This weekend women’s ice hockey team tussled with two conference foes and were able to scratch their way past the pesky dens of Tigers and Bobcats. Resiliency and determination were the buzz words as both come-from-behind victories were spearheaded by youthful underclassmen.
On Friday night against No. 10 Princeton (4-4-2, 2-4-1 ECAC Hockey), the Red (5-4-1, 2-1-1) overcame a 3-0 deficit midway through the second period, rallying to capture a 7-4 victory over the Tigers.
Cornell sophomore forward Liz Zorn initiated the comeback at the 13:37 mark of the second period with her sixth goal of the season. Freshman forward Amber Overguard provided an assist and scored a power play goal less than a minute later to slice the Princeton lead to 3-2.
The Red continued attacking the Princeton net, tallying four additional unanswered goals. In her collegiate debut, freshman forward Katie Bredice knotted the game at 3 apiece at 15:03 of the second period off of an assist from fellow first-year forward Rebecca Johnston.
Cornell added two more goals in the second period from the sticks of freshman forward Hayley Hughes and Zorn to give the Red a 5-3 advantage. Zorn’s second goal of the contest proved to be the game-winner.
Senior forward Brianne Schmidt and Johnston added a pair of goals in the final stanza to ice the Red’s 7-4 victory. For Johnston, it was the seventh time this season she has lit the lamp.
“Going into it we knew that they [Princeton] were going to be a tough team overall and we were going to have to play extremely disciplined, stay out of the box, and just play as hard as we possibly could,” said senior co-captain Caeleigh Beerworth. “We went down 3-0, but we never gave up. We just kept going at it and kept working hard. Good things came and we scored some goals. We definitely gained the momentum.”
Freshman netminder Kayla Strong recorded 18 saves for the Red, earning her second victory of the season.
On Saturday evening the Red traveled to the Nutmeg state to tangle with Quinnipiac (1-8-1, 0-6-1). Cornell managed to scratch out a 4-3 victory only after erasing 1-0 and 3-1 deficits. Quinnipiac proved to be a much worthier opponent than their won-loss record would have suggested.
Cornell freshman defender Sam Wauer netted the first goal of her collegiate career at 12:20 of the initial period to tie the game at 1-1.
After two Quinnipiac tallies in the second period, Overguard scored unassisted on the power play at 9:30.
In the third period, Zorn scored her team-leading eigth goal of the season at 14:53 to tie the game at 3 apiece.
“I think that goal gave us a lot of momentum going into the third period,” Zorn said.
Beerworth punched in the game-winner off of a pass from Hughes less than 30 seconds later to give the Red a 4-3 advantage.
“We got the puck into the neutral zone and Hayley [Hughes] drove by with the puck and put it on net,” Beerworth said. “There was a rebound and I put the rebound away. Quinnipiac is always a very tough team to play. They’re very physical. They’re big, so we had to use things to our advantage, like our speed. We kind of knew it was going to be a tough game. It always is against Quinnipiac, but we knew if we worked hard enough that we would win.”
Strong backstopped the Red to consecutive conference victories within 24 hours by posting 19 saves against Quinnipiac. Strong and her defensive corps stiffened in both weekend tilts after falling behind early. The Red once again clawed its way back against the Bobcats, much as they had done the previous evening in their scrap with the Tigers.