Syracuse’s victory over Penn State on Oct. 9 was only the latest surprising result in the AHA this season. The Orange upset Mercyhurst the week prior, and Delaware took a game from Lindenwood. Drawing too many conclusions from one game is irresponsible, but shocking results give us a window into larger stories within the AHA.
Syracuse beats Penn State 5-4 on Oct. 9
Before this game, Syracuse hadn’t beaten Penn State since Jan. 19, 2025. Penn State only lost two games to AHA opponents — Mercyhurst and RIT — all of last season. With a coaching change and more experience, the Orange reset that counter.
The biggest takeaway for Syracuse is Ava Drabyk can steal wins against the best NCAA teams. Fans of the Orange knew that from her 50 save performance against Cornell last year, but Penn State is the highest ranked team she’s earned a win against. The sophomore goaltender finished the night with 40 saves and faced 25 in the second period alone. During one power play opportunity for Penn State in the second, Drabyk made a cross-crease save on a wide-open Kylie Amelkovich that was so good it fooled the Penn State defender, who threw her arm up in celebration. Drabyk’s 23 saves ensured that the Orange entered the third period in a tied game.
While goaltending was the biggest part of the win, Syracuse also showed off their improved offense. The Orange already have 17 goals on the season, a fourth of the 69 they scored last year. Four have come on the power play, a good start for what was one of the worst power plays in the league last season.
Jessica Cheung’s addition to the power play is one of the main catalysts for improvement. Primarily a shutdown defender before this season, she’s had more opportunities to show her offensive game this year. She racked up two assists this weekend, including one on the power play, and six shots. In comparison, she had a goal and seven assists all of last season.
Within the forward group, Jackson Kinsler is off to a hot start. She has five goals on the season, including one in the game against Penn State. Her career high for goals in a season is eight. Kinsler benefited from Syracuse embracing their speed and playing a faster style of hockey. Despite Syracuse’s struggles, their best offensive moments last year came from quality east to west passes and fluid movement in their opponents end. Better utilizing their forward group’s speed and cleaning up fundamentals around zone exits and entries allows qualities like their passing skills to shine, and players like Kinsler to keep scoring.
For Penn State, it’s hard to read too much into their performance. They got robbed by Drabyk multiple times and were missing Grace Outwater and Abby Stonehouse. The Nittany Lions are also without Matilde Fantin until after the holidays.
More can be said about the goaltending. Freshman goaltender Morgan Stickney struggled in net, giving up five goals on 18 shots. Her performance against Robert Morris University last week was similar, conceding three goals on 16 shots. To make long term declarations on Stickney’s career only three games into her NCAA career would be unwise. In the short term, however, sophomore Madison Campbell is winning the crease. She only played 11 games for Penn State last year, but has appeared in four this year. She shutout Syracuse in the second game of the weekend despite Syracuse outshooting Penn State 30-21.
Delaware beats Lindenwood 4-1 on Oct. 3
Delaware matched their win total from last season, beating Lindenwood 4-1. Lindenwood is the only AHA team Delaware beat last season, but lost the other three matchups against the Lions.
The Blue Hens beat Lindenwood by playing conservative in their own end and pouncing on turnovers to counterattack. They blocked 21 shots, and scored off odd-player breakaways from a turnover in the neutral zone and a misplay off the boards. Otherwise, the few times the Blue Hens had possession, they made the safe play and dumped the puck to the neutral zone to get a quick change before preparing to defend again. The style is not always going to be a success. The next day, the Blue Hens lost 3-1, despite blocking another 20 shots. However, it’s the best strategy for a young team with little collective NCAA experience. Delaware has the buy-in from their entire roster to pull off two wins in their first six games and avoid being blown out.
Charlotte Payne is another reason why Delaware’s strategy worked. She had 33 saves on 34 shots, and backstopped the team to both wins this season. Last season, she maintained a .914 save percentage despite seeing an average of 40 shots a game.
Where Delaware’s style of play is vulnerable is that they are taking penalties. Spending most of the game without possession in the defensive end inevitably leads to an uptick in stick infractions. They took four in their win against Lindenwood, giving up their only goal on the penalty kill. Overall, they’ve given up five goals on 23 penalties, including two in the following game.
For Lindenwood, good goaltending has covered many defensive flaws of this team, but it wasn’t enough against Delaware. Madison Bowtell made 23 saves on 25 shots, and has only given up four goals in three games this year. The two goals she gave up against Delaware were both off of defensive errors that led to breakaways. Bowtell’s shared the net with Ebba Ridderstolpe, a freshman who’s appeared in four games and made 99 saves on 105 shots to start the year. The reliable duo of Ridderstolpe and Bowtell is Lindenwood’s biggest strength early in the season.
While prone to breakdowns, the Lindenwood blueline has shown more willingness to jump into the play. Thea Rustbakken scored the only goal for Lindenwood in the loss to Delaware, and Elina Zilliox led the team with six shots. They have four goals from their blueliners this year, a positive trend considering they only had 11 goals from their defenders last year.
Syracuse beats Mercyhurst 3-1 on Oct. 2
We’ve already touched on Syracuse, but it’s worth noting that the Orange didn’t have to rely on Drabyk quite as much to secure this win. She was still great, but only faced 27 shots and got significantly more help from her defense. Syracuse blocked 17 shots this game and played a more physical game, including a huge hit by Rylee McLeod in the defensive zone in the third period to help clear the puck. McLeod also scored two goals for her first career multi-goal game.
Merychurst, meanwhile, is in the midst of some terrible five-on-five goal luck. In the game against Syracuse, their only goal came on the power play. A total nine of their 18 goals have come at even strength. At all strengths, they have a .065 shooting percentage. Sofia Nuutinen has borne the brunt of this, goalless through eight games despite being second on the team with shots at 27 total. In her career, she’s average a .089 shot percentage. Mercyhurst leaned on their newcomers for offense and saw them deliver the next day, with a two goal game by Mariia Polozkova to help split the series.
Although Mercyhurst has been great at killing penalties, they do have a problem with taking them. The Lakers have only given up one power play goal so far this year, but they’ve tied Ohio State for the most penalty minutes with 62. In the loss to Syracuse, they took five penalties. Even if they avoid conceding a goal, time they’re on a penalty kill is time they’ll likely have to spend in the defensive zone. Mercyhurst did score two shorthanded goals the next day, though, so maybe taking penalties was the plan all along.
