Syracuse blanked 7-0 by No. 6 Penn State, suffers worst loss of 2025
Syracuse's struggles against Penn State continued Friday, as the Orange were demolished by the Nittany Lions 7-0 to move them to 6-8 on the season. Eli Schwartz | Staff Photographer
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STATE COLLEGE, PA — Syracuse’s start to Atlantic Hockey America play has been as up-and-down as possible.
When SU has downed conference foes, it’s done so by a one-goal margin — besides its 5-2 win at RIT. But when it’s lost, the contests haven’t been as close.
It’s a theme that’s become hard to ignore. After escaping with two slim victories in its first-ever series against Delaware, SU took care of business in Game One at RIT but looked completely out of sorts the next day. At Lindenwood, it was the same story. Thanks to Jordan Blouin’s overtime heroics, the Orange stole the first game 2-1 only to conclude the two-game set with a 4-1 defeat.
As it entered the thick of conference play Friday, Syracuse needed to stabilize itself. A road victory over the defending conference champions would’ve done that and more.
But with a chance to put the AHA on watch with a stunning upset, Syracuse (6-8-0, 4-3-0 AHA) crumbled from the outset in a 7-0 blowout loss to No. 6 Penn State (13-0-0, 9-0-0 AHA) in the two squad’s first meeting of 2025. The Nittany Lions jumped on the Orange early, building a three-goal edge in the first period that they never came close to relinquishing. PSU tacked on four more tallies in the final 20 minutes to hand SU its most lopsided defeat of the season.
“We gave a great team way too much time and space, and they took it to us right away,” SU associate head coach Heather Farrell said postgame.
To have any chance of pulling off the unthinkable, Syracuse needed to control the pace of play from the start. But it never got the chance. For the second time this season, the Orange allowed the game’s first goal less than a minute in.
With Celia Wiegand pressuring her from behind, Tessa Janecke wired a spinning shot toward the top of the crease. Waiting at the right side of the net, Katelyn Roberts pounced on the loose puck and snuck it past SU goalie Ava Drabyk.
Less than two minutes after the tally, SU shut down PSU’s first power-play attempt of the afternoon. However, the momentum was short-lived.
With time and space on the left side of the ice, Janecke made the most of it. After outskating Jackson Kinsler, the veteran center cut around Jessica Cheung and was forced into a tough angle shot. It didn’t matter. With a quick flick of the wrist, she beat Drabyk with a blistering shot into the top right corner. It went in and out of the net so fast that the officials had to pause for a video review.
By the time SU registered its first shot on goal, PSU had already found the back of the net twice.
One of Syracuse’s biggest growing pains has been its lack of discipline. Through its first 13 games of the campaign, it fell victim to seven or more penalties on three separate occasions, including nine at Delaware on Oct. 17. The Nittany Lions’ power-play unit — which entered ranked fifth in the nation — didn’t need long to strike.
Open at the left side of the goal, Danice Maynard took a light pass from Roberts and ripped home another top-shelf snipe over Drabyk’s shoulder from the left dot. Before it even had a chance to settle into the contest, Syracuse was staring down a 3-0 hole through just 12 minutes.
”There’s no collecting (the puck) and waiting, they just move it,” PSU head coach Jeff Kampersal said of his power-play unit. “When that happens, it’s very hard to defend, and they’re all talented so eventually it gets to an open shooter. That person’s done a really good job of putting it in.”
The Orange gave the Nittany Lions five more power-play chances the rest of the contest, but still held them to just a 2-for-7 mark while up a player.
Farrell said that despite SU’s recent struggles to stay out of the penalty box, it has no plans of backing away from the physical side of its game.
“For us to be our best, we have to be physical, and sometimes that results in penalties. We need to continue to play hard. Our penalty kill is really good, we just can’t rely on it so much,” Farrell said.
Syracuse played its best hockey late in the first, when it pestered one of the country’s most airtight defenses with plenty of dangerous shot attempts. SU threw seven pucks toward Katie DeSa in the final five minutes before the intermission, two of which found their way on net.
After showing signs of life before the break, Syracuse failed to recapture that spark over the next 40 minutes. The second period was dominated by Drabyk, who kept Syracuse within shouting distance with numerous saves. The freshman was peppered with 17 in the middle frame and turned away each of them, giving SU a chance to muster a comeback.
But for the Orange, the chances never materialized. It forced Desa into just six saves across the final two periods, as the veteran netminder coasted to her third straight shutout. At the other end, the Nittany Lions eventually wore down Drabyk and rattled off three more tallies in the third.
Seeing no use in feeding Drabyk to the wolves any longer, SU head coach Britni Smith pulled the young netminder for Maïka Paquin for the final eight minutes. The Nittany Lions welcomed her with one last tally from Matilde Fantin, their seventh different goal scorer of the afternoon.
“Our job is to develop them and help them get better, but also to be a fan of them all,” Kampersal said. “They’re all capable of fulfilling different roles, so to see (the goals) spread out like that is pretty awesome.”
On Friday, Syracuse saw what happens when a team like Penn State is given the time and space to thrive. If the Orange want to salvage anything positive from their weekend in State College, they’ll need to find a new gear in Game Two.
