Ice hockey

RIT’s Maugeri out-hustles Orange for 2 goals, assist as Tigers down SU in overtime

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Institute of Technology players piled over the boards and circled around Emilee Bulleid, who had just scored the game-winning goal against Syracuse.

Earlier, it had been Marissa Maugeri who kept the game-winning possession alive. Having already been on the ice for two minutes in overtime and her line change already past due, she caught the puck on her skate, beat out an SU player on the boards and dumped the puck below the net.

Forty seconds later, Bulleid blasted her second goal of the night.

Maugeri scored two goals and assisted on another to lead RIT (9-14-3, 3-8-1 College Hockey America) to a 4-3 win over SU (6-12-8, 4-4-4) on Friday night, but it was the gritty play that ultimately ended the back-and-forth game. While her shift ended and she wasn’t on the ice for the winning goal, her stamp on the game was permanent. In her last six games against SU — four have been wins — she’s tallied 10 points.

“She’s just not one of those girls that’s looking to score goals,” Syracuse head coach Paul Flanagan said. “She works her tail off to get the puck… some of our kids should emulate the way she plays.”



The Orange brings out the best in Maugeri because she sees the game as a rivalry. To beat SU, Maugeri did a little bit of everything in addition to her offense: she scored, assisted on a goal, dug the puck out of corners, took faceoffs and played on the penalty kill, clearing the puck out of RIT’s defensive zone multiple times.

Sometimes for Maugeri, it was simply that she matched SU’s hustle. Players chased Maugeri into corners and rarely came out with the puck.

In the first period, she roared into the offensive zone, but the Orange’s Julie Knerr splayed her body on the ice, deflecting a pass that ricocheted behind the net. Maugeri rushed behind the net, saw teammates flying toward the goal and flung the puck in front. In Maugeri’s estimation, it was a combination of luck and hustle that Bulleid scored her first goal of the night.

Maugeri positioned herself well for pucks on the boards by using both her speed and maneuvering her body between the puck and the opponent. At times she slithered and squeezed through tight spaces.

As a four-player scrum battled behind the net, Maugeri fit between the scrum and the net, stuck her stick on the right side of the group and, with a few tugs, popped the puck free.

“She just won’t be denied,” RIT head coach Scott McDonald said. “… If there’s a loose puck, she’s that fast and strong, and she’s not afraid of anybody, and she plays that way.”

Although Maugeri was one of the most diminutive players on the ice at 5 feet, 3 inches, she still frustrated the Orange at every turn — and possibly SU defender Megan Quinn the most. In the second period, Quinn was confused on who she had to defend, and Maugeri sat near the crease unattended to. She slapped a pass into the net, past SU goalie Jenn Gilligan.

Maugeri and three teammates huddled behind the net in celebration. The lone RIT player not yet in the huddle ran into Quinn and the shoving match that ensued sent both players to the ice. Quinn skated away, dragging her stick until she whacked it on the ice.

“Every goal they scored, we had a goal to respond,” Maugeri said. “… We knew it was our game.”

CORRECTIONIn an earlier version of this story, Marissa Maugeri’s last name was misspelled in the headline. The Daily Orange regrets this error.





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