Less than two weeks into team practices, Paul Flanagan knows defense is the foundation of his team.

“I don’t think that on any particular night, or any night, we’re just going to go out and light it up offensively,” the head coach said. “So we know we need to be very sound defensively.”

With five defensemen returning from last season, the Orange opens the 2012-13 season against New Hampshire at 4 p.m. Friday in Tennity Ice Pavilion. That core unit promises to be crucial in keeping SU in games this season. A solid defensive presence will extend beyond the blue line, making the attack more potent and the team more dangerous as a whole.

Fine-tuning the defense takes more practice than offensive playmaking, Flanagan said. So the team has spent the past three days focusing on its defensive system while blending together its veteran leadership with young talented freshmen.

“You’d like to think we’re not changing anything up really, just minor details, but hoping that the veterans haven’t forgot our systems over the summer,” Flanagan said, “And really just, again, just trying to get the freshmen to assimilate into the group and understand what we’re trying to do.”

Depth in defense is a point of pride for the Orange. The team has only been together in official practices for the past two weeks. To accelerate not only the team’s fitness, but overall cohesiveness, the SU players have put in extra skill sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays in addition to extra lifting.

In previous seasons, the team took about a month to become fully game-fit, senior defender Jacquie Greco said.

Fitness and, consequently, team depth will be tested Friday. The rink at Whittemore Center Arena, where UNH plays its home games, is longer and wider than Olympic-sized rinks that dwarf most North American rinks. The Wildcats have grown accustomed to skating longer and harder shifts on their home ice, and often enjoy an advantage in endurance home and away.

But Flanagan trusts both his veteran and younger defenders to keep up.

“We have seven defensemen right now on our roster and all of them are capable. It’s not like we can only rely on three or four. We feel that all seven can play,” he said. “I think from top to bottom on the blue line we have, you know, some real good I guess parity from within the ranks, and some good competition.”

That competition comes from the Orange’s younger players pushing its veterans. Yet one freshman is expected to play an even more crucial role.

First-year defender Nicole Renault is smaller but makes up for her lack of size with her ability to read the game and lead a transition attack. An SU commit since her junior year of high school, Renault scored 12 goals and had 28 assists for the Little Caesars Under-19 last season.

“I think I see the ice well and that’s what the coaches see in me, so they put me there to make a good pass and they see me as an offensive defenseman, which I am,” Renault said. “I will rush the puck and then make a pass.”

Strong transition play from Renault and the rest of the Orange back line opens up the ice for the attack. For an offense that finished last season 21st out of 33 teams in the nation, averaging 2.23 goals per game, Renault’s passing ability is needed.

This year’s freshman class is the best SU ice hockey has seen in four years, Greco said.

Regardless of age, the defense is a strength and the bigger questions lie in the team’s offense, Flanagan said.

If the Orange maintains the defensive standard Flanagan expects, the entire team will inevitably benefit.

Said Greco: “It definitely helps the confidence of our front end, you know, because they can count on us to defend goals and then we can count on them to score goals for us.”

Published on October 4, 2012 at 12:14 am

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_