Syracuse players sacrifice bodies to strengthen penalty kill
When it comes to killing penalties, Margot Scharfe and the rest of her teammates say there is no secret to keeping the puck out of the net on an opponent’s power play.
There is no special formula to killing penalties. There’s no science to it. For the Syracuse players, the trick is simple: sacrificing their bodies at all costs to stop the puck.
Whenever the Orange has faced a penalty-kill situation — something it has done 63 times on the young season — it’s had no qualms with ending the threat by any means necessary.
“I think we’re a gritty team, and we take a lot of pride in our penalty killing,” Scharfe said. “It’s all about hard work and blocking shots. Sometimes on the penalty kill we can get the energy up by blocking shots.”
Of the 63 penalties that SU has faced, only eight times has the opponent sent the puck into the net, good for an 87.3 kill percentage. Last season, the Orange ranked sixth in the country in that category, halting 87 percent of the opposition’s power plays.
At the front of the penalty-kill unit are forwards Scharfe and Nicole Ferrara. They are often on the ice as the team runs through the penalty-kill strategy during practices. They protect the defensive line of the unit, all of whom share time on the penalty kill.
“I think a big part of it is just communication between me and Margot, and between the defense that are out there too,” Ferrara said. “You usually play man to man, but if they switch, you say things like ‘switch, switch.’”
Head coach Paul Flanagan said that the team will often spend practice time on Thursday watching power-play videos of its opponent that weekend. Then it will practice some of the specifics of guarding against the attack that SU will face in the upcoming weekend.
Flanagan reflected on the Orange’s game against New Hampshire in the opening weekend, when his team made a statement about its penalty-kill ability. In that contest, SU stopped six of eight power plays to keep it alive in a game that could have gotten easily out of hand.
“The (penalty kill) kept us in it. We didn’t win the game, but they kept us in it,” Flanagan said. “It can be a real turning point. We talk a lot about momentum, swings of momentum in a game, the penalty kill can give you such a life.”
He noted that in any good penalty-kill unit, the best player is always the goalie. Starter Kallie Billadeau has saved 93.2 percent of shots this season. She credited her teammates for her own success.
“I owe a lot of our team’s success and my personal success to those girls sacrificing their bodies and blocking shots,” Billadeau said. “They don’t have equipment on.”
SU has adopted a team mentality when it comes to penalty killing. Flanagan acknowledged that without its success in that facet, the Orange might be staring at a much different record.
“If you look at all the close games we’re playing, the scores in our sport, it’s like soccer, just so many close games,” Flanagan said.
“Every special team is so critical. If your PK is effective and efficient, it’s going to keep you in games.”
