SU ice hockey’s Cicely Harnum stops 29 shots against RPI in 1st career game
For the first time in over a year on Saturday afternoon, Ava Drabyk’s name didn’t ring out over the Tennity Ice Pavilion loudspeakers when Syracuse ice hockey announced its starting lineup. And for the first time ever, Cicely Harnum heard hers.
Harnum made her first collegiate start in Syracuse’s (8-6-0, 6-4-0 Atlantic Hockey America) 2-1 overtime loss to RPI (4-14-0, 1-6-0 Eastern College Athletic). Replacing Drabyk in SU’s crease, the freshman netminder stopped 29 of 31 shots.
“She played extremely well all game,” interim head coach Brendon Knight said postgame.
Two and a half minutes into the first period, Harnum faced her first collegiate shot. In Syracuse’s defensive zone, RPI’s Kendal Davidson skated into a loose puck and snapped a shot on goal from above the circles. Harnum raised her blocker and made her first collegiate save.
Five more followed before the Engineers snuck a puck past her.
RPI’s first goal came on a one-touch shot from the slot. Harnum hugged her right post as Gracyn Mackay received a wrap at the hashes and looped below the goal line. As the forward slid the puck into a congested slot, Harnum dropped her right pad to the ice. And under Harnum’s left pad, Keira Johnson fit her shot.
But the Orange tied the Engineers at one later in the first, and RPI didn’t solve Harnum again in regulation. The freshman made two more saves in the first, 11 in the second and eight in the third. Then three more in overtime before the Engineers snuck another puck past her.
And to say snuck is apt.
“I think it caught her by surprise,” Knight said.
Credit where credit is due. Sometimes you have to “tip your hat” to your opponent. Knight said as much in his analysis of Mia Montanari’s game-winning goal at the 2:40 mark of overtime.
“You win a faceoff in overtime,” he said. “You win the faceoff clean, and the kid made a great play.”
After possessing the puck for the majority of overtime, Syracuse turned it over at its offensive blue. Montanari raced down ice and, at the bottom of the right circle, shot over a sliding Jocelyn Fiala. Harnum saved the short-side shot and froze the puck, setting up a defensive zone faceoff.
Emma Gnade won the draw back to Jessica Cheung, who curled away from Montanari below the goal line and skated behind Syracuse’s net. There, Montanari chipped Cheung’s stick with her own and picked the defender’s pocket. Popping out from behind the net, she jammed the puck past Harnum, who indeed looked surprised to see the puck on Montanari’s stick.
“I don’t think you expect your defenseman to get stripped like that,” Knight said. “It was a great play.”
It took a genuinely great play for RPI to beat Harnum Saturday. The goalie helped SU successfully kill both of RPI’s power plays and shut out the Engineers in the second period, in which Knight said RPI “took it to us pretty good.”
“She’s a freshman, so that was her first taste,” Knight said. “We’ll take away quite a bit from this performance with her.”
Harnum’s start Saturday afternoon was planned, Knight said. She earned the opportunity with her play in practice. She showed up early in the mornings and put in the work with assistant coach Patricia Sautter Elsmore during skills sessions.
But Knight also arrived at the decision earlier in the week, when examining Syracuse’s then-upcoming schedule. Five games in nine days. And on the horizon, a gauntlet of top-10 teams in the country. Colgate. Clarkson. Penn State, for a third and fourth time this season. Colgate again.
“Ava’s been so good for us all year,” he said of Drabyk. “So we just thought giving her a couple extra days off for this stretch of games was important.”
Future starts for Harnum might not be penciled in on the calendar yet. Knight said, down the stretch, Syracuse would maybe be “able to find a couple more games for her.”
He didn’t hesitate to praise Harnum’s play. But next up for Syracuse are a few of the highest-ranked teams in the country. Then the stretch run in conference play.
Knight pointed out that championships aren’t won in November. Syracuse is building toward March. But in the months leading up to March, it will jockey for playoff positioning. And their games against AHA opponents will be the Orange’s “bread and butter.”
Maybe that means Drabyk. She started all but three of Syracuse’s games last season, and each of SU’s first 13 this season. Named to the AHA All-Rookie Team last year, she’s posted similar numbers this year. A winning record and a goals against average just barely above two.
But 29 saves on 31 shots is an impressive stat, too. There’s value in having goalies who can spell your starter and afford them rest.
“Competition between the pipes is always a good thing,” Knight said. “For us to be able to turn to Cicely or Sophia (Hausberger) when we need to, it gives us confidence.”
