Syracuse was plenty good enough to sweep Connecticut last weekend. The stats say as much, and so do the players.

“I think winning one was great, but we should’ve won both of them and we know that. It was maybe a wake-up call, and we can’t take teams lightly like that,” senior forward Holly Carrie-Mattimoe said of splitting the two-game series against Connecticut.

An unhealthy dose of underestimation did the Orange (4-4-0, 2-0-0 College Hockey America) in at last Friday’s opener. And while its swift, two-goal comeback ultimately fell short, it again showed SU’s ability to turn it up a notch in spurts. Yet after a weekend in which one victory felt like one too few, Paul Flanagan’s squad looks to establish consistency in a week when the lineup is very much in transition.

The loss of Laurie Kingsbury shook the so-far prolific second line. And the shift of Kallie Goodnough from defense to forward is just part of a larger offensive juggling act. Syracuse will look to overcome the changes when it plays two games against Union (2-4, 0-2 Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference) at 7 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday in Schenectady, N.Y.

SU came out flat on Friday against UConn (2-6-1, 1-1-0 Hockey East) and it cost the Orange two goals, its ultimate margin of defeat. The team responded by outshooting the Huskies two to one, and losing 4-2.

“That seems to be a little bit of a theme around here,” Flanagan said before giving credit to a UConn team that opened the season on a brutal, seven-game road stretch.

Kingsbury sat out the UConn series with an unspecified injury. She is still the team’s leading scorer with nine goals in two less games. Kingsbury is also the third most efficient shooter with more than 25 shots, converting on just more than one of every eight shots.

Her absence prompted Flanagan to move Goodnough from the blue line further into the attack. It was a natural move, Flanagan said, as the sophomore occasionally goes to the goal when she should stay back in defense.

But the change, though necessary, complicates an attack already inconsistent in finishing. SU has scored just three of its 25 goals this season in the first period. Early deficits put pressure on the forwards. And while the first-period drought is a problem, it’s not all bad, Carrie-Mattimoe said.

“There’s always pressure there to score, but definitely when we’re down a goal or two, we know we need to get the puck in — we thrive off that I think, though,” she said. “We get energy off that, we know we have to score, we have to go.”

Though the slow starts and overall scoring by period is something Flanagan and his staff look into, he called it “coincidental” on Tuesday, saying the Orange has not yet played enough games for the figure to concern the team too much.

For a team that’s shown it can play with some of the nation’s best, while relying on inexperienced talent in key positions, the lack of a cleaner record to prove its quality can be frustrating.

“We started out rough. I think we should’ve won the first game,” freshman defender Nicole Renault said. “We didn’t play our best game, but we bounced back from it like we said we would.”

Nineteen hours after Friday night’s seesaw affair, the Orange walked off the ice at Freitas Ice Forum with a dominant 2-0 win on goals from Shiann Darkangelo and Akane Hosomayada. SU nearly tripled UConn’s shot total on the evening, 36-13.

It was a performance that showed captain Carrie-Mattimoe that, despite some youth and lineup chaos, this year’s Orange is easy enough to lead.

Kingsbury is not expected to play this weekend at Union, so Flanagan will likely continue running a four-line rotation in attack. The players expect to carry on just fine.

“The team almost leads itself,” Carrie-Mattimoe said. “People, like even freshmen and sophomores and stuff, are stepping up and being leaders.”

Published on October 31, 2012 at 11:53 pm

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_