FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - If the Blue Devils were already six feet under when the scoreboard hit 14-6 at the end of the third period of Syracuse's 17-7 whitewashing of Duke, the shovel that dug Duke's grave was shoddy defense-particularly in pivotal end-of-quarter situations.
The Orange ended two periods-the first and third-with a pair of goals within the final minute of the quarter. With the score knotted 2-2 at the :35 mark of the first period, Syracuse's Pat Perritt netted a seemingly impossible shot, as the ball snuck between the right post and the leg of Duke goaltender Rob Schroeder.
But before television replays could even appear on the Gillette Stadium Jumbotron, Syracuse had struck again, with Orange attackman Kenny Nims slicing in a goal as time expired to double up Duke 4-2 going into the second quarter.
Nims and Perritt reprised their goalscoring roles at the end of the third quarter as well, as Nims netted a goal at the :59 mark to put Syracuse up 13-6. That was followed by Perritt's fourth and final goal of the game with 26 ticks left on the clock.
"We were certainly on our heels," Duke head coach John Danowski said of his team's defense. "We did some uncharacteristic things at the end of quarters, and we seemed to be out of sorts, but maybe that was Syracuse making us out of sorts, as opposed to saying it was us."
Whether it was a matter of the Orange's talent-Syracuse ranked No. 2 in the NCAA in scoring offense-or Duke's own errors, the Orange had no trouble receiving the ball in front of the net, leading to numerous point-blank shots that were impossible for Schroeder to stop.
Going into the semifinal matchup with the Blue Devils, Syracuse's game plan was to emphasize a finesse approach that stressed fewer well-placed shots instead of a power game with a heavy dose of long-range but high-velocity shots. As evidenced by the numbers on their side of the scoreboard, the Orange's efforts paid off.
"Their goalie takes up a lot of space in the cage and I just wasn't trying to shoot the ball too hard, shoot it through the net," Perritt said. "[Head coach John Desko] said during the week to just try and place the ball, shoot it overhand and put it to the far corners, and that's what I tried to do and it worked."
Another source of Duke's troubles was the Orange's relentless pursuit of faceoffs and ground balls. Syracuse led Duke in both statistical categories, and its ability to transition quickly from defense to offense resulted in easy goals. Four of Syracuse's 17 goals came within a minute of a previous Orange score.
"We felt that Duke really concentrates on the center of the field, that [it] really want[s] to go after ground balls and get possessions there and beat you there," Desko said. "The game starts with a face-off and we have to go after loose balls and get possessions and get the ball to our offensive end. And we were able to create some transition off of it [too]."
The Orange used that transition to take advantage of any Duke miscues, pile on the goals, and bury the Blue Devils.
"We thought they were terrific." Danowski said of the eventual national champion Orange. "If we made a mistake, they capitalized, and we tip our caps to Syracuse for a job well done."
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