearly let it slip past the goal line.
Vermont put a lot of pressure on goal in the closing minute of the second period but two saves by Drinkwater and good defense by Roach maintained SU’s lead going into the second intermission.
Hosoyamada made it a two-point lead with 9:22 left in the contest when she took the puck up the left side of the ice into the SU offensive zone, skated it to in front of the net and slapped it past Douville.
Amanda Pelkey answered in similar fashion, doing all the work on the Catamount’s second goal of the day. She brought it up the ice and wristed it past Drinkwater at the doorstep to cut the lead to 3-2 with 8:34 remaining in the game.
Vermont would delete the SU advantage with 2:17 left in regulation, evening the game at 3-3. Andreakos took a shot at Drinkwater who saved it but the puck trickled to the left goalpost and Dayna Colang was there to notch the game-tying goal.
A hooking penalty on the Catamounts gave SU the man-advantage to close out the final 48 seconds of the third period and the Orange capitalized, notching the game-winner with 7.9 seconds on the clock to win it 4-3. Roach and Larissa Martyniuk put pressure on the Vermont defense, which blocked all three of their shots but Hosoyamada would find the puck after a Roach shot in time to score her second goal of the afternoon to win the game.
