Regular season champions No. 3 women’s hockey enters the ECAC playoffs with two conference losses. One loss came against then-No. 5 Colgate in a hard-fought battle at Lynah Rink among two of the top teams in the ECAC.
The other? A 3-2 loss to Union, the Garnet Chargers’ first victory at Lynah Rink and second win over Cornell in program history.
This weekend, the two teams will face off in Ithaca for a second, third and possibly fourth time this season. For both teams, the stakes are high. Union (13-21-1, 5-11-1 ECAC) is coming off its first playoff win in program history and needs to continue winning to keep its season alive. For the Red (20-4-5, 16-2-4 ECAC), a loss would end the team’s chance to win its first ECAC title since 2014.
Head coach Doug Derraugh ’91, who has four ECAC titles under his belt as the Red’s head coach, knows the stakes are high irrespective of the opponent.
“I think it's just: ‘Hey, it's the playoffs. If you don’t win, you’re done,’” Derraugh said. “Regardless of which opponent we were going to get in the playoffs, I think the incentive is [that] we want to keep playing and we don’t want to stop at this time of year.”
While Union enters the weekend a heavy underdog — the Garnet Chargers sit 19 spots behind Cornell in the Pairwise ratings — the teams’ two matchups in the regular season foreshadow a competitive weekend series. As mentioned, Union took game one, 3-2, in what was Cornell’s ECAC and home opener. Later in the season, Cornell came back after trailing by a goal in the third period to take the Feb. 8 contest, 2-1.
For first-year Union head coach Tony Maci, the early season win over Cornell can provide his squad with a template for success this weekend.
“I think it was just keeping things simple. We didn’t really get a ton of chances, but we were able to bury the chances that we did get,” Maci said. “And then just defending well and making it hard for them to get to the net.”
From the opposing bench, Derraugh echoed Maci’s final point about getting to the net when asked about what Cornell needs to do differently against Union.
“We’ve got to play with our speed, use our speed against them. And we've got to find ways to create second and third opportunities, to get to their net,” Derraugh said.
Union enters the weekend coming off a 2-0 win against Brown in the ECAC first round. Both goals in the matchup were scored by Karianne Engelbert, who also tallied a goal in the Garnet Chargers’ win over Cornell. The freshman is Union’s leading scorer and was recently named to the ECAC All-Rookie Team.
“I think she has just realized this year [that] where you’re going to make your money in this sport is in the rough areas and around the net,” Maci said. “I’d say most of her goals are within four or five feet of the net.”
Outside of Engelbert, according to Derraugh, what makes Union a challenging opponent is its defense.
“They are really stingy defensively [and] they've got really good goaltending,” Derraugh said. “They play a real smart game, a real patient game [and] they’re physical. They make you go through layers of defense to get chances.”
In net for the Garnet Charges is expected to be senior Sophie Matsoukas. Matsoukas is the reigning ECAC Goaltender of the Week, and ranks tenth in the nation in College Hockey Individual Point value, an advanced stat from College Hockey News that is an “attempt at coming up with one stat that demonstrates a player's value in this season.”
Meanwhile, Cornell is loaded with award-winning talent after an impressive regular season campaign. Seven players — and the coaching staff — were named in the Ivy League’s end-of-season honors, including freshman forward Lindzi Avar who took home Rookie of the Year. Avar was also unanimously named to the ECAC All-Rookie Team, where she joined senior defenders Rory Guilday (third team) and Ashley Messier (second team), and junior forward Avi Adam (third team) in being recognized by the conference. However, the most prestigious award a Cornellian took home went to sophomore netminder Annalies Bergmann, who was named ECAC Goaltender of the Year.
With the two teams’ history this season and the talent on the ice, the stage is set for possibly the most anticipated playoff matchup at Lynah Rink since the 2020 ECAC championship.
“I know the place will be rocking like it normally is,” Maci said. “It will be a great playoff atmosphere and experience for our players.”
Cornell and Union will drop the puck Friday night at 6 p.m. for game one of the best-of-three series. Game two (and game three if necessary) is set for 3 p.m. the next day. All three games will be streamed live on ESPN+.
