After losing seven straight games, the women’s hockey team finally turned the corner this weekend as it played some of its best hockey of the season. Friday night at Lynah Rink, Cornell (3-19-1, 3-13-0 ECACHL) played the role of aggressor from the onset and defeated Union (4-20-0, 0-16-0 ) by a score of 3-0. Saturday afternoon, Cornell played solid defense for 60 minutes against Rensselaer (12-14-1, 8-7-1), but could not find the back of the net on offense. Ultimately, the Red Hawks emerged victorious by a score of 1-0, in a highly competitive game.
Friday night against the Dutchwomen, the Red scored the game’s first goal about 4 minutes into the second period when junior assistant captain Caeleigh Beerworth’s shot was blocked, creating a rebound opportunity for the Red. Classmate Brittany Forgues took advantage of the rebound and knocked the puck into the back of the net. The goal was Forgues’ fifth of the season.
Four minutes later, during a power play, senior Halina Kristalyn zipped a wrist shot to the back of the net off a pass from freshman Laura Danforth, making the score 2-0 in favor of the Red. Sophomore Steph Ulrich also assisted on the goal. For Kristalyn, the goal was her sixth of the season, which tied her for the team lead with junior Brianne Schmidt.
The final goal of the game was icing on the cake for Cornell. With under a minute remaining, Beerworth scored her fourth goal of the season on a rebound of a Schmidt shot.
“I think we played a lot better tonight than we have in recent weeks, so that’s a good sign,” said head coach Doug Derraugh ’91. “Anytime we score on our power play, it is a good sign. Scoring on our power play is something that we have been having trouble with, and I thought tonight it was a lot more effective. I thought we were working around better and getting better opportunities off it, so that’s something we’re really pleased with and also to kill all of their power plays on our penalty kills is something we’ve been struggling with all year. So that was definitely a big plus for us.”
On six power play attempts, Union was unable to come away with a goal while Cornell was able to convert on one of its four opportunities.
While the final score was 3-0, the game could have turned in the other direction if not for a clutch save in the second period by senior goalie Beth Baronick. While the Red was on a power play, Union’s Kelly Lannan intercepted a pass in the Red offensive zone and had a shorthanded breakaway opportunity. However, Baronick denied the senior and instead recorded one of her 24 saves en route to her first shutout of the season.
“Sometimes what you really need in a game is for your goalie to come up with not always a huge number of saves, but saves at the right time,” Derraugh said. “That would have been a big turnaround if they had scored on that breakaway. It