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With 8:46 remaining in the second period, Alexandria Weiss had the puck near mid ice. Weiss looked up and found a wide-open Darci Johal on the right side by the boards. As Johal collected the pass, no defenders approached her. Taryn Rathwell was slow to react as Johal neared the goal, sneaking a shot past Emilie Venne for the score.

The score by Johal tied the game at 2-2, coming about a minute after Sophia Jones had been called for interference, setting Syracuse up in the power play. The goal was the first of a two-point day for Johal, leading Syracuse (3-3, 0-0 College Hockey America) to a 3-2 victory over RPI (4-1-3, 0-0 Eastern College Athletic Conference). The two points were a season-high for Johal after she came to SU from Holy Cross.

The Engineers were the first team to strike after Ellie Kaiser slotted the puck past Allie Kelley from the left side at the 10:53 mark of the first period. Less than a minute later, Jocelyn Fiala possessed the puck by the boards and found Rachel Teslak to her left. Teslak received the puck at the top of the SU offensive zone and quickly struck the puck past Venne, knotting the game at 1-1 at the 11:40 mark of the first period.

The game remained tied for four minutes before Sabrina Beaudoin found Aylah Cioffi for a backhanded goal, bringing the Engineers back in front after the first period.

At that point, the Engineers had more shots on goal than the Orange, leading 14-10. Johal had not yet fired a shot, but wasted no time to take her first two minutes in. Although, Venne made the save. Again, Johal found an opening for a scoring opportunity at the 8:31 mark but was blocked by Rathwell. The game remained at 2-1 for nearly nine minutes.

Then at the 11:14 mark, Weiss looked up and found Johal for the game-tying score during a power play. It was Johal’s third shot of the period, sneaking its way past Venne.

“(The RPI defense) was pressing,” Johal said. “I was trying to go flank to flank back to (Teslak), but they were not stepping up on me, so I thought, ‘why not test the goalie?’ So, I shot and it went in.”

Johal had surpassed her three shots in Friday’s 6-2 loss to RPI by the middle of the second period and emphasized the need to put more shots on net.

“I felt like yesterday I wasn’t shooting the puck enough so going into today I wanted to get as many shots on net when I have the opportunity,” Johal said.

Less than two minutes later, Johal intercepted an RPI pass on the left side of the goal in RPI’s defensive zone. Between two defenders, Johal snuck a pass to Kate Holmes, who was standing alone directly in front of the RPI goal. Holmes collected the pass and rocketed the shot past the right side of Venne for the goal, giving Syracuse a 3-2 lead.

“We’ve been talking a lot about being in a triangle with our forwards in the offensive zone,” Holmes said. “I saw (Johal) make an awesome play and I found an open place.”

Johal registered her fifth shot with just over a minute remaining in the period. The game entered the third Syracuse holding its 3-2 lead. SU used a big second period, outshooting RPI 19-12 to catapult it into the lead.

From there, Johal and Syracuse continued to apply offensive pressure while not letting up on the offensive end.

Over a minute into the final period, Johal put a shot on goal, but Venne was there to keep the puck out of the back of the net.

Then with 11:40 remaining, Johal intercepted a pass from RPI and found Tatum White leading the break. White skated towards the net to put a shot on goal but was halted by Jones.

As RPI attempted to equalize, Johal sniffed out the Engineers’ attack and cleared the puck out of the RPI’s offensive zone with nearly five minutes remaining. Syracuse held on for the 3-2 win, its first against a Division I program this season. SU garnered a strong performance from Johal with a game-tying score and a go-ahead assist.

“It’s great to see her hard work rewarded,” Syracuse head coach Britni Smith said. “She sees the game really well. Today was one of her better games and I’m happy that it’s rewarded.”

Published on October 14, 2023 at 9:03 pm