DETROIT - In a battle between two of the three teams tied for second place in College Hockey America, the Wayne State University women’s hockey team (8-12-3, 4-5-0 CHA) was shut out,
2-0, by the Syracuse Orange (14-12-1, 5-4-0 CHA) on Friday night at the City Sports Center.
The WSU women’s hockey program celebrated its 10th Anniversary as well as Doc Andrews Alumni Night, but the Orange spoiled the party by handing the Warriors their first shutout loss of the season.
Megan Skelly scored the game-winner 17 seconds into the second period, and Lucy Schoedel made 27 saves to earn her third shutout of the year. Schoedel also held the WSU power-play unit scoreless in five chances.
Delayne Brian (Winnipeg, Man./Notre Dame Hounds), who has started each of the last five games, totaled 28 saves. She has a 1.60 goals-against average and a .949 save percentage in those starts. However, the Warriors are 2-3-0 in that span.
In what is becoming a regular occurrence for the Warriors, they went into the first intermission scoreless with the Orange. Wayne State has skated to a 0-0 tie through 20 minutes 15 times this season, and has a 6-7-2 record in those games.
Shortly after the opening faceoff of the second period, Stefanie Marty’s pass through the neutral zone caught the stick of Julie Rising on the left wing. Rising found Skelly skating into the slot, from where she fired a wrist shot into the top corner to break the deadlock.
The score remained 1-0 until 19:04 in the third, when Isabel Menard tacked on an empty-net goal to seal the win for Syracuse, which snapped a four-game losing skid.
Julie Ingratta (Markham, Ont./North American Hockey Academy) finished with seven of WSU’s 27 shots on goal.
Saturday’s rematch between the Warriors and Orange is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.