Orange Start Playoff Push Friday

SYRACUSE (9-16-1, 7-4-1 CHA) vs. RIT (9-15-2, 2-10-0 CHA)
Game 1: Friday, 7 p.m. | Syracuse, N.Y. | Tennity Ice Pavilion
Watch | Live Stats | Syracuse Notes | RIT Notes
Game 2: Saturday, 6 p.m. | Rochester, N.Y. | Gene Polisseni Center
Watch | Live Stats

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The College Hockey America (CHA) playoff push officially starts this weekend for Syracuse ice hockey. The Orange (9-16-1, 7-4-1 CHA) play a home-and-home series with RIT (9-15-2, 2-10-0 CHA), with the action kicking off at 7 p.m. Friday night at Tennity Ice Pavilion and the series concluding 6 p.m. Saturday at the Gene Polisseni Center in Rochester, N.Y. Fans can watch Friday's game via Cuse.tv and Saturday's game via Stretch.

LAST TIME OUT
An ensemble of Orange achieved career milestones in Saturday's 5-1 win over RPI. Kelli Rowswell is on a point streak too, having scored in back-to-back games.

GK Ady Cohen: 10 career wins
Rowswell: 50 career points
Jessica DiGirolamo: 50 career points

RECORD WATCH
Emma Polaski and Abby Moloughney are on the cusp of hitting 50 career points. The duo enters the weekend with 44 and 42 career points, respectively.

SERIES HISTORY
Syracuse holds the all-time advantage heading into the weekend (20-11-3). Their last matchup came in November of this season, the two teams splitting the weekend. RIT won, 3-0, at Tennity before Syracuse brought a 7-4 victory home from Rochester. Syracuse hasn't defeated the Tigers in Tennity in four meetings dating back to February of last season.

SCOUTING THE TIGERS
RIT's two conference wins have them sitting fifth place in the CHA, 11 points behind third-place Syracuse.

Abby Davies (9-11-20) leads the Tigers offense and is coming off of a three-point weekend against Mercyhurst.
Goaltender Terra Lanteigne, last year's CHA Player of the Year, is enjoying a great season between the pipes. She has a .930 save percentage which ranks 12th in the nation.

SYRACUSE RANKINGS

The Orange rank 15th in the nation in scoring offense, averaging 3.0 goals per game.
Two of Syracuse's top-three most productive skaters are defenders in captain Lindsay Eastwood (6-15-21) and Jessica DiGirolamo (7-11-18). Those two and Mae Batherson (3-12-15) make up three of the top six scoring defensemen in the CHA; Eastwood ranks third, DiGirolamo fourth, and Batherson sixth.The trio combines for 16 goals and 54 points.
Eastwood is ninth in the conference in points.
Syracuse has two of the top-three scoring freshman in the CHA in Batherson (second) and Anna Leschyshyn (third).
With 15, Eastwood is tied for fourth in the CHA in assists. Abby Moloughney is tied for eighth with 14.

ON THE HORIZON
The Orange have just eight more games left in the regular season. The CHA tournament runs March 5-7 in Buffalo, N.Y. Syracuse is the defending champion, having taken down Lindenwood (4-1), Mercyhurst (4-3) and Robert Morris (6-2) in last year's tournament to win the first CHA title in program history. The Orange are currently three points (15) behind Robert Morris and Mercyhurst (18) in the CHA standings.

March 5, 2020
Quarterfinal 1: #3 vs #6 -- 4:00 p.m.
Quarterfinal 2: #4 vs #5 -- 7:30 p.m.

March 6, 2020
Semifinal 1: #1 vs Lowest Remaining Seed -- TBA
Semifinal 2: #2 vs Highest Remaining Seed -- TBA

March 7, 2020
Championship: Winner of Semifinal #1 vs Winner of Semifinal #2

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