Allie Olnowich doesn’t grip her stick as hard now as she did her first two years at Syracuse. She’s picking her head up more, looking up the ice to pick out passes. Olnowich will hold the puck in the defensive zone if she needs to, but she’s more comfortable with it on her stick. She’s taken advantage of space in the offensive zone, now less afraid to shoot.

Before this year, Olnowich didn’t get much ice time. Some games, Olnowich didn’t know whether she would be in uniform or watching home games from the stands. It drove the defender to appreciate any playing time she did get.

“I used to be like, if I made a mistake, that might be it for the game, the weekend, who knows,” Olnowich said. “But now, I can take a deep breath, I can step back.”

To start her junior campaign, she was still listed as the seventh defender. Syracuse (8-19-3, 8-6-2 College Hockey America) had a wealth of talent to choose from at the back — redshirt senior Dakota Derrer, sophomores Jessica DiGirolamo and Kristen Siermachesky and captain Allie Munroe. But when Derrer suffered a career-ending injury in November, it moved Olnowich to the sixth defender spot. In January, Lindsay Eastwood was sidelined with illness, and Siermachesky went out with an upper body injury leaving Syracuse with four defenders. Olnowich earned her first career start on Jan. 29 against Cornell, and her frequent time on the ice has stuck.

During summers, the junior from Chatham, New Jersey, worked out five times a week following a packet put together by Corey Parker, SU’s Olympic Sports strength and conditioning coach. She wanted tangible improvements for when her opportunity came.

Since, Olnowich has made five-straight starts, only picking up one goal. But what’s stood out is her “intuitive” play, SU head coach Paul Flanagan said. She’s chipped pucks out of the defensive zone and generally doesn’t commit turnovers.

“She’s getting her head up,” Flanagan said. “It’s really all confidence. The ability has always been there.”

Olnowich is also one of the most disciplined players on SU, having committed just five penalties this season. Team discipline, avoiding turnovers and penalties, is one of the Orange’s core values.

She’s played on the first line with Munroe, who has encouraged Olnowich since the latter first stepped on campus. Olnowich said she spends a lot of time at Munroe’s apartment, and on the ice, Munroe picks out the little things for Olnowich to improve on, like defensive zone positioning or missed passing opportunities.

Syracuse’s winter break trip to Montreal during a 10-game losing streak was a turning point for the Orange and Olnowich, she said. The exhibitions prepped the Orange heading into the brunt of their conference schedule, as they won all three games. Since then, the team has gone 4-3-2 in CHA play, and in three of Olnowich’s five starts, the Orange have allowed one or fewer goals.

“I think we played some of our best hockey up there,” Olnowich said of the tournament. “So hopefully that’ll translate into playoffs as well.”

With four games left in the regular season, Syracuse sits third in CHA. It earned just one of four available points this weekend against RIT in a home-and-home, but the defense gave up only two goals in both matchups. SU’s back end will need to continue limiting opposition offenses, given the Orange’s finishing struggles.

Published on February 17, 2019 at 10:29 pm

Contact Arabdho: armajumd@syr.edu | @aromajumder