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The mountain climb was strenuous. The finish line was near. Peyton Armstrong felt it.

With a 3-1 lead, capped by the sophomore’s second goal and third point of the day. Syracuse was rolling toward its happy ending. Fourteen minutes until victory.

Then, a 28-second span negated everything. Kolbee Ashe and Linda Rulle took back everything Armstrong, Emma Gnade and Jordan Blouin did as an offensive tandem to tie the game at three. On that trajectory, it seemed it was all for nothing.

The trio hasn’t crumbled yet. Entering Saturday with 45 combined points, more than any of SU’s other lines, they always found a way. It still seemed bleak after a full overtime passed.

“Are you willing to sell out for a blocked shot?” SU associate head coach Heather Farrell proposed to her squad. “Are you willing to dig down a little deeper to get pucks out, or pucks deep 200 feet so you can get a good change?”

The top line was up to the challenge — playing 83 and a half minutes didn’t faze them. Gnade’s game-winning goal secured No. 5 seed Syracuse (15-16-4, 10-11-3 Atlantic Hockey America) a 4-3 AHA Quarterfinals victory over RIT (16-18-0, 11-13-0 AHA) in double overtime and a spot in the AHA semifinals against No. 1 seed Penn State. Gnade and Blouin each scored while Armstrong notched a brace, as all four of the Orange’s goals came from the trio in their best spectacle of the season.

“Learning how to play with each other comes from opportunities they’ve had all year, working together, practicing together,” Farrell said. “They’re starting to communicate better.”

RIT goalie Brenna McNamara’s first nightmare of the trio flashed before her eyes. Working on Madison Buziak was Armstrong, who entered Saturday with just one point in her last nine contests. Blouin flanked on her right on the 2-on-1.

Skating toward the cage, Blouin scattered to a halt, controlling the puck and contorting her body to rip a wrist shot over McNamara to ping a 1-0 advantage just over halfway through the first period.

“All three of those players have a really good sense of the game,” Farrell said. “They are all pretty savvy around the net. They score goals. They can set up plays.”

After she was denied trying to knock on the door four minutes into the second, Blouin marched right back down the ice two minutes later. With eyes in the back of her head, she twirled around from the back boards.

Blouin’s trainer, Bryn Argue, taught her how to skate with the puck with her head up — a feat not many players can accomplish. Doing so allows her to process the play without worrying about the puck magnetized to her stick. Blouin could have easily looked down and recycled out the back.

Instead, lifting her head, she nailed the puck forward like a whizzing projectile through three Tigers defenders. Nobody was sitting at the back door but Armstrong. Gliding into her shot, the Bancroft, Ontario, native finished the job on a vacant net. Just like that, SU’s forwards had their second connection of the day.

“For Blouin to freeze the goalie and move a slider across was an elite move,” Farrell said.

The line nearly notched its third tally in two periods when Blouin delivered yet another whimsical cross-ice pass. In front of an open net, it was full steam ahead for Gnade. She could’ve given Syracuse a 3-1 lead it wouldn’t relinquish. Instead, the freshman whiffed.

Despite the mishap, the Orange got on track to fulfill that prophecy under six minutes into the third period. Gnade wanted it badly. All five of her shots landed on goal, just one of three SU players to do so.

Behind the back of the net, she pelted McNamara with a puck. A juicy rebound fell onto the stick of Armstrong. Executing the conventional “hockey stop” skating technique, the winger rotated her hips and delivered a missile into the back of the goal for her first two-goal game in four and a half months.

“Peyton is a goal scorer,” Farrell said. “She is someone who is used to scoring big goals, so she is doing a great job.”

A big goal may have been the appropriate terminology at the time, but RIT’s quick tallies seemingly nullified the significance of a possible dagger. Armstrong has scored half of her goals this year against the Tigers, which were all in SU wins. But this moment seemed different. Maybe it wouldn’t happen.

Outside of possibly Jackson Kinsler, who had 11 total shots, nobody wanted it more than SU’s scariest triplex. Combining for 18 shot attempts, 13 of which were on target, the tandem was determined to escape the depths of a never-ending contest.

When Blouin’s double-overtime shot ricocheted off McNamara, Gnade knew there was no looking back. Blouin may have been close to a goaltender interference, but Gnade wasted no time in firing a snapshot on net before Blouin touched the Tigers netminder.

Nine points is unprecedented on a stage this big, with the last time the line achieved it coming on Oct. 4, 2025. It could have been any line. Kinsler, Nea Tervonen and Stella Costabile were supposed to hoist the honor of being Syracuse’s most fearsome unit. It also could have been a group effort across many lines.

But rather, it was the one with a pair of freshmen and a sophomore that got the job done.

“Those three were able to find a way,” Farrell said. “So proud that they were able to do it.”

Published on February 21, 2026 at 9:15 pm
Contact Jason: jaglick@syr.edu | @jason_glick