Johal Tallies Two in Win at RIT

Saturday, December 2

Henrietta, NY

3:00 pm

Syracuse University

4-13-2, 1-6-1

RIT

8-7-2, 4-4-0

Syracuse

RIT

Photo by: Sue Cornelius Edson

12/2/2023 9:08:00 PM | Ice Hockey

Box Score

Forward Darci Johal matched a career-high two goals to spark Syracuse to a 3-1win at RIT on Saturday. Johal tallied the goals within a 90 second window at the end of the first to give Syracuse a 2-0 lead at the first intermission. Orange forward Sarah Thompson added a third goal in the second period and goaltender Allie Kelley recorded 27 saves, including 13 in the first period.

"I thought we did a really good job competing for 60 minutes tonight," said head coach Britni Smith. "We played a pretty consistent 60 which is something we have been talking about and focusing on. It was great to get a goal in the second, but something we talked about between periods was that we were up two and we had to lock in defensively and our offense will come from that. Tonight Allie (Kelley) played well. She does a really good job having a short memory. She came back and put in 60 minutes tonight like she did after last night I think is huge."

In the first period, Johal opened the scoring on a pass from defenseman Alexandria Weiss to give Syracuse (4-13-2 overall, 1-6-1 College Hockey America) a 1-0 lead at the 16:41 mark. Weiss gathered the puck in the neutral zone and fed a pass to Johal at the blue line. Johal carried the puck to the top of the circle and fired the shot into the top right corner for the score. The Orange came right back to score another less than 90 seconds later when forward Tatum White hit Johal cutting to the goal for the game-winning goal. Johal set up the scoring play by intercepting a pass at the blue line where White gathered the loose puck, carried it to the point and fed Johal who was cutting to the crease for the goal. Johal also tallied two goals against Merrimack last season when she played for Holy Cross.

Thompson made the score 3-0 Syracuse corralling a loose puck on the crease and backhanding it into the net. Forward Kate Holmes set up the play by stealing the puck in the right circle and feeding the it across the crease where Thompson one-timed it into the goal on the backside.

In the third period, Mia Tsilemos scored RIT's (8-7-2, 4-4) lone goal with 5:32 left in the game.

Syracuse will host #4 Colgate for Jersey Night on Tuesday, December 5 at 6 pm at Tennity Ice Pavilion. Fans are invited to wear their favorite team jersey to the game.

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