Alysha Burriss crashed into a Lindenwood defender in front of the Lions’ bench. The puck caromed off the side board, landing in front of Stephanie Grossi. Grossi navigated past the blue line, beating two Lindenwood players before putting the puck past goalie Nicole Hensley.

“I saw it was open low,” Grossi said. “(Assistant coach Brendon Knight) told us to shoot from there.”

Her second goal of Friday’s matchup gave the Orange a 2-0 lead midway through the first period, and she wasn’t done scoring.

Grossi finished Friday’s game with a hat trick in a 6-1 SU (17-13-3, 13-4-2 College Hockey America) victory over Lindenwood (8-21-4, 5-10-4 CHA) at War Memorial Arena. It’s the Orange’s sixth win in a row, the program’s best stretch since its eight-game winning streak in the 2012-13 season.

Four minutes into the game, Megan Quinn took a shot from the blue line. The puck deflected off Hensley’s pads, falling right in front of Burriss. When she couldn’t slap it past the goal line, Grossi stormed inside and forced the puck into the back of the net. It was Grossi’s first goal in the last five games and opened up the breakout performance.

“She did a lot of good things with the puck,” Syracuse head coach Paul Flanagan said of Grossi. “She was our dominant player, but I thought in-zone, breaking pucks out, making good plays. I thought she did a real good job.”

Grossi hadn’t scored since Jan. 30 and Flanagan said she was frustrated in SU’s games last weekend. But in the second-to-last regular-season game, she snapped back into form.

To cap off her scoring output late in the second period, Grossi navigated across the middle of Lindenwood’s defense and fired a quick wrist-shot that hit the top of the net. Syracuse led 4-0 and Grossi already had a hat trick.

“Once she had two, she was going after it,” Flanagan said. “She chances to get four, five and six. She had some good bids. She was after it. That’s good to see. She picked the team up.”

The Orange cemented its win with two quick third period goals. First, Melissa Piacentini scored just 16 seconds into the final period. A minute later, Burriss poked the puck through backup Jolene deBruyn’s legs to give the Orange a 6-0 lead.

But by then, the final outcome was already decided, thanks to Grossi’s dominant performance.

“We were just doing the little things right,” Grossi said. “The goals will always come.”

Published on February 19, 2016 at 7:16 pm

Contact Chris: cfthomse@syr.edu