Heading into this past weekend’s away games against Brown and Yale, the women’s hockey team was looking for a spark that might launch it higher in the ECACHL standings. After defeating Brown, 3-1, on Friday, the team couldn’t ride its momentum to a second victory, falling to Yale the next day, 2-1.
The Red is now to 6-14-0 overall and 2-12-0 in the ECACHL.
“It was disappointing that we didn’t get a win on Saturday,” said Cornell head coach Doug Derraugh ’91. “We would have liked to have gotten that and carried some of that momentum over from the Brown victory. However, overall I was pleased with the passion that we showed the whole weekend.”
In the first contest, sophomore Brittany Forgues recorded a goal and an assist in the second period to help the Red earn all the advantage it would need for the victory over the Bears (11-9-2, 9-3-1), who are currently in first place in the league standings. Junior goaltender Beth Baronick made 26 saves to help the Red maintain its lead.
The Red was helped out by two power play goals, one from sophomore Brianne Schmidt and another from Forgues. Both power play goals were in the second period.
The game remained tense despite the Red’s one-goal advantage, as Brown out-shot the Red 27-13 in the game. Junior Halina Kristalyn eased the pressure with a goal at the 9:09 mark left in the third period, assuring the victory went to Cornell.
Saturday afternoon’s matchup against Yale (6-10-4, 3-5-3) started well for the Red, with freshman Emma Chipman scoring her fourth goal of the season just 1:21 into the first period. But the Red couldn’t hold on as the Bulldogs scored twice in the final two periods – including Deena Caplette’s game-winner with just under seven minutes to play – to claim a 2-1 victory.
“We tried to make a few plays up the middle that we probably shouldn’t have, and we weren’t getting shots through from the point to the net,” Derraugh said. “Either we missed the net or lost control of the puck.”
With just over a minute elapsed in the contest, junior Halina Kristalyn found Chipman, who put it past Yale goaltender Sarah Love for the first goal of the game.
She now has four goals and four assists for eight points on the year.
The teams went to the dressing room for the first intermission with the score 1-0 in favor of the Red, but the Bulldogs would tie it up 8:52 into the second. Yale’s Crysti Howser scored the equalizer on an assist from Caplette.
In the third, with the contest still tied at 1-1, Caplette scored the game winner at the 13:07 mark. Jenna Spring and Danielle Kozlowski were credited with the assists on the deciding goal.
Cornell had a chance to even the score with 4:42 to play when the Red started what would wind up being four minutes of power play time. The first two minutes passed uneventfully thanks to Yale’s defense, with Kristin Savard blocking one shot and Love sticking aside another. But just as that Yale penalty was ending, a pileup in front of the Bulldog net ended with Savard tossing the puck aside and being called for a delay of game penalty.
The Red called a timeout with 1:31 to play, and with 1:12 left pulled Baronick to take a two-skater advantage.
The strategy was unsuccessful, however, as the Red never got a shot on net.
After the second Yale penalty expired Love covered up a loose puck to her left, setting up a crucial faceoff in the Yale zone with 37.4 seconds to play. The Bulldogs won the drop, as well as another one shortly after, and were able to control the puck long enough to run down the clock on the Red.
Archived article by Jacob Lieberman
Sun Staff Writer