Orange Takes on RIT in Regular Season Finale

SYRACUSE (9-13-10, 7-5-6 CHA) vs. RIT (10-17-5, 6-8-3 CHA)
Date & Time	Friday/Saturday, Feb. 20/21 7/3 p.m.
Location	Tennity Ice Pavilion (Fri)/ Rochester, N.Y. (Sat)
Web Stream	AmericaOne
Game Notes	Syracuse \| RIT
Live Stats	Cuse.com
Cuse Social Media	@Cuse
Hockey Social Media	@CuseIce

Ready for Regular Season Finale
- With just two games remaining in the regular season, Syracuse is right in the thick of the CHA playoff picture.
- The Orange enter the weekend tied with Penn State for the No. 2 seed and accompanying first-round bye.
- The Nittany Lions own the second tiebreak scenario (conference wins) over the Orange so the easiest way for 'Cuse to lock up the No. 2 seed is to get more points than Penn State this weekend.

'Cuse vs. RIT
- This is the 11th meeting between the two teams in program history.
- Syracuse is 5-4-1 all-time against the Tigers.
- Syracuse is 1-3-1 in games played at RIT and 4-1-0 at Tennity.
- 'Cuse and RIT have played some barn burners over the last two years, with six of the 10 games between the two teams going to overtime and eight of 10 being decided by one goal.
- Alysha Burriss and the Orange dominated the last matchup between the teams at Tennity, Burriss scored a hat trick en route to a 4-2 win. Her performance earned her CHA Player of the Week before the Tigers scored in overtime after a late game-tying goal split the series at 1-1-0 on the year in January.
- Thirteen different members of the current Orange have recorded points against the Tigers.
- Jessica Sibley 8 (four goals, four assists), Akane Hosoyamada 7 (three goals, four assists), Allie LaCombe 5 (two goals, three assists), Nicole Renault 6 (one goal, five assists), Melissa Piacentini 6 (four goals, two assist), Alysha Burriss 4 (three goals, one assist), Larissa Martyniuk 3 (three assists), Julie Knerr 4 (two goals, two assists) and Danielle Leslie 3 (three assists), Kaillie Goodnough (one assist), Heather Schwarz 2 (two goals), Stephanie Grossi 1 (one assist) and Megan Quinn 1 (one assist) each scoring against the Tigers.

Piacentini Sets Goals Record
- Forward Melissa Piacentini is used a three-goal weekend to last week against Lindenwood to break the all-time goals scored record.
- Margot Scharfe previously held the record at 42. Piacentini enters this weekend with 43.
- Piacentini's record-breaking goal came on the power play, marking her 10th PPG of the season, which leads the nation.

Freshmen Phenoms
- Freshman forwards Stephanie Grossi, Alysha Burriss and Emily Costales have made an immediate impact on the Orange up front, while teammates Megan Quinn and Dakota Derrer have each played strong on the blue line for the Orange.
- Grossi and Burriss (who are first and third on the Orange with 29 and 22 points respectively) make 'Cuse the only team in the CHA with multiple rookies having double-digit points.
- Additionally, Grossi and Burriss are one of only five freshmen tandems to combine for over 50 points. Joining Kenzie Kent and Tori Sullivan from Boston College (61 combined pts.), Wisconsin's Annie Pankowski and Emily Clark (57 combined points) and Minnesota's Kelly Pannek and Cara Piazza (52 combined points) and Boston's Victoria Bach and Rebecca Leslie (52 points).

Not So Tini on the Power Play
- Junior forward Melissa Piacentini has been clutch in extra-man opportunities for the Orange so far this season.
- Piacentini is tied for both the NCAA and CHA lead with eight power play goals.
- Piacentini has accounted for 50-percent of Syracuse's power play goals this season.
- 59-percent of her total goals this season have come as pert of the power play.

Grossi Dishes Out the Assists
- Freshman Stephanie Grossi leads the Orange with 29 points on the year, with the main reason being her ability to set up her teammates.
- Grossi has 20 assists on the season (32 games) which ties for the league lead overall ranks third in the nation amongst rookies (19th)

Good Things Happen With Grossi on the Ice
- Syracuse is plus-15 when Stephanie Grossi is on the ice this season, that's the second-best production in the CHA.
- It's three goals better than the next closest rookie (Sarah Robello of Mercyhurst) at plus-12.
- Melissa Piacentini's plus-7 rating is the next highest on the Orange.

Hitting the Century Mark
- SU has 101 wins in the seven-year history of the program, with the team hitting the century mark in last Saturday's 3-1 win over Robert Morris.
- The Orange has won 20 games in back-to-back seasons heading into this year.

LaCombe Dominating the Dot
- Winger Allie LaCombe has been a pleasant surprise since she began taking draws for the Orange.
- She leads the Orange and CHA with a .676 faceoff percentage.
- She has taken more faceoffs as the season has worn on, averaging nearly 10 faceoffs taken per game over the last-12 games after taking just nine faceoffs in the first-11 games of the season.
- LaCombe's .676 save percentage ranks second nationally.
- She is winning over 70-percent (.717) of her faceoffs in CHA games, which ranks first nationally in the most faceoffs won in league play.
- The majority of LaCombe's draws come when she's on the penalty kill or power play.

Grossi and Burriss Chasing Rookie Records
- Stephanie Grossi and Alysha Burriss are closing in on becoming a pair of the most productive rookies in 'Cuse history.
- Grossi who currently leads the team in points with 29 is already tied for third. She's just one point behind the second-most productive rookie season in 'Cuse history.
- Burriss currently has 22 points and is closing in on the top-five.

Grossi Isn't Slowing Down
- Stephanie Grossi currently ranks fourth in the nation in points by a rookie and has shown no sign of letting up.
- Grossi has recorded a point in eight of her last nine contests, including six-straight.
- Alysha Burriss ranks 11th in the nation currently with 21 points as a freshman.

We're Going Streaking
- Heading into this weekend's series with Lindenwood, freshman Stephanie Grossi currently is riding a eight-game point streak, which is the longest streak of 2015.
- Piacentini and Burriss each had three-game point streaks snapped against Robert Morris two weeks ago.
- The school record is Piacentini's 10-game streak last season.
- The Orange have had three goal scoring streaks of three games or longer this season, with Piacentini's string of four games tying the second-longest mark in school history. She also holds the record, with a seven game streak last season.

AK-147
- Senior Akane Hosoyamada has played in 147 career games, which is a Syracuse record.
- The redshirt senior passed Margot Scharfe, who previously held the record in the Robert Morris series.
- Hosoyamada played eight games as a sophomore before an injury sidelined her for the rest of the season, adding games to her resume.

Renault Sets Goals Points Record
- Junior defenseman Nicole Renault now owns the program record for goals by a defender with 14 in her three seasons at Syracuse.
- The junior passed Jacquie Greco, who previously held the record with 12.
- Teammate Akane Hosoyamada is third in the list with 10 goals.

Penalty Kill Heating Up
- The Syracuse PK has vastly improved over the last seven games.
- The Orange has allowed just three goals in its last 27 attempts on the kill, including just one goal in its last 16 times down a skater.
- Syracuse was on the kill four times in its most recent game with Lindenwood and didn't even allow a shot on net.

Playoff Push
- The Orange and Penn State enter the final weekend of the regular season tied at 20 points, both vying for the first-round bye in the playoffs.
- The Nittanly Lions own the second tiebreaker with the Orange (conference wins), so Syracuse would need to earn one more point this weekend to lock up the No. 2 seed and accompanying bye to the semifinals.
- Penn State plays Robert Morris for a pair this weekend.
- There is one oddity in the tiebreaking procedures that would allow Syracuse to obtain the two seed with a pair of losses this weekend. If Robert Morris sweeps Penn State and Syracuse loses both as well, the teams would all tie at 20 points. Syracuse would then win the three-way tiebreaker, which is points against tied teams. Should that happen Syracuse would be the No. 2, Robert Morris would be the No. 3 and Penn State would be the No. 4.

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Players Mentioned

Alysha Burriss

Emily Costales

Dakota Derrer

Kaillie Goodnough

Stephanie Grossi

Akane Hosoyamada

Julie Knerr

Allie LaCombe

Danielle Leslie

Larissa Martyniuk

Melissa Piacentini

Megan Quinn

Nicole Renault

Margot Scharfe

Heather Schwarz

Jessica Sibley

Syracuse University Athletics